Pope Francis: Popularity but no reform

On 28 February 2013, Pope Benedict XVI had resigned. On 12 March 2013 a conclave was convened to elect a pope to succeed. The next day the conclave elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a former Jesuit superior, and Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The first non-European pontiff in 1.300 years took the pontifical name Francis (Reuters Staff. Vatican City. March 11, 2014. Timeline: The first year of the papacy of Francis. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-anniversary-timeline-idUSBREA2A15J20140311).

Within a few months Pope Francis gains a high amount of popularity. From his inaugural Mass, Francis sets the tone for a humbler papacy. He champions the protection of the environment and claims the defense of the weakest in society. All this sounds good and much better than the abstract homilies of Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Francis visits a juvenile prison, and he includes women and Muslims in the traditional Holy Thursday foot washing ceremony at St. Peters Cathedral, usually reserved for Catholic men. He speaks out on the sexual abuse scandal that scatters the Roman Catholic Church. For decades there were no decisive actions from the Vatican on abusing priests and bishops. The perpetrators were not punished and not indicated to state authorities. Nobody cared for the victims, whom nobody wanted to listen. Nevertheless, the reports on the terrible cases of sexual abuse of children by priests and the cover-up of these crimes by bishops did not stop under Pope Francis.

On February 5, 2014, a United Nations committee accuses the Vatican of systematically turning a blind eye to decades of sexual abuse, and systematically adopting policies allowing priests to sexually abuse thousands of children. The Church’s credibility suffered a lot and still suffers from the scandal and the cover-ups, but the popularity of Pope Francis did not suffer. May 16, 2013, he calls for world financial reform, and he tries to reform his troubled administration at the Vatican. On June 28, 2013, he arrests Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a senior cleric with close ties to the Vatican bank, for plotting to help rich friends smuggle tens of millions of euros in cash from Switzerland into Italy. On July 8, 2013, Pope Francis “makes his first trip outside Rome, to the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa to commemorate thousands of migrants who have died crossing the sea from North Africa” (Reuters Staff. Vatican City. March 11, 2014. Timeline: The first year of the papacy of Francis).

The popularity of Pope Francis is out of question. What about the reform of the Roman Catholic Church, the reform of its government, teaching, spirituality, and liturgy? The US American Jesuit priest Thomas Reese took a whole year doing research in Rome, “interviewing more than a hundred people working in the Vatican, including thirteen cardinals” (Reese, Thomas J. 1996. Inside the Vatican. The politics and organization of the Catholic Church. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. viii. See my Post “The Vatican”).

The papacy’s influence is all-pervasive in the Roman Catholic Church (ibid. 2). The Roman Catholic hierarchy and the Pope claim the exclusive right to govern the Church to the exclusion of all others and refusing accountability to anybody (ibid.: 121).

The Code of Canon Law speaks on the supreme authority of the Roman Catholic Church in Canon 331 (John Paul II. 1983. “Code of Canon Law.” The Holy See. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P16.HTM):

“The bishop of the Roman Church, in whom continues the office given by the Lord uniquely to Peter, the first of the Apostles, and to be transmitted to his successors, is the head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the pastor of the universal Church on earth. By virtue of his office, he possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely”.

Jesus never authorized an office for Peter, and there is no biblical justification to call Peter and his successors the Vicars of Christ. Jesus never organized a Church, but the Church developed into a modern absolutist monarchy. The pope authorizes The Catechism of the Catholic Church, a publication that since 1993 directs the religious education of adults and children and will do so for some time because the popes are not willed to change the Church’s teachings.

What Reese reports on John Paul II is also true for Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. They oppose married clergy and women priests, divorce, and birth control. Rome decided that there is no gendering when Scripture is read at Mass or in any official documents. Rome determines “how difficult it is for divorced Catholics to get annulments before they can be married again in the Church” (Reese, Thomas J. 1996. 3). Bishops who are out of line with Vatican directives are deposed, like in 1995 the French bishop Jacques Gaillot, and Vatican officials demand that dissident theologians lose their right to teach (ibid.). Until 2023, nothing has really changed since these days of the papacy of John Paul II and possible change will have to wait for future popes.

As the ruler of Vatican City, the pope is an absolute monarch with supreme legislative, judicial, and executive authority, and these powers are not controlled by any checks and balances (ibid. 25). It is true, maintaining unity of the Church is an essential responsibility of the pope and the college of bishops, but the dictate of unity is different from a consensus that has been reached based on equal dignity, liberty, freedom, and rights of all Catholics. It is also true that a strong papacy helped John Paul II to successfully liberate the Church in Eastern Europe. He worked for a freer Church in China, Cuba and Vietnam and defended the rights of Catholic minorities, especially in Muslim regimes that deny religious freedom to the Roman Catholic Church and other Churches, but also in the subcontinent of India with its political Hindu nationalism (ibid. 28).

Absolute power without any checks and balances leaves the Church with great risks. The sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and bishops, and the role of John Paul II in the cover-up of the abuses lead the Catholic Church into a fundamental crisis. The complete failing of Pope John Paul II (1978–2005) and the failing of Benedict XVI (2005–2013) to deal rightly with the sex abuse scandals of the Roman Catholic Church result from the lack of checks and balances for the papal government in the church.

To introduce checks and balances into the government of the Roman Catholic Church papal primacy must get constrained. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) did not challenge papal primacy, the bishops merely discussed and debated the concept of collegiality of the college of the bishops with the pope (ibid. 36). National episcopal conferences would again get more power, and the ancient tradition of the patriarchal synods was a model therefore (ibid. 39). Reese suggests that these conferences and the possible future councils learn from modern secular legislative bodies how to institutionalize collegial structures in the church. Periodic sessions, committees, staff, and parliamentary procedures are important instruments securing a system of checks and balances, controlling legislators and bureaucracies and the abuse of executive power (ibid. 39–40). Structures will be needed that permit the full participation of lay women, men, and queer at all levels of church life and governance (ibid. 40). During the long reign of John Paul II, the open consultative process used by the US National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) in drafting pastoral letters was not liked by the pope and the Vatican. Consequently, the pope appointed bishops that were in keeping with his views (ibid. 34). The NCCB disagreed with John Paul II on many points. Such were “regulations dealing with annulments of marriages, the age of confirmation, lay preaching, altar girls, alienation of church property, the role of retired bishops in the bishops’ conference, terms for pastors, inclusive language in liturgical books and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, granting the chalice to the laity on Sundays, and other liturgical issues” (ibid. 33–34).

Confusion and corruption going on in the Vatican led to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013. His successor, Pope Francis, had to initiate a reform of the Roman Curia at the request of the conclave that elected him on March 13, 2013. Inside the Curia Pope Francis met massive resistance to his reform plans. Five years into his papacy, Pope Francis dared going public with his complaints about the intern obstruction of reform. In his Christmas address to the Roman Curia on December 21, 2017, he acknowledged the difficult task of trying to reform the Curia (Pope Francis. 2017. “Address of His Holiness Pope Francis.” Christmas Greetings to the Roman Curia. 21 December. The Holy See. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2017/december/documents/papa-francesco/). Pope Francis bitterly complained that a minority in the Curia “betray the purpose of its existence” and he somewhat helplessly moralized that the relationship between the Curia and the local churches must be based on collaboration and trust and never on superiority or adversity (ibid.).

On March 19, 2022, Pope Francis finally presented the long-awaited Curial reform in the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium. On the Roman Curia and its service to the Church in the world (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/20220319-costituzione-ap-praedicate-evangelium.html). Does the reform change the organization and government of the Curia and introduce some checks and balances?

The Curial reform of Pope Francis does not institutionalize collegial structures in the Curia. Collegial structures could be periodic sessions, committees, staff, and parliamentary procedures that are important instruments securing a system of checks and balances, controlling legislators and bureaucracies and the abuse of executive power (Reese 1996. 39–40). Structures will be needed that permit the full participation of lay women, men, and queer at all levels of church life and governance (Reese 1996. 40). The Curia will not change much with the reform of Pope Francis. Most of the secretaries, undersecretaries and lower ranks of the congregations and councils are careerists and it will take time to replace them. The reform appoints the personal for five years, and it is possible to serve for another five years. Promotion will still depend on loyalty.

The structures of the Vatican do not realize the collegial character of the church (Reese 1996, 172). A church seen as a communion of churches needs a decentralized structure where greater liberty and authority are given to local churches, local bishops, and episcopal conferences (ibid. 139). The pope as absolute monarch of the Roman Catholic Church has the agency to introduce change and institute collegial structures in the Church. Will there be a pope willing to go for this change? The pope is the absolute monarch who reigns, with the help of more than five thousand bishops and over four hundred thousand priests around the world, almost 1.3 billion Catholics. Male celibates, the majority of them white, monopolize, use, and abuse the power in the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Paul VI established the Synod of Bishops in 1965. These synods meet every three or four years. Because the issue was urgent, the First Extraordinary Synod was held in 1969 and titled, “Cooperation between the Holy See and the Episcopal Conferences”. Pope John Paul II called for 1985 the Second Extraordinary Synod on the theme, “The Twentieth Anniversary of the Conclusion of the Second Vatican Council.” On October 8, 2013, Pope Francis announced an Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization”. An Extraordinary General Assembly of this extraordinary synod of bishops will take place in October 2014 and a year later an Ordinary General Assembly will take place.

On November 5, 2013 the Vatican released a preparatory document for the 2014 synod (https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20131105_iii-assemblea-sinodo-vescovi_en.html). The document has three parts. The first part diagnosis “a social and spiritual crisis, so evident in today’s world” (ibid.). The crisis affects “the family, the vital building-block of society and the ecclesial community” (ibid.). The central interest and perspective of Pope Francis on society and the Roman Catholic Church is the traditional family; the wife stays at home and cares for the children and the husband. The husband earns the money for the family and is the head of the family. Pope Francis regards the Roman Catholic Church from the perspective of a cluster of millions of parishes. It was not only pleasantry, that Pope Francis defined himself in his press-conference on July 28, 2013, - he was on the return flight from Rio de Janeiro to Rome -, as a “callejero, a street priest” (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/july/documents/papa-francesco_20130728_gmg-conferenza-stampa.html). The journalists enjoyed his almost jovial company on the plane, but Bergoglio never was a real street priest working in the slums of Buenos Aires. What is true in his street priest allusion is the fact that he became pastor of a whole diocese, that is a bishop. Thanks to his modest lifestyle and outreach to simple people he could stick to his identity as a simple pastor.

Indeed, Bergoglio wanted to become diocesan priest and entered as a young man the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, Argentina, we learn from his official Vatican biography (Biography of the Holy Father Francis. (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/biography/documents/papa-francesco-biografia-bergoglio.html):  With 22 years he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus. After some studies of humanities, he studied philosophy at the Colegio Máximo de San José in San Miguel, in the Province of Buenos Aires. The Colegio Máximo was the formation house of the Jesuits for philosophy and theology, the most important studies for a Jesuit. In 1963 he graduated with a degree in philosophy. The Second Vatican Council had started in 1962. The Council asked for a positive perspective on the modern world in the formation of the priests, but the formation of the Jesuits was to be reformed a decade later. The young Jesuit and later Pope Francis was educated with schoolbooks and manuals on philosophy that were written at the end of the 19th century, many of them still in Latin. These textbooks tried to face the “errors” of the philosophical Enlightenment of the 18th century using the arguments of Catholic Medieval philosophers. The young Jesuits were not allowed to read condemned authors like Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Freud. The individual was not understood as an autonomous subject, empowered to take social choices with reflected responsibility as free personal decisions. The individual was seen as person who had to follow the teachings of the Church and the orders of their superiors. The Church defines the good, the truth and the beautiful, not the conscience and judgement of the individual. After this antimodernist philosophical formation, the Jesuit superiors sent Bergoglio to a Jesuit college to teach humanities. From 1967-70 he studied theology and obtained a degree from the Colegio of San José. Theology was taught in the old way too. Biblical studies, reading, studying, and meditating the Bible were not aims of theological formation. The Scriptures were not seen as the foundation of Christian life and theology, as the Second Vatican Council demanded. The so called critical exegetic method that studies the Biblical texts as texts written by inspired authors who wrote in a historic context, had not reached the theological curricula of the later Pope Francis. There was no understanding of the development of Church organization, teaching, and life throughout history. Important was obedience to the patriarchal hierarchy of the Church as the determinant theological authority of the dogma. The dogma, the Christian faith, and the citations from the Bible were taught in a positivistic manner, as eternal empirical arguments of unchangeable truth and not as faith sentences of a religious confession and world view.

In 1969 Bergoglio was ordained a priest, he was 33 years old. In the following year he continued his studies in Spain. Back in Argentina he became novice master and was teaching at San Miguel. His superiors decided that Father Bergoglio was not staying a faculty member but was a good choice to become Rector of the Colegio Máximo of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology in San Miguel. It is not a usual Jesuit career to fulfill the jobs of novice master, professor, and rector within two years. Novice masters stay at least for 6 years or more, rectors also usually stay for two terms of three years. Have there been difficulties as novice master so that he was given a job at university? Rather than Bergoglio himself, circumstances within the Order were responsible for the rapid succession of Bergoglio’s jobs. It was a time of social turmoil and protest in society and the Jesuit Order.

The Jesuit Order prepared reform in the sense of John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council and convoked a General Congregation for 1974. In April 1973, Bergoglio made his final profession with the Jesuits and in July 1973, Bergoglio was appointed Provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina by the General Superior of the Order, Pedro Arrupe. Bergoglio was 37 years old when becoming head of the Jesuit province of Argentina. He was young to become superior of a whole Jesuit Province. Evidently Father Arrupe considered him capable realizing the reform of the Order in Argentina. Bergoglio was member of the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus that took place in Rome from the 2nd of December of 1974 to the 7th of March of 1975, but reform was not the strength of Bergoglio. The Order was split on reform, half of the Jesuits were against, and half were going ahead. The progressives got the majority at the General Congregation in Rome, the resentment of the traditionalists was enduring. For the progressives and the young Jesuits, the reform of the Jesuit Order functioned as a second foundation and was made possible by Pedro Arrupe who was elected General Superior in the 31st General Congregation in 1965. It took the charismatic leader Arrupe almost ten years to prepare the Order for reform, overcoming all obstacles and resistance within the Order.

In 1978 the Roman Catholic Church began with the election of Pope John Paul II to strengthen again authoritarian ways of governing the Church and insisting on traditional Catholic moral teaching.  Arrupe and Pope John Paul II did not agree on the restorative politics of the pope. John Paul II wanted to get rid of Arrupe and got the opportunity to realize his wish. The pope refused the resignation of Arrupe. Shortly thereafter, Arrupe suffered a severe stroke on the 7th of August of 1981, and John Paul II appointed a conservative Jesuit as papal delegate to lead the Jesuits, bypassing Arrupe’s elected vicar. Two years later, the Jesuits were allowed to elect a successor to Father Arrupe in 1983 in their 33rd General Congregation. Pope John Paul II had reigned in many other religious orders. All of them, the Jesuits included, never regained their inspiring, innovative, and effective charisma for their apostolic work and preferential option for the poor. Although Bergoglio’s solidarity was more with the pope and less with Father Arrupe, he held the office of Provincial for two terms, that is for six years. Bergoglio was held in high esteem by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The Archbishop consulted Bergoglio regularly, and followed his advice and spiritual directive.

There is no word in Pope Francis’ official Vatican biography (Biography of the Holy Father Francis) on his role during the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, which received support from the United States until 1982. For a short period of time, articles in the international press and mass media questioned Pope Francis’ role during Argentina’s dictatorship (Uki Goni and Jonathan Watts. March 14, 2013. “Pope Francis: questions remain over his role during Argentina's dictatorship.” The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/14/pope-francis-argentina-military-junta): “The Catholic church and Pope Francis have been accused of a complicit silence and worse during the "dirty war" of murders and abductions carried out by the junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983” (ibid.). Although it “was dangerous at that time to speak out and risk being labelled a subversive” many, including priests and bishops, did so and subsequently disappeared.” (ibid.). Bergoglio did not speak out and historians must determine if he protected his outspoken Jesuit brothers or not. In 2000 the Argentine Catholic church itself made a public apology for its failure to take a stand against the generals. "We want to confess before God everything we have done badly," Argentina's Episcopal Conference said at that time, not then Archbishop of Buenos Aires Bergoglio (ibid.).

After his job as provincial, Bergoglio resumed his work in the university sector and from 1980 to 1986 served once again as Rector of the Colegio de San José and worked as parish priest at San Miguel. “In March 1986 he went to Germany to finish his doctoral thesis” (Biography of the Holy Father Francis). The official Vatican biography does not inform that Bergoglio never finished his doctoral thesis. What makes a Jesuit, a former provincial, to try to finish a doctoral thesis being 50 years old? If a superior destinates a young Jesuit to do a doctoral thesis it is usually a year after priestly ordination and aims at an academic career. Bergoglio was needed in the administration of his order; he did not get the chance to concentrate on his thesis. Starting the thesis all over again with 50 is not easy and in the case of Bergoglio it was not realistic to finish the plan. He went to Germany and studied German for three months. Then he studied at the Jesuit faculty of theology in St. Georgen, Frankfurt, Germany. He worked on Romano Guardini (1885-1968), a Catholic priest and theologian, writing on liturgy, philosophy of religion, Christology, and Christian anthropology. Was Bergoglio capable of reading and understanding the works of Guardini in German language? Did he hope to finish his thesis in one year? I do not know. Defending a doctoral thesis in theology in Germany supposes knowledge of Greek and Hebrew and an exam in the major disciplines of theology. I was studying the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament from 1984 to 1987 at St. Georgen and was living as a Jesuit in the Jesuit’s community. I never got to see, least to speak, the Argentine Father Bergoglio. Evidently, he lived at a parish house where he could study without constraints. He never visited one of the monthly meetings of the Jesuit community. He could have told us that he was passing a Sabbatical year after having served as provincial in Argentina. Provincials usually are granted a Sabbatical after a 6 years’ term of governing a Jesuit province. For some reasons Bergoglio did not want to have contact with the Jesuit community. He must have had one Jesuit from the community as director of his thesis and it is very strange that he did not even show up for a short visit once. As young Jesuits we were very excited about what was going on in Latin America, we would have loved to listen to Bergoglio. Evidently, he prefers the company of simple people to the curious questioning of young Jesuits.

Why did Bergoglio stay only a year in Frankfurt? Was his successor as provincial ordering him back to Argentina? His official biography reads: “His superiors then sent him to the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires and next to the Jesuit Church in the city of Córdoba as spiritual director and confessor” (Biography of the Holy Father Francis). Indeed, from 1987 to 1990 Bergoglio was again rector of the prestigious Collegio Máximo in Buenos Aires. He served only one term.  He was liked by a group of the young Jesuit students. He gave retreats, and the young admired him. They came to him to ask for counselling, and he was a leadership figure that challenged the authority of the superior of the Jesuit province of Argentina. This situation of competition leads to his exile in Coldoba (ibid.).

From 1990 to 1992 Father Bergoglio passed two years in a Jesuit house in Cordoba, Argentina. Cordoba is located 700 kilometers from Buenos Aires, the capital, where his successors as provincials reside. He was not appointed to an official task in Cordoba (Enrique Molina. March 21, 2017. El exilio del papa Francisco (https://www.pressreader.com/mexico/). He worked as spiritual director, and confessor. He prayed a lot. He writes books on the religious and apostolic life.

I visited the Colegio Máximo in Buenos Aires in 2015 and some of the Jesuits told me a different story of Bergoglio as rector and provincial: He had never liked the theologians and priests who asked for structural reform of the unequal distribution of land and riches in Argentina and Latin America. Bergoglio opposed the young Jesuits who left with their educators and teachers the colonial style palaces of the Jesuit colleges and lived in small communities with the people in the slums. Bergoglio tried to assist the poor and the sick as a work of charity. The young Jesuits not only protested the scandalous divide between a few rich and the mass of poor people. Many Jesuits understood the preferential option for the poor, that was official Roman Catholic social doctrine since the second Episcopal Conference of Latin America in Medellin, Columbia, in1968, as the duty to fight for the human right of a life in dignity for all. A life in dignity means access and affordability of a public health system and service, healthy food and clean water, a job and fair wages, affordable housing, access to education for their children, a private and public life in security, a functioning judicial system, and participation in political life at the local, regional, and national level. The Jesuits in Argentina are still reluctant to speak on Bergoglio as provincial and as rival of the provincial’s authority when he was again rector of the Colegio Máximo in Buenos Aires. The historians will tell the real story when the archives are ready to speak. The rift between the admirers and the opponents of Bergoglio developed in the 1990ies into an unbridgeable gap within the Jesuits from Argentina. At the beginning of the of the 21st century the Superior General in Rome was facing a polarized Jesuit province of Argentina where the two sides could not agree any more on a common provincial superior. The Superior General was forced to appoint a former Columbian provincial as superior of the Jesuit province of Argentina.

The so-called theology of liberation was suspected by Pope John Paul II to preach a communist ideology of Marxism. Bergoglio was seen as staying faithful to the traditional moral teaching of the Church. The Archbishop of Buenos Aires proposed the pope to make Bergoglio a bishop. Consequently, Pope John Paul II appointed Bergoglio titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires in 1992. His exile was over, and Bergoglio started a career in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The Jesuit tradition does not like Jesuits becoming bishops. Jesuits should stay with the people at the periphery of power and margins of society and educate the young. When Bergoglio made his final profession in 1973, he vowed - as every Jesuit does – never to aspire to become a bishop. On 3 June 1997, Bergoglio was raised to the dignity of Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires and on 28 February 1998 he became Archbishop, Primate of Argentina. Three years later at the Consistory of 21 February 2001, John Paul II created him Cardinal (ibid.).

His official biography claims, the Bishop, Archbishops and Cardinal Bergoglio “has always advised his priests to show mercy and apostolic courage and to keep their doors open to everyone” (Biography of the Holy Father Francis). The Biography says he had four main goals as Archbishop of Buenos Aires: “open and brotherly communities, an informed laity playing a lead role, evangelization efforts addressed to every inhabitant of the city, and assistance to the poor and the sick” (ibid.). This self-description sounds nice, and the press and public opinion love him for this kind of declarations. There is no interest of the journalists to critically question his past or his patriarchal neglect of the equal dignity of women, men and queer. The journalists like and use him as a hope inspiring person in their hopelessly commercialized business. The public does not see that the communities according to Bergoglio are brotherly but not brotherly and sisterly. The public does not know that in the end any lay participation in the Church’s government, teaching and celebrating the Eucharist stops when the bishop decides what is enough participation. The public does not understand that evangelization means for Bergoglio studying the Catechism and following the traditional moral teachings of the Church. The public does not understand that “assistance to the poor and the sick” is meant as a form of caritative alms giving and not as a human right of a life in dignity and security, including access and affordability of the services of a public health system.

Pope Francis feels the pressure on him, that the Roman Catholic Church institution is not any more credible, trusted, and followed with its prescriptions of how the people must live. The people have discovered their individual freedom and the dignity of making choices on their own. Instead of trying to understand and to analyze the change of values that took place, Pope Francis sticks to authoritarian tradition and norms. We read about the crisis of society and of the church in the first part of his preparatory document of 2013 for the 2014 synod: The crisis is caused by “the widespread practice of cohabitation” by “same-sex unions between persons” who may adopt children, by mixed or inter-religious marriages, the single-parent family; polygamy;” marriages with the payment of a dowry, “the caste system”, “a culture of non-commitment”, “forms of feminism hostile to the Church; migration”, “relativist pluralism in the conception of marriage; the influence of the media on popular culture”, “an increase in the practice of surrogate motherhood (wombs for hire); and new interpretations of what is considered a human right”(ibid.). I was very surprised learning one day from my African doctoral students, that “polygamy” in Church speech relates to divorced couples who married again without permission of the Roman Catholic Church. This use of the term polygamy constitutes for me a discrimination of divorced and remarried couples.

Pope Francis sticks to the traditional Church teaching on the family. He is not familiar with the first human right of equal dignity, freedom, and rights for all women, men and queer, he does not understand discrimination as a violation of human rights, he is not used to argue in a pluralistic society. He does not understand the church of faithful in an open discourse that aims at consensus and not at authoritarian censorship and dictate. Speaking of the dowry and of casts shows his interest in unjust social traditions; his speaking of the poor does not hurt the rich, alleviates their consciences and contributes to the popularity of the pope.

When Pope Francis uses in part two of the preparatory document for the synod on the family Catholic doctrine the Gospel, we see that he is not familiar with modern Bible studies. The Bible serves him to legitimate Church doctrine, a doctrine that is not written down in the Bible. I do not know, but I suppose he does not read the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Bible.

Part three of the preparatory document for the synod is on the family. First of all the pope has some closed questions on the Church’s teachings on the family. It looks like the pope assesses the dogmatic knowledge of his bishops. At the end of the questionnaire there is one open question for the concerns of the bishops. With the answers the bishops are allowed “to participate actively in the preparation of the Extraordinary Synod” (ibid.).

Three quarters of the questions concern the official teaching of the Church on the family. The bishops should tell the pope, how the official teaching of the Catholic Church “is understood by people today?” (ibid.). The last quarter of the questions is on the above mentioned “causes of the social and spiritual crisis” of the family and society today. The pope wants precise information, he asks the bishops to approximate numbers or a percentage on cohabitation, same-sex partnerships, divorced marriages, children “who are born and raised in regularly constituted families”, he asks if the moral teaching of the Church is accepted by the faithful, if the civic education by the state differs from the Church’s teaching, and he asks about the pastoral activities to meet the challenges and needs of the families and persons in crisis and difficulties (ibid.). The public never heard about the answers the bishops sent back to the pope. There is public interest for quantifying the gap between official Roman Catholic teaching and the convictions and social choices of the faithful.

The controversial issues concerning the beginning of life, responsible parenthood, sex and morals, and the end of life are of the greatest interest to media and journalists. Especially all questions around sex, marriage and divorce assure considerable public attention. This is why the United States’ largest provider of Spanish-language content, Univision free-to-air television network (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univision)  commissioned Bendixen&Amandi to conduct a global, that is worldwide, survey to determine “the extent to which Catholic public opinion mirrors Catholic doctrine” (Univision. February 2014. Global Survey of Roman Catholics. Bendixen&Amandi International (http://bendixenandamandi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/UNIVISION-Catholic-Poll-Executive-Summary).

The survey interviewed 12.038 self-identified Catholics across 5 continents and in 12 countries. Population and concentration information date from 2010, Pew Research Center (ibid. 27). “The five major regions where Catholics reside throughout the world (Latin America 39%), Europe (24%), Sub-Saharan Africa (16%), Asia-Pacific (12%) and North America (8%) were each represented by at least one of the top eleven countries with the highest population of Catholics” (ibid. 27). Since the 13% Catholics of Nigeria’s population of about 146 million people, that is about 20 million Catholics, are dispersed throughout the country, Uganda was included in the survey as second country from the Sub-Sahara region. Uganda has a concentrated population of about 14 million Catholics, that is 42% of its total population of about 35 million people (ibid.). The countries included in the survey were Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Italy, France, Poland, Spain, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Philippines, and United States. Telephone sampling was possible in Italy, France, Poland, Spain, and the United States. The sample was selected via random digit dialing. In the remaining seven countries face-to-face interviews were conducted. The samples in each of these seven countries were based on multi-stage stratified random sampling through respondent selection (ibid. 28). “The margin of error for the global aggregated results is 0,9% at the 95 percent confidence level” (ibid. 29).

The survey findings document that the majority of Catholics in Europe, Latin America and the United States disagree with Catholic doctrine on divorce, abortion, and contraceptives. Concerning marriage of priests as well as women ordained priests the global Church is split: Catholics in Europe, Latin America and the United States were in favor of married priests and women priests, Catholics in Sub-Sahara Africa and in the Asia-Pacific region were against. “These findings suggest an extraordinary disconnect between the church’s basic teachings on the fundamental issues of family and pastoral responsibilities” and the viewpoints of the world’s more than 1 billion Catholics. The generational divides show that young Catholics more likely hold “views contrary to church teachings than Catholics as a whole” (ibid. 3).

58% of Catholics worldwide disagree with Church doctrine that divorced and remarried individuals are “living in sin which prevents them from receiving Communion”. The disagreement is 75% in Europe and 46% in the Philippines. In Africa only 19% Catholics disagree (ibid. 5).

65% of Catholics agree, that abortion should be allowed in all (8%) or some cases (57%). The highest agreement shows France with 94%, Poland still shows 82% agreement, The Democratic Republic of the Congo shows 40%, Uganda 35% and Philippines 27% (ibid. 6-7).

78% of the world’s Catholics support contraceptives.

50% of Catholics think that Catholic priests should be allowed to marry. In Europe 70% think that Catholic priests should be allowed to marry, in Latin America 53%, in Africa 28% and in Asia-Pacific 21%.

45% of Catholics think that women should be allowed to become Catholic priests. In Europe 64%, In Latin America 49%, in Asia-Pacific 21% and in Africa 17% (10-11).

66% of world Catholics oppose marriage between two persons of the same sex. 40% of North America’s Catholics oppose marriage between two persons of the same sex, 56% of Europe, 57% of Latin America, 84% of Asia-Pacific and 99% of Africa. It is interesting, that only 27% of the Catholics in Spain oppose marriage between two persons of the same sex (ibid. 13-14).

Less than a full year into his Papacy, Pope Francis’ positive approval rating is well above 80%. There is the exception of Mexico with a positive approval rating of only 70% and a quarter of respondents indicating they had a negative opinion of the Pope (ibid. 18). This negative rating is likely “a result of historic conflicts with and withing the Catholic church in Mexico” (ibid. 3).

30% of world Catholics attend Church only a few times a year such as major holidays, or never attend services; 69% describe themselves as frequent attendees (ibid. 20). Unfortunately, the survey does not give detailed percentages for the 12 countries. In 2008, in Austria less than 15% of Catholics describe themselves as frequent attendees, 31% of Catholics never attend Church services (Christian Friesl, Regina Polak, Usula Hamachers-Zuba (Hg.). Die Österreicherinnen. Wertewandel 1990-2008. Czernin 2009. 157ff.). 69% frequent attendees in Latin America sounds far to high for me.

“It seems the only thing the global Catholic church can agree on is that Pope Francis has been doing an excellent or good job since he was elected last March” (Stephanie Yeagle. February 10, 2014. Ncronline. Survey says global church divided on major issues. https://www.ncronline.org/news/).

We must take a closer look at the findings of the survey. At a second look find the gap not necessarily between official Church teaching and the Catholics of the world. There is a disconnect between Sub-Sahara region and Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the worlds’ Catholics:

There is a gap between the Catholics from Sub-Sahara and Asia and the other 3 regions on married priests, women priests, that abortion should be allowed in all or in some cases, and on communion for remarried individuals: In Africa 28% and in Asia-Pacific 21% of Catholics agree to married priests, in Asia-Pacific agree 21% and in Africa 17% with women priests. In Africa disagree 19% and in Asia-Pacific 46% with Church doctrine that divorced and remarried individuals are “living in sin which prevents them from receiving Communion”. In The Democratic Republic of the Congo 40%, in Uganda 35% and in Philippines agree 27% that abortion should be allowed in all or in some cases.

In Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Sub-Sahara-Africa more than 50% of the Catholics oppose marriage between two persons of the same sex, in Sub-Sahara-Africa the opposition is 99%.

Only a majority of Catholics in the United States agree to marriage between two persons of the same sex. Since the Catholics in the United States make up only 8% of the world’s Catholics, there will be not much concern on this question in the Vatican. Concerning all moral problems on the family and sex, the Vatican is facing a united front only concerning support of contraceptives with 78% of the world’s Catholics being in favor. For the rest of the disputed questions, the Vatican can point at a gap between the rich Catholics of Europe and the United States and the poor Catholics in Sub-Sahara Africa and Asia-Pacific with Latin America in between the two. The dangerous question for the Vatican is Church unity and not so much conformity with Church teaching. In this context it is logical, that any clear decisions at the Ordinary General Assembly of synod of bishops on “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization” of October 2014 were blocked by the gap between bishops from Africa and Asia-Pacific on the one side and Latin America, Europe, and the United States on the other side. Maintaining unity of the Church is an essential responsibility of the pope and the college of bishops, but the dictate of unity in 2023 cannot substitute for a consensus that has been reached based on equal dignity, liberty, freedom, and rights of all Catholics.