Austen Ivereigh of Catholic Voices writes about Time magazine's choice of Pope Francis as "Person of the year for 2013." (HT: Kathryn Jean Lopez) I found Ivereigh's corrections and clarifications helpful.
. . . Time notes that Francis has struck a different chord on doctrinal questions but struggles to understand what it is. “He has not changed the words, but he’s changed the music”, says Gibbs, while the reporters say: ”Francis signals great change, while giving the same answers to uncomfortable questions”.
Time does not consider that the answers are the same because they are church teaching, which popes hand on. Hence its later observation that “Francis has been skilfully citing the writings of former Pontiffs, stressing continuity”, as if this were some savvy PR move; but popes always cite their predecessors, because they are developing what has been handed to them. It would be news if he didn’t; it isn’t news that he does.
When it is claiming that Francis really has changed things, Time cites the letter of an Indian cardinal:
In August, another member, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of India, issued one of the most expansive comments about gays that the church has ever made, stating that while the church does not allow gay marriage, homosexuality is not a sin. “To say that those with other sexual orientations are sinners is wrong,” he wrote to an LGBT group in Mumbai. “We must be sensitive in our homilies and how we speak in public and I will so advise our priests.”
Yet Catholic leaders have been endlessly pointing out that the homosexual condition is not sinful, only the acts; and Cardinal Gracias would be surprised to learn that his simple repetition of this teaching is “expansive”. True, Cardinal Gracias was inspired to emphasise this because of Francis’s interview on the papal plane back from Rio, but this only makes the point that Francis has not changed church teaching, but rescued its forgotten priorities.
In the same vein, Time sums up Francis’ declarations in the Spadaro interview as “in short, ease up on the hot-button issues”. But that’s not a great summary. The summary should be: “don’t insist on the truths of church doctrine without first presenting the merciful face of Christ.” Francis is not trying to hide the teaching, out of embarrassment; he’s trying to restore the context in which those truths should be proclaimed.
The idea of Francis as a consummate operator, a kind of brilliant PR supremo, is a way of keeping the real challenge of this papacy at a distance, while apparently resolving Time’s connundrum between two apparently contradictory positions: “Francis is changing” and “Francis is not changing” church teaching. But “savvy operator” just doesn’t wash, because what the world loves about Francis is precisely his integrity. Seldom has a human being been so obviously what he preaches.
The third possibility is not one the magazine considers: It is not an attempt to alter, or modernise, the Revelation entrusted to the Church; but it is a radical attempt to preach it better, in context, and more effectively; and the purpose is not to boost numbers or improve the Church’s image, as a PR strategy aims to, but because of a deep conviction. The Pope, it turns out, genuinely believes that a humanity that draws near to its Creator will lead to a happier, healthier, more loving world.
Time, missing that point, is forced to conclude that Francis, with his words about homosexuality, was merely “changing the tone” rather than the doctrine, “searching for a pragmatic path to reach the faithful who had been repelled by their church or its emphasis on strict dos and donts.”
But far from being a “pragmatic” move — as if driven by strategic considerations — Francis is concerned that the Church proclaims its teaching on homosexuality and other issues in what he calls “a missionary key”. That means placing the teaching in the context of God’s healing love. His concern is to avoid putting the defence of the truth of the Church’s teaching before that proclamation. If people hear only a prohibition, but are not brought into relationship with God through Jesus Christ’s love and mercy, then the Church’s preaching is fruitless and inevitably misunderstood.s
-- On the views of Pope Francis on socialism and free markets, Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review wrote an article today titled: "How Pope Francis Misunderstands the Free Markets."