Pope Francis is both reformist and status quoits
As the new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio revealed himself to the faithful at St Peter's Square after white smoke wafted out of the chimney of Sistine Chapel, he had already secured several firsts to his credit. The former Bishop of Buenos Aires is the first non-European Pope in the modern era; he is the first Pope to hail from latin America, the first Jesuit to hold the revered post; and he is also the first to take on the name ‘Francis’ after St Francis of Assisi. That is not all. During the course of his first public appearance itself, Pope Francis I broke with tradition — not once but twice — as he refused to stand upon a pedestal that would elevate him above the other Cardinals who stood by him. Instead, he chose to “stay down here”, and surprised many again when he asked the people to pray for him first, before he blessed the crowd. On both the occasions that the newly named Pope steered away from convention, he appeared to strengthen his image as a humble pastor, not given to the pomp of the Vatican, but instead, committed to serving his people — much like his namesake St Francis of Assisi who chose to live in poverty and who remains one of the most beloved figures in Catholic history even though he was never ordained into Catholic priesthood.
While these early signs are no doubt heartening, it is still too early to predict if Pope Francis will be the force of reform that the Catholic Church desperately needs to remain relevant. One of the most important challenges before Pope Francis will be to bring the faithful back to the fold. Particularly in the Western world, which has traditionally been the heart of Christendom, the Catholic Church has lost much of its following as an increasing number of people have been moving away from institutionalised religion. Much of this problem is of the Church's own making. For instance, in recent years, the Roman Catholic Church has been associated with sex abuse scandals across the world and rampant corruption within the Vatican. In fact, Pope Francis's predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had come under much criticism for his alleged efforts to overlook sexual assaults that priests had committed on children. Yet, it remains unclear if Pope Francis will take up the kind of zero tolerance policy against such crimes as many would want him to.
Similarly, it is also to be seen if Pope Francis will respond to the reformist within him — a hallmark of Jesuit priests — and introduce changes in the Catholic Church's policies towards key social issues such as contraception, abortion and gay rights. For example, Pope Francis had earlier said that contraceptives could be used to prevent the spread of AIDS, but has stayed away from endorsing the use of contraceptives in general, in keeping with official Church policy. Moreover, he has also consistently taken a hard line against gay rights and has in fact fought a running battle against the Argentine Government for supporting a gay marriage Bill which he called “an attempt to destroy God's plan”. In effect, Pope Francis signals ‘continuation', with some ‘change', for the Catholic Church. The latter is true because he has the potential for reform. Only time will tell if it will be his conservative or reformist side that will define his legacy as the 266th Pontiff.