Pope Francis is the personification of the Second Vatican Council

Pope Francis changed that

Commitment to peace, refugees and inner conversion of the Church - that is what the Pope stands for. 

Michael Max, priest of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, as rector of the Papal Institute of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome, is close to what is happening in the Vatican. For the Rupertusblatt, he puts ten years of Pope Francis on the map and describes the common thread in the pontificate of the Jesuit on the Chair of Peter.

It was 9 March 2013, shortly before the start of the conclave that ended with the surprising resignation of Benedict XVI. had become necessary. The Cardinal Assemblies, which have now been meeting for almost two weeks in the synod hall above the large audience hall next to St. Peter's Basilica, had, as usual, the task of preparing the election of the next pope. In three days they would solemnly enter the Sistine Chapel on the other side of the basilica, in order to find the coming successor of Peter in the strict order of the ballots.

On the way to the people

The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Bergoglio, had spoken for this Saturday morning. With a total of over a hundred speakers, his speaking time was also short.

But what he had to say made a lasting impression: But what he had to say made a lasting impression: "I stand at the door and knock," he quoted from the Book of Revelation to explain that today it is more the case that Christ comes to his door from within church to get through us into the world and out to the people. The view and the work of the church must go to the edges, geographically and existentially.

 And so, with regard to the required reforms, it is important to decide between a Church that is self-contained and one that is willing to go on a missionary journey with the Lord to the people.

Cathcon: there is nothing more self-contained and self-referential than a Church that has a Synod on Synodality.

A Church of the Poor

What followed has now become Church history for the past decade. It is precisely this common thread that runs through the pontificate of Pope Francis. The agenda that the cardinals gave to the future pope in their meetings before the election: a reform of the curia, the further implementation of transparency and control in the finances of the church, and above all an honest and credible handling of the terrible fact of sexual abuse and its cover-up - but under the premise of his personality.

That means above all being a church of the poor and literally going to the edges in order to be able to see many problems better from there. Not only to change structures in the long term, but also to open up the mentality of the employees in the sense of serving people.

Casual encounters

Ten years ago, that was definitely a major change for many who were used to it being different, perhaps more courtly and more classical in their communication. Today hardly anyone talks about the fact that the Pope lives in the guest house and usually has his table in the dining room next to those of the other employees. Or that Francis prefers to present his point of view often through interviews with journalists, which are then printed in different magazines.

Initiated by the Second Vatican Council – now in a new phase of implementation.

That's just his way, he couldn't help it, he once said at the beginning of his service as the successor of Saint Peter. He needs direct contact with people, informal encounters, intensive exchange. In this Pope Francis is authentic, and perhaps even now, ten years later, a great surprise of this pontificate is becoming increasingly clear.

What was set in motion sixty years ago with the Second Vatican Council, which has since been developed in alternating waves between progress and brakes, between openness to the culture of the local church and central guidelines for the entire world church, is now entering a new phase the implementation.

Synodality belongs to the Church

The Catholic Church is a universal Church, but from its fringes. It can only be credible in the world if it becomes the great dialogue of all the baptized with one another.

What happened to Pope Saint Paul VI in 1963. What was still a great vision in his first encyclical "Ecclesiam suam" is taking on more and more concrete form today under Francis: A Church that occurs synodally and thus the light of the peoples, Jesus Christ, in joy and hope, sadness and fear of all people, especially the poor and marginalized.

Anyone who asks today what will remain of this pontificate could get the answer: the final arrival of the basic concerns of the Second Vatican Council in the structures but also in the self-understanding and self-fulfilment of the Church, which trusts in the great treasure of its teaching and her tradition proclaims the Good News by becoming the Good News in Christ.

A Church that, like its Pope Francis, enjoys encounters with the most diverse people without excluding them. A church that draws strength and credibility from this, because it knows that when it comes to embracing the poorest, it is Christ himself who takes them in his arms.

Source

Cathcon: "The Council, it is me" to paraphrase L'État, c'est moi ("I am the state", lit. "the state, that is me"), an apocryphal saying attributed to Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre.

It was inevitable once the Second Vatican Council had taken place that a Pope in the mould of Francis would be elected.  Without the Council, he would be impossible.  It was also inevitable that he would opt for the post-Conciliar consensus of the stasis of mismanaged decline.  It was also inevitable that he would take every attempt not to absolutise the Council but rather place it in the context of Scripture and Tradition, which includes the previous Councils of the Church as a personal attack.  

We are living in the last days of an infantalised Catholicism.  These days will pass.