Modernists angry with Pope Francis for his conspicuous failure to deliver their agenda. Pray that their greatest opportunity has been squandered forever.

His distrust of theology was too great.

Church historian: Francis squandered the greatest opportunity of his pontificate.

Pope Francis has shown distrust of theology, disempowered the College of Cardinals, and left key questions unanswered, a church historian emphasizes. His conclusion: The opportunity for church reform has been squandered.

The Italian church historian Alberto Melloni accuses Pope Francis of squandering his opportunity for church reform. In an article for the October issue of "Herder Korrespondenz," Melloni writes that Francis squandered what was arguably the greatest opportunity of his term at the World Synod.

Alarmed by the German Synodal Path, whose supposedly democratic mechanism the Pope, who died in April, feared, Francis created two synods "whose method, by definition, does not allow for decisions and ultimately purges even this method of the most sensitive issues." The result was sobering: "Synodality became not the subject of decisions, but the subject of disappointments."

Distrust of theology

Melloni also criticized Francis for failing to resolve open questions about the reception of the Council. His distrust of theology was too great, "of which he only accepts the 'on one's knees' approach – a pious phrase that nevertheless does not prevent mediocrity." Furthermore, he acted like a Jesuit superior "who listens to everyone but decides alone." At the same time, the College of Cardinals, which Francis deliberately fragmented and disempowered, was too weak to counteract this.

Melloni is a professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Modena-Reggio Emilia. He also holds the UNESCO Chair for Religious Pluralism and Peace at the University of Bologna and directs the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna. Melloni specializes in the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).

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