Pope Francis today
delivered an impassioned defense of what has become a leitmotif of his
pontificate – the church of mercy that reaches out to the marginalized vs. the
church of rules that closes itself into a “closed caste.”
The
pope’s homily was addressed to a group of new cardinals gathered for Mass in
St. Peter’s Basilica. But one had the impression that it was also aimed at
in-house critics who have questioned some of Francis’ statements and who have
warned against an over-emphasis on mercy at the expense of doctrinal truth.
The
pope said the Gospel account of Jesus’ curing of the leper was, in a sense, a
model for how the church must operate with compassion to “reintegrate the
marginalized” – including fallen-away Catholics – even when it provokes criticism.
“Jesus
does not think of the closed-minded who are scandalized even by a work of
healing, scandalized by any kind of openness, by any action outside of their
mental and spiritual boxes, by any caress or sign of tenderness which does not
fit into their usual thinking and their ritual purity,” the pope said.
The
pope said the modern church, too, stands at a crossroads of two ways of
thinking: “We can fear to lose the saved and we can want to save the lost.” The
thinking of the “doctors of law,” he said, would remove danger by casting out
the sick or sinful person. But God’s way is to show mercy and accept this
person, turning condemnation into salvation.
That
has always been the church’s way, too, he said. This means the church must
“leave her four walls behind” and not only welcome people who knock at its
doors, but also seek out those on the “outskirts” of life, including the sick,
the suffering and the spiritually alienated. It also means “rolling up our
sleeves and not standing by and watching passively the suffering of the world,”
he said.
The
pope told the cardinals: “Total openness to serving others is our hallmark, it
alone is our title of honor!”
He
asked them to help make sure the modern church turns to the outcast, resisting
the temptation to become “a closed caste with nothing authentically ecclesial
about it.”
They
should see Jesus, he said, in everyone who is excluded – the sick, the
imprisoned, the unemployed, the persecuted, and even in “those who have lost
their faith, or turned away from the practice of their faith.”
“Truly
the Gospel of the marginalized is where our credibility is found and revealed!”
he said at the close of his remarks.
The
homily was a capsule version of the vision that inspires so many of Pope
Francis’ actions to date, including his consideration of new policies for
divorced and remarried Catholics, for example, or his efforts to make the
Vatican bureaucracy more responsive to real-world problems.
With
most of the world’s cardinals in attendance, the pope made it clear that this
vision of the church’s mission is not something he invented, but is rooted in
the words and actions of Christ.
