Brendan Hoban – Irish Times: Whoever succeeds Francis, the genie is now out of the bottle.

Irish Times, Tuesday, April 22, 29025

On the evening of March 13, 2013 I was watching television sitting in the presbytery of Moygownagh parish in County Mayo where I was parish priest, as Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican chamberlain, appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s in Rome and, in inimitable fashion, declared Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio the new pope.

As Pope Francis I emerged from the shadows, my heart sank. He looked impossibly old for the task that faced him. If he had the words ‘Caretaker Pope’ written across his chest on his new white soutane, it couldn’t have been clearer that he was merely expected to keep the throne of Saint Peter warm, waiting for a more active successor.

Here, I thought, was another elder filling a gap for a few years where a Church – that by every available metric was in what looked like terminal decline – could avoid the hard questions for another few years.

Within a few days it was clear that my assessment was considerably off the mark. A number of signals suggested a more promising pontificate: Francis declined the sumptuous headquarters of the Papal Palace in favour of a more modest B & B; he rejected a Latin homily prepared  for him in favour of a more folksy off-the-cuff chat in Italian; he chose a plain and simple liturgy rather than the ‘lace and purple’ of his predecessor; he asked cardinals to wear black rather than ‘cardinal red’; he counselled Vatican officials against careerism; he abolished monsignors; he insisted on using a small white car rather than a black Cadillac; he famously advised priests to have ‘the smell of the sheep’ on them; and his great hope, he said, was ‘a poor church for the poor’.

What was going on? Was this really happening? Against all the odds, here was a pope who eschewed the role of emperor in favour of a parish priest.

In less than a decade, the achievements of Francis’ pontificate were startling: implementing the vision of  Vatican II; a pastoral focus on drawing those on the margins into the centre; a new emphasis on baptism rather than ordination as the key sacrament; the Amazon Synod; seeing the Church as ‘a field hospital’; the regulation of Vatican finances; targeting clericalism, a toxic corruption of priesthood with its presumption of superiority and entitlement; a new focus on the tenderness and mercy of God; and what has become Francis’ long-term gift to the Church – a synodal journey.

What Austen Ivereigh calls ‘the Francis effect’, the change of style and mood from the John Paul and Benedict pontificates, introduced a welcome change from the winter years of his two predecessors.

In simple terms Popes John Paul and Benedict were convinced that the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) had ‘gone too far’ in reforming the Church and that in Benedict’s words it necessitated ‘a reform of the reform’ – effectively a restoration of a pre-Vatican Two mentality and practice. What Francis was seen to represent, first implicitly and then directly, was his intention to implement the actual reforms implied by that Council’s documents as voted through by an overwhelming percentage of the world’s bishops. In a word, Francis’ agenda was introducing the fullness of reform envisaged by Vatican Two almost half a century earlier.

But now, with Francis, the beleaguered and fearful years gave way to, in Ivereigh’s words, ‘a new liberty to discuss, to criticise, to listen and to discern’. Suddenly the great unmentionables were no longer off the agenda: the ordination of women, mandatory celibacy for priests, acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community, that priests who have left the active ministry be invited to return, access to Communion for those in irregular marital situations, problematic aspects of Catholic sexual morality, and others.

Francis by way of a comment here and a hint there sent ‘smoke signals’ to indicate a significant change from the John Paul/Benedict era. As when he was asked about the Church’s position on LGBTQ+, and responded with another question – ‘Who am I to judge?’ Suddenly, the recognition of the humanity of LGBT people reached a different level as individuals and communities were encouraged to support rather than judge their LGBT relatives and friends.

A sea-change was detected too when it became evident that Irish bishops were no longer being summoned to Rome to be dressed down for their ‘disloyalty’ in attempting to surface issues of significant concern for priests and people. We took our cue from the liberating and refreshing change that Francis’ openness had ushered into church discourse with a confidence that, post-Francis, the genie was now permanently out of the bottle – regardless of who his successor will be.

But perhaps the crowning achievement of the Francis years was his focus on the importance of Synodality – in effect a new way of being Church – achieved by expanding the tent of belonging to include all the baptised into a People’s Church and which (if given a fair wind) has a huge potential for invigorating the Church and enhancing its mission in the world.

There were mistakes and gaps too in Francis’ legacy. It took him some time to get up to speed on clerical child sexual abuse but when he did, as on his visit to Ireland, he hit the ground running – placing an unswerving focus on the needs of victims. He also never quite ‘got’ the women’s issue, in particular the importance of momentum on the long and necessary journey to equality. And he could be averse to risk, holding back when even a distant hint of schism hovered.

Despite all that, for me and for many, he was our hero.

Brendan Hoban is a priest of Killala Diocese. His tribute to Pope Francis, Holding Out for a Hero, The Long Wait for Pope Francis was published in 2023.