POPE FRANCIS' CONFUSING INCONSISTENCIES

Recently, Pope Francis met with the editorial staff of Civilta Cattolica, to celebrate the publication of the 4,000th issue of the Jesuit journal.

Civilta Cattolica has long been regarded as a semi-official Vatican publication, because its contents are approved in advance by the Holy See. The journal has gained added influence under Pope Francis, with its editor, Father Antonio Spadaro, serving as one of the Pope’s closest advisers.

The Pope alluded to this relationship, saying that the tie to the Roman Pontiff “has always been an essential feature of your journal.” He then made an apparent reference to current controversies in the Church:

"You are in the barque of St. Peter. At times in history – today as before – it may be buffeted by the waves, and we should not be surprised by this. But even the very sailors called to row in the barque of Peter can row in the opposite direction. It has always happened."

The current issue of Civilta Cattolica features an essay by the deputy editor, Father Giancarlo Pani, in which he questions about the teaching of St. John Paul II that women can never be ordained to the priesthood.

Although the essay does not directly advance the argument that women could be ordained, the author questions whether the statement by St. John Paul II in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is an authoritative and binding statement of the Church magisterium. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) answered that question in 1995, stating plainly that the papal teaching was definitive and should be “considered as belonging to the deposit of the faith.” Nevertheless Father Pani reopens that question.

Citing “tensions” between the Church’s teaching and the work of theologians, the author says that the 1995 statement from the CDF “does not take into account the developments that the presence of woman in the family and in society has undergone in the 21st century.” He says that there is “unease among those who fail to understand how the exclusion of woman from the Church’s ministry can coexist with the affirmation and appreciation of her equal dignity.”

“One cannot always resort to the past,” the article argues, calling for a new approach to the issue. Father Pani closes with the observation that Pope Francis has shown that he will not “limit himself to what is already known.”

Pope Francis himself has said that the teaching of St. John Paul II on the impossibility of ordaining women is “the last clear word... and this holds.”

I have previously written that Pope Francis, God love him, often confuses me about so many things he says and does. 

Here once again, the Holy Father praises the editorial staff of a Jesuit journal which publishes an essay which clearly opens for further didebate a Catholic doctrine and practice which Francis himself has already pronounced the final word on the subject.

I find the inconsistencies in this Pope confusing indeed.  Still, I wonder if this is not the working of the Holy Spirit in some mysterious way nudging the institutional Church toward the future in a series of halting steps. 

So, I will do what I always do when I find myself in these perplexing situations, that is, praying to the Holy Spirit to guide the Church, to inspire our Holy Father and all the Bishops,  and to encourage all of us to embrace, guard and protect our Catholic Faith, truly the greatest treasure in our lives.