The Complex Picture of the Church and Pope Francis

The mainstream media has been gushing over Pope Francis making him their latest secular saint along with Margaret Sanger, George Floyd, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and a host of other folks with, let's say, questionable histories. It doesn't take much to merit sainthood from that quarter. 

If you're pro-abortion, LGBTQ, black and killed by a white man, or fit into any other woke categories, the halo goes on immediately after death. Some get the halo earlier though, Barack Obama for example. 

And, now, of course, it's Francis. His legacy according to the media is unreservedly positive. Nothing he did during his pontificate was negative or divisive. He was the media's perfect pontiff. After all, he let St. Peter's be decorated with an animal light show during the Paris climate meetings. He told Catholic parents they didn't need to breed like rabbits. He honored pro-aborts and encouraged religious indifferentism. He took a hard line with those wicked rigid Catholics who practice the faith with fidelity. But most importantly, he often echoed the message of the left to their absolute delight! And now they are rewarding him by presenting a one-sided picture of his pontificate that ignores all the false notes, confusion, and chaos which is part of his legacy to the Church. History, I suspect, will not treat his reign so well.

There are some voices out there today, however, who provide a more accurate picture of Pope Francis and, indeed, the complex picture of the Church herself. They don't airbrush the warts and blemishes away, but offer an accurate picture with both virtues and vices, successes and failures. And that is what honest witnesses and recorders of history do! 

I offer a number of articles below that show the Church and the pope in their complexity. First I'll quote a paragraph from one of the articles that I think serves as an introduction. The pope is the visible head of the Church. His reign puts the Church and the faith in a certain context emphasizing her "resilience" which cannot be destroyed by any papacy or any attack. The gates of hell can never prevail against her. We've had many bad popes who impact their era in ways that hurt the faith, but the faith goes on. And God always brings good out of every bad situation. Judas and the pharisees appeared to win on Good Friday, but the Resurrection was the ultimate defeat of sin and death. That is the proof that the Holy Spirit protects and always will protect the Church. 

I urge you to read the articles below as we approach the conclave for a reasoned approach to Pope Francis, his legacy, and what the Church needs going forward. One of our primary needs is for the truth! But first an introduction:

Speaking about the Church today isn’t easy. It’s easy to fall into one of two extremes: either to defend it uncritically as a timeless stronghold of virtue, or to dismiss it entirely for its undeniable failings. But there is a more honest, if more difficult, way to look at it. Not as a moral exemplar or a relic, but as something more complex: an institution full of contradictions, yet like no other. The Church has endured for two thousand years—not without mistakes, but with a strange resilience. Over time, it has become something rare: a guardian of memory, a keeper of tradition, and a witness to truths that are quietly slipping out of the modern imagination. [From Too Soon to Dismiss: The Church’s Enduring Witness in a Forgetful Age]

Grieving for the Holy Father by Msgr. Richard C. Antall

The Church After Francis by Archbishop Charles Chaput

Cardinal Müller: Church risks split if it elects a liberal pope

Have you read any balanced and honest articles about the pope's legacy? Share them in the comments section. And don't forget to pray for the conclave to pick a pope after God's own heart.