Pope Francis is leading the Roman Catholic Church into what could well be a new springtime. Anticipation is growing ahead of the first global gathering of the Synod on Synodality in October, and the pope has called on all Catholics to be open to the Holy Spirit and to build a welcoming church that journeys together.
Judging by the headlines, though, the pope has a beef with one part of the church—Catholics in the United States. During an August meeting with Jesuits in Portugal, a religious brother asked Francis about the Catholics in the United States, including bishops, who criticize Francis’ leadership. Media outlets reported that Francis “blasted” a “faction” of reactionary American Catholics with his “sharp remarks.”
“You have seen that in the United States the situation is not easy: There is a very strong reactionary attitude,” Francis said in response. “It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”
It is useless to be “indietrismo” (“backward-looking”), the pope said, and church history shows that there is “an appropriate evolution of the understanding of matters of faith and morals.”
As much as I admire Francis, I don’t understand why he publicly criticizes fellow Catholics, especially if he isn’t going to name them.
While some read his comments to refer to the larger American church, I found his words to be much more narrow, limited to a smaller pocket of Catholics. Francis said, for example, “some people opt out” and that the “climate of closure” is experienced in “some situations,” in “some sectors in the United States.”
As my colleague Gerard O’Connell learned, Francis “knows which cardinals, bishops, clergy and prominent laity are openly critical of his leadership.” No doubt, particular individuals came to my mind while reading the transcript—Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Joseph Strickland, for example, have openly questioned Pope Francis’ approach to doctrine—but Francis did not name names.
As much as I admire Francis, I don’t understand why he publicly criticizes fellow Catholics, especially if he isn’t going to name them. In the case of fellow bishops in particular, I do not understand why Francis does not confront his critics one-on-one, in a private setting. And if he has already had such meetings, why not disclose that?
Frankly, I cannot think of any reason why a leader would vaguely criticize people in public who report to him directly. Sure, the church is more like a family than a corporation. But as a father, I cannot imagine chastising one of my children for being insubordinate in front of the entire family. And if I ever did that, I had better be clear which one of my kids I was calling out. Otherwise, I would only create an atmosphere of suspicion and fear—the opposite of the spirit of openness and encounter that Pope Francis has called for throughout the synodal process.
Singling out a vaguely defined group of Catholics in one country, especially in the days leading up to a synod that is meant to bring the church together for dialogue, is counterproductive.
I understand the pope’s words were shared during a meeting with fellow Jesuits. It was likely a laid-back atmosphere, and the pope was responding to a specific question. But Francis must have known that his comments would eventually become public. And now that they have, I can’t be the only American Catholic wondering whom he had in mind.
“Those American groups you talk about, so closed, are isolating themselves,” Francis said. “Instead of living by doctrine, by the true doctrine that always develops and bears fruit, they live by ideologies. When you abandon doctrine in life to replace it with an ideology, you have lost, you have lost as in a war.”
I love these insights into the nature of doctrine and the dangers of ideology. Backward-looking ideology contradicts the spirit of the synod, and Francis is right to call it out. But surely, the American church does not have the market cornered on ideology. Singling out a vaguely defined group of Catholics in one country, especially in the days leading up to a synod that is meant to bring the church together for dialogue, is counterproductive.
“Polarization is not Catholic,” Francis said in his interview with America. Yet his remarks about “reactionary Catholics” are polarizing, failing to harmonize differences.
“Polarization is not Catholic,” Francis said in his interview with America. “The Catholic unites the good and the not-so-good. There is only one people of God. When there is polarization, a divisive mentality arises, which privileges some and leaves others behind. The Catholic always harmonizes differences.”
Yet his remarks about “reactionary Catholics” are polarizing, failing to harmonize differences. I’ve been thinking about the U.S. Catholics who are going to the synod next month (some of whom I interviewed recently). The synod participants personally invited by the pope can be pretty sure Francis was not talking about them—though the pope also invited vocal critics of the synod, including Cardinal Gerhard Müller, so maybe not. And what about the synod members who were selected not by the pope but by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops? Might they wonder if the pope considers them to be a part of this “reactionary” faction? Do the pope’s criticisms of some U.S. Catholics make these bishops feel welcome on this journey to build a welcoming church?
While I have reported on a few of Pope Francis’ pastoral visits, I have never met him in person. I have read that he welcomes criticism and dislikes flattery—admirable and perhaps rare traits for a leader.
I wish that, in this exchange, Francis would have alluded to that openness to feedback. I wish he had said that, yes, people in the United States and other countries have been critical. But that is O.K. Criticism is also part of dialogue, and Francis could have said he is not afraid of it. Sometimes God speaks to us through our critics.
I hope the unnamed American Catholics whom Francis had in mind will learn from the pope’s critiques. Criticism will no doubt be a part of the synod dialogue, and I am sure participants will learn from it, too.
“Synodality is not about going after votes, as a political party would,” Francis told the Jesuits in Portugal. “It is not about preferences, about belonging to this or that party. In a synod, the principal figure is the Holy Spirit. He is the protagonist. So you have to let the Spirit lead things.”
I believe the Holy Spirit chose Francis to be our pope. This pope has taught us so many things, and I am sure the Holy Spirit will teach us all much more this October.
