It’s impossible to argue that Pope Francis has been overcriticized in the liberal media – not in a year when he was on the cover of Rolling Stone. But it’s quite possible to note that liberal journalists are seeing more of themselves in the pontiff, some joy in their perception that he’s a man of the Left. They like using the word “radical” – not in the sense of going back to fundamentals, but in the sense of overturning the tables of global capitalism.
On Christmas morning, CBS This Morning interview Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, the head of the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops. Charlie Rose raised the R-word:
CHARLIE ROSE: This comes from a new biography of him. And they call him a bit of a radical.
ARCHBISHOP JOSEPH KURTZ: Yes.
ROSE: We know of his identification with the poor and his emphasis on being pastoral. This is what he says. "Dynamic, disconcerting leadership, which while delighting most Catholics and attracting people beyond the boundaries of faith has dismayed and disconcerted a number of parties within the church." Is there a--
KURTZ: Yeah. And that`s-- is that from Austen Ivereigh's book?
ROSE: Yes.
KURTZ: Yeah. You know, and Austen's a good reporter, by the way. He's from England. You know when he-- when he talks about the word radical, he's using it-- it as basically that we`re getting back to the gospel. Pope--- here is Christmas Day. So getting rid of all the-- the wrapping paper, so to speak, and getting to the core message which is as-- as our Holy Father said it`s the message of the love of Jesus and the mercy that he shows to each one of us and that we need to show to others. I think that`s the radical nature of what he's about.
The R-word was also used by Joe Scarborough on MSNBC on Christmas Eve:
SCARBOROUGH: Number one is so radical: He focused on the poor. Going back to Jesus’s main message when asked Who gets to Heaven? Who doesn’t? Jesus says, you take care of the poor, you take care of the hungry, you take of the sick [points], you’re on your way. This is the first pope in a long time who’s focused on that."
Rev. James Martin, who runs the left-leaning Catholic magazine America, disagreed on the facts: “Well, I mean I think popes have always been focused on that. John Paul and Benedict were, but he’s doing this in a new way.”
Mika Brzezinski added: “I like his opennness to all people. I feel like there’s something, there’s a perception out there that the church, the Catholic Church, isn’t. Whether it’s correct or not.”
Patrick Brennan at National Review’s The Corner took exception to Michael Smerconish growing over-enthusiastic on ABC’s This Week on December 28 in a discussion of the “game changers” of the year: “My choice is Pope Francis because on issues that range from treatment of women, to treatment of gays, to even whether our pets are going to make it through the pearly gates, he put a soft overdue face on the Catholic Church and for that reason, he's the game changer.”
Unfortunately, Pope Francis definitely didn’t do at least one of those things. An Italian newspaper reported, incorrectly, that he’d said something about the existence of animals in heaven. It was Pope Paul VI who in fact said what Francis was reported to have said.
Smerconish may be right that the pope has struck a softer tone on homosexuals in the Church, although his comments there were widely misunderstood and more or less a restatement of the catechism, too. He’s made few comments on the role of women at all, so what Smerconish is referring to in that regard isn’t clear.
On NPR’s Morning Edition on Christmas Day, European correspondent Sylvia Poggioli descibed the Catholic Church as a form of Roman Empire that needed to be overhauled, using journalist Marco Politi (who wrote a book on Pope John Paul with leftist legend Carl Bernstein).
SYLVIA POGGIOLI: At the recent bishops' assembly on the family, Francis broke new ground encouraging free speech and exchange of ideas. Veteran Vatican analyst Marco Politi says Francis wants to reshape the church for the contemporary world abolishing its imperial nature.
MARCO POLITI: Well, the pope is half emperor and half God. He wants the Pope as bishop of Rome. He wants the church led not by an absolute monarch, but by the pope in collegiality where the bishops are called to be part of the decision-taking process.
POGGIOLI: Vatican watchers say Francis does not intend to alter doctrine. But unlike his two predecessors, he does not easily use the expression nonnegotiable values. The prevailing concept now is mercy. Argentine journalist Elisabetta Pique has known the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, for more than a decade. What most distinguishes him from his predecessors, she says, was his proximity to his flock in the shantytowns of a large metropolis.
ELISABETTA PIQUE: Thirteen million people, with terrible differences and gaps within the very rich people and what he calls the excluded ones, from a country, Argentina, you very rich, but with a lot of problems because of corruption, mismanagement.
POGGIOLI: In the U.S., which Francis visits in September, the Pew survey shows he has a 78 percent favorability rating. But John Allen, the veteran Vatican analyst for The Boston Globe, says the first pope from the global South has irritated some conservative Americans by criticizing laissez-faire capitalism and the ills of globalization.
JOHN ALLEN: In his bones, the defense of immigrants is a hugely important issue. Well, immigration, of course, is a very divisive political question in the United States. He is deeply suspicious of free market global capitalism. We are the mothership of free market goal global capitalism. And so there's some resistance there.
POGGIOLI: There is also resistance within the Catholic Church. Vatican analyst Marco Politi fears what he calls the strategy of the swamp.
POLITI: A lot of people within the church let him speak, applaud and do nothing
POGGIOLI: A pope alone, says Politi, cannot change an institution with 1.2 billion members.
POLITI: For a pope to change the church, you need an engaged laity, you need engaged theologians, really engaged pro-reform bishops.
POGGIOLI: One of those is Archbishop Bruno Forte, author of the controversial section in the recent Synod's draft report that welcomed gays, conciliatory language rejected by traditionalists in the final report.
ARCHBISHOP BRUNO FORTE: If you decide to be transparent and to accept that the diversity of opinions may have a room in the church, it is normal that they are also people who don't agree completely with you.
POGGIOLI: It's said that behind Vatican walls, a whispering campaign is trying to undermine the pope's authority. But beyond the Catholic fold, Francis's humble streak and merciful tone have made him one of the world's most popular newsmakers. He was on the cover of Rolling Stone under the headline "The Times, They Are A Changing." And Fortune magazine declared him the most influential person in the world.
With popes who had more conservative reputations with the press, there was a lecturing campaign trying to undermine the Pope's authority in the media itself. Poggioli concluded her story by hailing how the pope, like a Jesuit, sided against America in the geopolitical realm:
Francis is the first Jesuit pope. Over the centuries, that religious order often waged its own diplomacy acquiring extensive knowledge of other cultures. The training shows. On Syria, Francis was closer to Russia and China than to Western powers. He hosted a prayer summit with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. And as the first Latin-American pope, he had street cred in Havana. The Pope, who described himself coming from the other end of the Earth, has embraced the bully pulpit of the papacy, emerging as a daring, independent broker on the global stage.
