When Pope Benedict XVI, age 85, announced that he would resign or retire from the


papacy on February 28 of this year, he broke a six-century pattern. No pope had resigned since


Gregory XII in 1415 as a means of terminating the great Papal Schism, during which either two or three claimed concurrently to be pope.


Catholic Church


non-European pope for more than 1,200 years and allegedly the 266tth pope. Bergoglio, who took the name Francis, is the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, and the first from the Global South. Likewise, he was the first pope to take the name Francis, primarily because of Francis of Assisi (1131-1226), who abandoned wealth to work among the poor, and secondarily in reference to Francis Xavier (1506-1552), Jesuit missionary to Asia.


From Benedict XVI to Francis Benedict cited advanced age and infirmity as the reason.


He had received a pacemaker before becoming pope and had recently been advised against trans-oceanic travel. He had closely observed the deteriorating health of Pope John Paul II before the end of his papacy. The media however, offered other reasons for the retirement: the clerical sexual abuse scandal, problems in the Vatican administration, the secularization of Europe, and the growth of Evangelical, especially Pentecostal, Protestantism in Latin America. Named “Emeritus Pope,” Benedict lived briefly at Castel Gondolfo until his apartment, a refurbished monastery, was ready at the Vatican. He affirmed that he was to be “hidden to the world” and would devote himself to a life of prayer. Students of Benedict’s tenure continue to assess his life and


papacy. Receiving major attention will be his role as champion of Catholic orthodoxy both in leading the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul II and during his own pontificate. Under review will likely be his efforts to curb the effects of Vatican Council II by promoting the Latin mass and by lifting the excommunication of four bishops who had opposed the Vatican II reforms. His handling of the clerical sexual abuse scandal is already getting mixed evaluation: positive for meeting with families of victims and appointing a sex crimes prosecutor at the end of his papacy, but negative for failing to set out and enforce guidelines. The growth of the Roman Catholic Church in Africa and Asia under Benedict will deserve attention, as will also the charge that Benedict was more interested in purifying the church than enlarging it. Appraisal of the German pope cannot fail to include his work as a writing theologian, who issued only three encyclicals but wrote 65 books, including his three-volume Jesus of Nazareth. Benedict’s pattern of papal retirement may have long term


effects on other popes. When the 115 cardinals entered the conclave to elect a new pope, with 77 votes needed for the two-thirds majority, there was no clear favorite or obvious dark horse. John Paul II had been the first non-Italian pope since the Dutchman, Adrian VI, in the sixteenth century. Benedict had been the first German pope for nearly 1,000 years. Italians wanted the papal office to return to Italy, and North Americans, Africans, and Latin Americans were talking about cardinals from their regions. On March 13 the cardinals selected Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, cardinal (since 2001) and archbishop (since 1998) of Buenos Aires and a Jesuit, who had been runner-up to Benedict at the conclave in 2005. Although of Italian parentage, he is the first


By James Leo Garrett, Jr.


In Argentina, Francis had demonstrated a simple lifestyle – living in an apartment rather than the archiepiscopal mansion, riding public transportation, and cooking his own meals. As a Jesuit he had vowed not to seek higher ecclesiastical office. He had opposed Argentina’s female president as she succeeded in getting parliamentary approval of same-sex marriage. As Pope, he has decided to live in the Vatican hotel rather than the Apostolic Palace and to eat his meals in a common dining room. After one month Francis announced the appointment of eight cardinals, from seven nations and Vatican City, to advise him in governing the church and reforming the Vatican. This was instantly hailed as a move away from the recentralization under John Paul II and Benedict and toward the intent of Vatican Council II. The papal change seems to involve personality and lifestyle.


Benedict was cerebral; Francis is relational. Benedict was an introvert; Francis is an extravert. Francis seems to be a blend of his Jesuit and his adopted Franciscan spiritualties ready to throw off some of the trappings of authority. He rejected liberation theology with its debt to Marxism but has boldly championed social and economic justice. Will the papacy of Francis be marked by continuity or change? There is no likelihood of any shift from the Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy that the Roman Church shares with all orthodox Christians. There is little likelihood under Francis of the complete removal of the major differences between Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics: Mariology and Marian piety, the Petrine office, and sacramental salvation. The right-to-life stances will surely continue unless the position on contraception is modified. It is uncertain whether under Francis the issues of mandatory clerical celibacy and possible women in the priesthood will be opened for consideration. Perhaps Baptists throughout the world will find their greatest degree of common ground with the church of Pope Francis on issues of persecution, religious liberty, and resistance to the demands or the indifference of totalitarian or would-be totalitarian governments – a striking contrast to the pre-Vatican Council II era. Individuals need to approach this new era with prayerful anticipation that the Argentine Jesuit may be, as Catholic author George Weigel has said, an “Evangelical Catholic,” through whom the proclamation and embodiment of the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ may be truly extended to all peoples of the earth to the glory of the triune God. James Leo Garrett, Jr. is professor of theology, emeritus, at South- western Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas in the United States and has held membership in several commissions of the BWA.


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