[Oe List ...] ST Thursday OpEd FYI

[Jaime R Vergara]

El Papa Francisco de Argentina
 
Cardinal Jorge MarioBorgoglio is at home in many places on both sides of Andes where many Italianscongregate in numbers from Lima to Sao Paolo. He is the new Pope of Roman Catholic Christendom, hailed as originatingfrom geography way off the shadows of the southern Alps though the genesevidently originated from the same wellsprings of yonder Romans.
 
Habemus Papam was false alarm in satirist New Yorker Borowitz’ account after thefifth ballot as cardinals allegedly shoveled incriminating papers into thefurnace in deference to a new Pope who should not be saddled with all evidenceof indiscretions by his predecessors.  The levity was appropriate as Rome tries to distance itself from thesoot on its hands, especially after the watch of former Cardinal Ratzinger theHitler youth storm-trooper, most recently resigned Pope Benedict XVI.
 
Pope John XXIII whoattempted to open the windows of the stale Basilica that shrouded theMagisterium drew us to the arcane universe of Christian theology. The spirit ofthe Vatican II Council was short-lived, not unlike the Prague Spring before theRussian military hardware rumbled down the cobblestones.
 
I was raised inReformation Christianity brought by Protestant Evangelicals into the shores ofPea Eye after WWII.  Given an inquisitivebent from the scientific ethos, I was not too enamored with the blatantsuperstition and fake piety of my institutional Church, so a shaking of thefoundations of a stodgy cathedral of medieval thought came as welcomed news.
 
Superstition in anOther World beyond as an object of Christian hope came into sharp question fromthe pastoral voices of Barth and Bultmann, Tillich and Bonhoeffer, the Niebuhrbrothers and Europe’s existentialists who focused on the here-and-now.  Coming out of the influence of Calvin,Luther, and Wesley, I was at home with reforms.
 
We took on thepanoramic view of two millennia, from the Augustine’s confessions, through Francisof Assissi’s meanderings, to the heights of Tomas de Aquino’s flights, on tothe militant resolve of Ignatius de Loyola. The tableau blossomed with Malachi Martin and Andrew Greeley, and wetook seriously the pedagogy of Paulo Freire, Ivan Illich, and MarshallMacLuhan, awed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s vision of the Cosmic Christ andGustavo Guttierrez’ political liberation motif.
 
Vatican Spring tookits toll as Karl Rahner, Hans Kung, and Edward Schillebeecks retreated to thesounds of silence.  Interfaith dialoguedid not go far even with Newman, Nouwen, and Merton.  Matthew Fox anglicized the frock, and if wehope for another Pope Joan (13thcentury), we need to become conversant with the works of Mary Daly andElizabeth Fiorenza!  (An inquiringcolleague who asked who our papal candidate was at the onset of the electionheard me say: “They do not allow Nuns on the list, yet!”)
 
We stopped over BuenasAires from Rio to Santiago in ’79, just before Brazil enacted its Amnestyprogram to shield military atrocities from prosecution, and a few hours beforeGeneral Pinochet of Chile got a diplomatic slap on the face when FerdinandMarcos of the Philippines canceled his stopover in Manila after a visit inFiji on his way to China.
 
Being one of the rarenon-Aryan persons in the airport at the time, and with the goose-steppingsecurity all over the place reminiscent of films of the Wehrmacht, we hadpimples of anxiety as we could not wait to get out of the place.  The last time I had such feelings was when Iwas thrown against the wall on the westside of Chicago for walking a white girlto the station.
 
Members of theInterpol in Santiago were more jovial.  They said:  “Who would be stupidenough to come to Santiago on a Philippine passport hours after el Presidente’strip is canceled by Manila’s absence of spine?” T’was me, and I am not generally that innocent!  Happily, the village I went to a few hoursout of the city was a stronghold of the assassinated Allende, so I became aninstant hero to the anti-Pinochet crowd, instead.
 
This is all to saythat Pope Francis ascends a pathway rich with tradition that can beembraced.  We became familiar with PedroArrupe’s Jesuits while perusing Aquinas Summa. We had been friendly to Jesuits since, appreciating their work in Micronesia.  It was not long after Gary Bradley, S.J. inSaipan gave up the ghost while lifting the elements of the Eucharist that I surrenderedmy institutional ghost as well.
 
Arrupe, a Spanishathlete and medical practitioner before he took the vows, was one of eightJesuit priests within the A-bomb zone when it dropped in Hiroshima.  He and his Order brothers survived and turnedthe splendid chapel into an emergency haven dealing with the medical andpsychological needs of the survivors.
 
We recall Pope Francisfirst act after the election.  Hereturned to the Cardinals’ hotel on the bus instead of taking the Papallimousine that would have been perfectly his purview.  Not unlike Lee Kuan Yew’s style while guidingthe helms of Singapore living in a two-room apartment rather than a palace or amansion, Pope Francis’ in Buenos Aires followed his saint’s style sans the opulence of a Prince of theChurch characterized elsewhere.
 
Hey, we can say Amen with feelings, again!


 j'aime la vie


Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate.  In all, 
Celebrate!

 
 
 
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