VATICAN CITY — Now everyone is speaking well of it, in homage to the ten years of pontificate, but attacks and protests have not been counted, since March 13, 2013…
«Oh yes, Francesco’s language is of immediate understanding, made up of unmistakable gestures and words that do not need privileged interpreters. And the clarity ends up being as divisive as the Gospel: not because it closes the door to anyone, but because it can’t bear selfish cunning, exploitation of God and his Word, a religion reduced to a screen for interests, not necessarily economic ones».
Il Bishop Nunzio Galantino74 years old, is the president of APSA, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, among the men who Papa chose in 2018 for one of the most delicate reforms, the management of Church assetsas in the first year of his pontificate, when he was bishop in the Calabrian diocese of Cassano all’Jonio, he had surprisingly appointed him general secretary of the CEI.
«The decision to go first of all to Lampedusa, a few months after his election, leaves no room for misunderstandings about what Francis thinks about welcoming migrants and refugees. And he dismantles any interested exploitation, wherever it comes from, as has happened in recent days. His words and gestures are so clear that exploiting them is impossible, whoever does it makes a fool of himself».
The pain of the fisherman from Cutro who tried in vain to save the children comes to mind, “I haven’t been able to sleep for three days, I haven’t eaten…”.
‘Yes, that man gave everyone an extraordinary example of humanity. And the Gospel is humanity, at the center is Christ, man and God, in each of the little ones there is him… Every now and then one hears it, not only in Cutro, “as Francesco said”, “as he remembered by the Pope”, and maybe the same people say it who in different circumstances have said something else. Francesco’s words must be taken in full, not extrapolating a sentence to support one’s behavior. It makes me a little angry when a sentence is isolated to exploit it in support of choices or procedures that certainly do not go in the direction clearly expressed by Francesco. He often happens.’
In what does Francis’ “novelty” consist?
«Reforms, for Francis, are not makeup an end in itself but basically have a precise objective, in addition to particular ones, declared right from the title of the Constitution that reformed the Curia: Preach the Gospel, preach the Gospel. Even economic reforms, for example, serve above all to operate in a regime of transparency and effectiveness, of course. But all of this has the essential purpose of avoiding incorrect operations and choices that cause scandal and make the Church less credible when she speaks of the Gospel. Anyone who proclaims the Gospel must do everything humanly possible to live in a correct and therefore credible way. A Church that is not credible when it maneuvers money is not credible when it speaks of Jesus”.
What was this decade?
«Francis, with his gestures, words, choices, immediately put and continues to put at risk so many walls that have been raised over time, even in the Church. A series of forbidden meanings and obligatory meanings had been created which had little or nothing to do with the Gospel, with the risk of reducing it to an unbearable morality alongside other moral proposals. The Pope has put them in crisis, in some cases he has given real shoves. At one point it was no longer possible to keep silent, to postpone, to pretend nothing happened. And I’m not just talking about crimes such as pedophilia but about the way of living the religious experience».
He spoke of clarity of language…
‘Who doesn’t understand the power of kneeling in front of prisoners, people who don’t count for anything in the eyes of society? To say: who am I to judge? Or to kiss the feet of those who hold the fate of peoples in their hands, as they did with the powerful of South Sudan in civil war? If one speaks in an incomprehensible way, there is the risk of leaving things as they are. With Francesco it can’t happen, like it or not».
We tend to take stock, but the Pope has convened a two-part Synod in October and in 2024 which resembles a Council…
“It is a different form of participation. Vatican II was convened around defined schemes while now, starting from the “bottom up”, the whole Church is being asked: let us see how much Gospel there is in our midst, how much Gospel the world needs. Let us reflect on a Church that draws back to the roots of Christianity, knowing that we live in a different world since then but in which man’s questions have not changed”.
From the beginning, Francis speaks of an “outgoing Church”.
«Yes, a Church urged to leave the tepid and all in all comfortable air of the sacristies. Francis invites us to abandon the clichés that remove responsibility, the easy rhetoric that annoys him even when he touches on religious themes, the politically correct that more often than not smacks of compromise and collateralism. It is the sometimes tiring transition from a Church that places itself at the center to a Church that places itself at the service of all, with tenderness. Francis always remembers Matthew 25, Jesus who says: what you have done to the little ones, you have done to me. Focus on the Lord. And think about what we are choosing, the way we are behaving».