Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and head of the Doctrine of Faith at the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), offers readers of Exaudi his weekly article.

FACTS

In recent days, Pope Francis’ health has deteriorated. We do not wish it, but the danger of death is not excluded, as his doctors have said. Everyone in the Church has intensified our prayers for his recovery and for him to continue the mission that the Holy Spirit has entrusted to him. Non-believers have also expressed their solidarity with the moment he is living. However, when his death occurs, which we hope will not be soon, the Church continues, because it is not one person’s work but God’s.

For some time now, there has been no shortage of clerics who ask God for the end of the ministry of this Pope. Some have not recognized him as Peter’s legitimate successor. Others are not satisfied with his doctrinal and pastoral insistence, as if he had departed from Tradition; they criticize the social dimension of his teaching as if it should be reduced to praying and preaching a Gospel without any impact on the life and situations that humanity is experiencing. They are not satisfied with his giving more space to women in key positions of pastoral government, his insistence on merciful and liberating love for the poor, his concern for the care of the “common home,” his openness to other religions and religious traditions, his promotion of ecclesial synodality, etc. Many of these critics have not accepted the renewal promoted since the Second Vatican Council.

Criticism of the popes is nothing new. As far back as I can remember, there has been criticism of Pope Pius XII, as if he had not defended the Jews from Nazi extermination, which is false; Against Pope John XXIII, for initiating the renewal of the Church, since they wanted us to continue in the 16th century with Trent; against Pope Paul VI, for promoting all the renewal that the Council had proposed; against John Paul I, for the simplicity of the few speeches he gave; against John Paul II, for his resistance to Marxist exaggerations of a certain liberation theology of those times; against Benedict XVI, for insisting on fundamental values ​​of Christianity and as if he did not address current social problems, which is inaccurate. These critics have a very restricted vision and some do not know the depth and timeliness of the teaching of these Popes, nor of their way of being and acting. I also had some mistrust when they elected Pope Francis, because I knew some details of his personality, a bit dry, distant and reserved, things that his ministry made him change completely. It is the Holy Spirit who guides his Church, and we must trust that He directs it according to the needs of the moment.

ENLIGHTENMENT

First, we have the powerful statement of Jesus: “I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of the abyss will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:18-19). This gives us the certainty and the guarantee that no power, not even the death of a Pope, will put an end to the Church; not even our own sins and limitations.

On November 24, 2013, a few months after being elected, Pope Francis wanted to continue the process of reviewing the way he exercises his ministry. He wrote: “I must think about a conversion of the papacy. It is my duty, as Bishop of Rome, to be open to suggestions that may lead to an exercise of my ministry that makes it more faithful to the meaning that Jesus Christ wanted to give it and to the current needs of evangelization. Pope John Paul II asked that he be helped to find ‘a form of the exercise of the primacy which, without in any way renouncing the essential nature of its mission, is open to a new situation’. We have made little progress in this regard” (EG 32).

The persons and styles of each Pope change, but not their identity and mission, as the Second Vatican Council says in its Constitution on the Church: “The Roman Pontiff has over the Church, by virtue of his office as Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the whole Church, full, supreme, and universal power, which he can always freely exercise… The Lord appointed Simon alone as the rock and bearer of the keys of the Church (Mt 16:18-19) and made him pastor of his entire flock (Jn 21:15 ff)” (LG 22). “The Roman Pontiff, as successor of Peter, is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity, both of the bishops and of the multitude of the faithful” (LG 23).

ACTIONS

Let us continue to pray for the full recovery of Pope Francis, but let us not be distressed; the Church belongs to Jesus Christ and is permanently guided by his Holy Spirit. Let us remain united and firm around Pope Francis.