The Pope’s Precedence
On July 22, 2013, Pope Francis, on a plane ride back to the Vatican, held an interview with the reporters who boarded with him. When one reporter asked about his opinion of gays visiting the Vatican, Francis said, “Who am I to judge them if they’re seeking the Lord in good faith.” This comment earned Francis a great deal of praise; he was publicly lauded for being more liberal and progressive than previous popes and even won “The Advocate’s” Person of the Year award.
However, Francis didn’t let go of some of his conservative views. On April 2, 2014, Francis stressed the value of a heterosexual relationship and said, “When a man and a woman celebrate the sacrament of marriage, God is reflected in them….The image of God is the married couple—not just the man, not just the woman, but both.”
Neither of these two statements alone characterize the papacy of Francis, but both combined express his “ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function,” in the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald, that truly make him a great leader and a great role model around the world. Francis has entered the papacy at a time when many in the Western world, and Francis himself, have begun striving for a more progressive and liberal society. Contrasting those ideas are the many conservative canon laws of the church and the religious morality they must bear for the pope. By continually expressing both liberal and conservative ideology, Francis has worked to make the Catholic Church more moderate throughout his papacy.
Francis has also developed a more liberal mindset about the issue concerning bastards. Before the papacy of Francis, it was common practice for priests to refuse baptising illegitimate children and to disgrace unwed mothers. Francis, instead, admires unwed mothers for continuing with their pregnancy in a modern society where abortion is common. He challenged these priests who still reject unwed mothers by addressing them as hypocrites and saying that they denied God’s children their salvation. Moreover, Francis went on to baptise the baby of an unwed couple himself in the year 2014.
Despite his tolerance of bastards, the Pope continues to show no tolerance for abortion. He was a participant of a pro-life march in Rome and blessed the pro-life march in Szczecin, Poland. In a 2013 meeting with Catholic gynecologist, Francis stated his position clearly, saying, “Every child that isn’t born, but is unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of Jesus Christ, has the face of the lor.”
Following precedence, Francis has also remained traditional with his stance on women entering clerical roles. “As far as the ordination of woman, the church has already spoken out and the answer is no,” he said.
The mixture of liberal and conservative ideology defines Francis. He, noting the significance of tradition, still advocates for the celibacy of priests but also supports contraception in some instances. He is an environmentalist, but he is not yet fully accepting of homosexuality.
Francis is not particularly noteworthy for any of the specific beliefs he has but for his ability to have a spectrum of both liberal and conservative beliefs. In such a liberal institution as Exeter, it is too common that people rather blindly agree with any leftist idea they hear. Rather, if we all, like the Pope, were to be more contemplative about issues and open to opposing beliefs, Exeter would become much more of a stimulating and diverse place than it is today. ♥