The pope, the conclave that does not exist and the theology of onions – Francesco Peloso

Giving in to a restorative ideology, taking refuge in the security of the past by renouncing to experience change, refusing to accept the human condition as it presents itself, being afraid of freedom and the challenges it poses. These are the great risks for the Church in the present age, even if following the Gospel means abandoning the “false certainties” of standardizing rules and allowing oneself to be questioned by the reality of life. As for the next conclave, for now there is nothing to do, despite the hopes of some cardinals and speculations about the pope’s health problems.

It is along this ridge of questions that Francis in recent weeks has repeatedly intervened to put many of the themes that are dearest to him at the center of the pontificate and to respond with a certain firmness to those who, within the same church, try to obstruct its path. . On the other hand, the surgery he underwent last July, during which thirty centimeters of intestine were removed, had triggered the classic “health alarm” for the bishop of Rome who traditionally carries with him fibrillations more or less interested in the prospect of an imminent conclave, perhaps due in this case to the possible resignation of Bergoglio for reasons of health and age (the pope is 84 years old), given the cumbersome precedent of Joseph Ratzinger.

Francis responded with a trip to the heart of Eastern Europe (Budapest and Slovakia from 12 to 15 September), where he gave a series of important speeches, and then with a series of interviews during which he expressed himself explicitly, sometimes with polemical tones, sometimes in more didactic terms, on various issues. The very formal language, often colloquial, used by Bergoglio to address even complex issues is often the subject of criticism by those who would like a head of the Catholic Church more hieratic, detached (perhaps even more curial and orthodox) and precise in expressing himself in public. According to the director of the Osservatore Romano Andrea Monda, writer, journalist, with a past as a teacher of religion in the Roman high schools, this is not the case.

The pope, Monda explains to Internazionale, tries to “remove what is superfluous in order to get the message across to everyone in an understandable way, with great impact. It is not that it is inaccurate, on the contrary, but its goal is, as he often says, to start processes. Sometimes it may not even know the final outcome of these processes and perhaps in this sense it may appear inaccurate but it is not at all. Instead, by striking our imagination and our conscience, it wants to send us a shock, a restlessness. It is a language that draws heavily on the Gospel, with examples taken from concrete life in which everyone can identify “. And this method undoubtedly includes the relationship established by the pope with the media.

Thus, in rapid succession, first a long interview with the Spanish Catholic-inspired radio station Radio Cope came out, then there was the press conference on board the flight that brought the pope back from Bratislava to Rome (a fixed appointment for travel papali), then the magazine of the Italian Jesuits, very close to Bergoglio, Civiltà Cattolica, published the text of the conversation between Francis and the Jesuits of Slovakia. And on this last occasion, speaking of his state of health, Bergoglio said: “I am still alive. Although some wanted me dead. I know that there have even been meetings between prelates who thought the pope was more serious than what was said. They were preparing the conclave. Patience! Thank God, I’m fine ”. The secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, then tried in the following days to somehow dampen the impact of such little diplomatic statements, but the data does not change. The ultra-conservative circles or simply loyal to the status quo, are opposed to the message that Francis wants to convey to the world and to the church, the contrast has been going on since March 2013, when he was elected, and the pope’s words are a symptom of the gravity of the divisions in progress and at the same time a proof of Francis’ intentions.

The great inquisitor
But to get to the heart of the problem posed by Bergoglio beyond the more explicitly polemical aspect, we need to go back to last September 13, when the pope, meeting the clergy of Slovakia, described what we could define as a sort of onion theology: ” Let us remember the history of the people of Israel ”, the pontiff said on the occasion. “He suffered under the tyranny of the pharaoh, he was a slave; then he is freed by the Lord, but to become truly free, not only freed from enemies, he must cross the desert, a tiring journey. And one would think: ‘It was almost almost better before, at least we had some onions to eat…’. A great temptation: better some onions than fatigue and the risk of freedom “.

“Speaking to the ecumenical group, I remembered Dostoevsky with The great inquisitor“, he added. “Christ goes back to earth in secret and the inquisitor reproaches him for having given freedom to men. A little bread and a little something is enough; a little bread and something else is enough. Always this temptation, the temptation of onions. Better a little onions and bread than fatigue and the risk of freedom ”. “Sometimes – he observed – even in the church this idea can undermine us: it is better to have all the predefined things, the laws to be observed, security and uniformity, rather than being responsible Christians and adults, who think, question their conscience, they allow themselves to be questioned “. Andrea Monda also notes: “During the trip to Slovakia and Budapest the pope used a strong expression: the center of the church is not the church; that is, at the center is the life of men and the church, which instead has Christ at its center, must be within that life, those experiences; if the church puts itself at the center, its becomes an empty and self-referential discourse ”.

In conversation with his Jesuit confreres, Francis warned of the “temptation to go back. It is an ideology that colonizes the minds. It is not a truly universal problem but rather specific to the churches of some countries. Life scares us ”. And certainly many bishops – from Hungary to Poland to the United States – will have their ears ringed. The concept was repeated, not surprisingly, during the mass with the European bishops celebrated in St. Peter’s last September 23: in the church Francis said, “unfortunately, that ‘restorationism’ of the past that kills us, kills us all is in fashion. “.

On the other hand, Bergoglio from the beginning of his pontificate insists on one aspect: the church must welcome all the diversities in which human experience is articulated and indeed promote their acceptance in the societies in which it operates. This is why he spoke of multiculturalism in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary (as pointed out by “Le Monde in an editorial), of the discrimination of Roma in Slovakia, of the risks of a return to anti-Semitism, of European integration open to solidarity and of humanity “discarded” in every corner of the planet. For the same reason, too, for some time he has been calling on the ecclesial world to stop judging humanity on the basis of an abstract normativism. “We are afraid to go forward in pastoral experiences”, Francis said again, addressing the Jesuits. Then he specified: “I think of the work that was done at the synod on the family to make it clear that couples in second union are not already condemned to hell. It scares us to accompany people with sexual diversity. We are afraid of the intersections of the paths that Paul VI spoke of. This is the evil of this moment. Seeking the way in rigidity and clericalism, which are two perversions ”.

On the contrary, for Francis, what we are living in “is a fascinating time, with a beautiful charm, even if that of the cross: beautiful to carry forward the freedom of the Gospel”. Again, in front of the faithful of the diocese of Rome, on 18 September last, Francis stated: “There is much resistance to overcoming the image of a church that is rigidly distinguished between heads and subordinates, between those who teach and those who must learn, forgetting that God likes to overturn positions: ‘He has overthrown the powerful from their thrones, he has exalted the humble’, said Mary ”. Vast program, it seems, but this is precisely the path indicated by the Argentine pope to the church of his time: to get back on the road without renouncing one’s distant origins.