Article on Teachers

Hey, check out my most recent article from October 20 on teachers. It appeared in the Sunday Inquirer, Currents Section:

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20131020_Teachers_inspire_for_a_lifetime.html

The Impromptu Papacy

Pope Francis and the Impromptu Papacy

As his “impromptu papacy” careens along, Pope Francis continues to make headlines. After half a year, he decided to sit and chat, about 10,000 words worth, with a fellow Jesuit about whatever the interviewer wanted to ask. Maybe it’s time for us to sit, take a breath, and take the measure of this thoroughly unexpected head of worldwide Catholicism.

First of all, what’s not different is the fact that the pope upholds Catholic doctrine, as his recent speech to gynecologists descrying abortion makes clear. What he did the following day illustrates what is different.

He went to an Italian town stricken by poverty and unemployment, and he amplified on Jesus’ contention that we cannot serve both God and money. Those who place the acquisition of wealth above any other priority, he declaimed, are idolaters whose greed deprives humans of the dignity conferred by productive work.

During his talk that day, he departed from prepared remarks, a favorite maneuver. Going off-script is one of three distinctive characteristics of Pope Francis that have gripped even casual observers of the man’s approach to leadership. He is most interesting when he is winging it. That’s when you can clearly detect the soul of this unabashed lover of God and God’s creation, especially the weak and the marginalized.

When he spoke to the unemployed about his own father’s journey to the Americas to achieve a better life, a life devastated by the Great Depression, they knew he understood their deep frustration and humiliation, their stark fear. His imagery is always personal, vivid, unadorned, and memorable.

The second element of the Francis trademark is in fact that imagery, his preference for a metaphorical moment. We saw it when he asked us to bless him as he was introduced as pope. It was patent in the amazing scene of a pope washing the feet of young prisoners on Holy Thursday. And when he held a cross made of the bark of a boat that had transported desperate refugees, when he pleaded for immigrants at the very port where a similar boat capsized killing many of those immigrants, we felt his message in a way no words could ever transmit.

The third characteristic of this pope is his enduring and endearing willingness to engage us. When asked questions, by the press, by a fellow Jesuit, or by a wide-eyed child, he just answers. No vetting, no prior constraints, no worries about the inevitable misunderstandings. He just answers, and the chips fall where they may, often right into the headlines. One of those headlines, by the way, tells us his Twitter followers have pushed him to second place among all world leaders; only President Obama has more.

Like all popes, he also receives thousands of letters. Unlike all popes, he is willing to engage these writers on their own terms. An atheist pens an open letter to Francis, and the pope answers with an open letter to the same publication. A pregnant single woman writes with great anxiety; she discarded her boyfriend when he demanded she abort the child and now wonders what priest will baptize this baby. The pope picks up the phone and says, “I will.” Maybe the most effective pro life statement ever.

There are numerous instances of going off script, direct engagement, and metaphorical moments. You might ask why he would resort to metaphors. Aren’t they subject to misinterpretation? Perhaps, but think a minute. The pope washed the feet of a young Muslim woman in juvenile detention. Did he leave Catholics with any doubt about whether Muslims should be accorded dignity and respect? How about young people? How about women? How about prisoners?

Is there a priest somewhere who now has a question about whether to baptize the child of a single Mom? Are any of us left with any question about the worth of that mother or of her child? Metaphors can be as unequivocal as the strongest statement of dogma.

Noted scripture scholar John Dominic Crossan contends that Jesus used stories, parables, to teach his disciples for one reason: he wanted to challenge them, get them questioning, talking, rethinking accepted wisdom. He was less interested in transmitting narrow, static statements of doctrine.

I see Pope Francis also challenging us, making us question the deepest meaning of our faith. In a world envious and worshipful of great wealth, he points to the unemployed and says, “Someone is worshiping a false idol.” In a world mistrustful of those who are hard to understand, hard to look at, hard to respect, he asks, “What if you just bent down and washed their feet?”

In a world wary of hucksters, tired of dogmatists, sick of violence, and fed up with duplicity, he says, “What is your question?” And then he smiles, looks you in the eye, and gives the answer welling from his heart.

It’s a heart warmed and lit by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a heart completely open to the irresistible call to proclaim it. He has become for many of us — if I may use a metaphor — our Good News anchor.