A FAILED FRANCIS EFFECT?

In the early days of his Pontificate, Vatican watchers predicted that the new Pope’s humility and charisma would prompt a “Francis effect” — bringing disaffected Catholics back to a Church that would no longer seem so forbidding and cold. 

Now, almost four years later, the same predictions continue. 

To a certain extent, things have changed.
Perceptions of the Papacy itself seem much more positive.  Clearly, Pope Francis is far more popular than his predecessor. Sixty-three percent of American Catholics approve of him, especially on account of the fact that he has placed great emphasis on outreach to marginalized and disaffected Catholics.

Still, weekly Mass attendance by American Catholics hovers at an average of about 22 per cent.

In 2008, 50 percent of Millennials reported receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday, and 46 percent said they made some sacrifice beyond abstaining from meat on Fridays. Eight years later, only 41 percent reported receiving ashes and only 36 percent said they made an extra sacrifice, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. 

In spite of Francis’ personal popularity, young people continue to drift away from the Church in large numbers.

And so, some ask why the Pope’s popularity has not yet re-invigorated the Church.

I believe the expectations were unrealistic.  The Church's very structure and tradition tend to make it sluggish and impervious to attempts at renewal and reform.  People are naturally loathe to change of any sort, especially when change affects values and beliefs with which they identify themselves.

Ultra-conservative voices continue to incite internal struggles over liturgy and ritual as well as over pastoral initiatives which are seen to threaten long held doctrinal and theological tenets.

The Church, by virtue of the Gospel it proclaims, necessarily finds itself in opposition to the secularism and materialism so prevalent in society today. 

Catholics are frustrated by a Church which appears to give them little incentive to practice the Faith.  They are frustrated by a Church that willfully refuses to acknowledge that it is out of touch with the challenges they face on a daily basis, with a Church that is cold and indifferent to their suffering, and with a Church more interested in preserving baroque rituals than with ministering to real people with real needs.

It is unfair to blame Francis for not effecting such a wished for renewal.  

What is reassuring and what is hopeful is that the Holy Father has gotten things started, has begun to awaken some in the hierarchy to rediscover the true mission of the Church to be the living presence of the Lord’s Redemptive Love in the world.  The Church has been asleep to this mission for centuries.  It will take a long time, a long effort, and more than just one Pope to awaken it from its slumber.