Thomas Peters
wrote recently that “the soul of [the Franciscan] papacy is up for grabs.” If that’s true, it’s a gambit long in the making, but perhaps only recently matured enough to identify. With the middle clearing fast, and with “dissenting Catholics” poised to snag leadership of both Christianity’s evangelical and spiritual traditions, the “soul of the papacy” proxies for something far greater—namely, possession of the Church herself.
While much truth shines through Peters’s claim, the ultimatum suggested is misleading. We should always, of course, “put our money where our mouth is [...] show our compassion for the poor with concrete acts [...] show how much we care that we are catholic and how much that reality forms who we are and inspires what we do.” As Peters says, “That’s the choice we face in 2014 and always.” And there’s nothing to quibble with, here.
But that somehow the perennial Christian struggle includes laying claim to the Church itself is, I think, more than a bit alarming. In fact, the very idea that someone should “own” the Church stands at odds with Francis’s entire program. I can’t help but wonder if the realization proposed above is really just another manifestation of the abiding urge to remove the Bishop of Rome from the mix once and for all. Francis has been thoroughly assimilated by those for whom toleration is the highest virtue; he has also been roundly rejected by those who praise fierce competition as the cornerstone of prosperity. In a word, the Holy Father has been reduced to a non-factor by those who pay most attention to him. And to the unaffected middle, such a triumph has been communicated on the cover of TIME.