The New Franciscan Pope is Rebuilding the Church for a New Missionary Age

The warmth and brotherly affection now being shared between Christians who have been historically divided - as we choose to cooperate in loving mission to an age which has lost its heart, and its moral compass - are but a sign of things to come. Get ready. We are in for a ride. God still loves the world so much that He still sends His Son (John 3:16) All who bear the name Christian continue His redemptive mission and there is a lot of work to be done.

The Lord who birthed the Church from His wounded side on Golgotha's Hill is purifying her and renewing her by His Spirit - in order to continue his redemptive work until he returns to bring it to completion. He has been raised from the dead and now walks with our feet, builds with our hands and speaks through our words and witness. This is the Dawn of a New Missionary Age. We are all missionaries. The new Franciscan Pope is out recruiting the laborers for the vineyard and demonstrating the message in word and deed. The Lord is preparing the soil and spreading the seed. The New Franciscan Pope is Rebuilding the Church for a New Missionary Age.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - I used the phrase Evangelical Catholics long before it became acceptable, and now, even popular. Way back, when I wrote the first book to actually use phrase, Evangelical Catholic was a controversial term.

A great evangelical protestant champion for the Lord named Chuck Colson wrote the forward to the book. He was a great encouragement to me. Chuck and I both became fodder for anti-catholic Protestants - as well as for Catholics who had an axe to grind of one sort or another.

Sadly, some of the virulent criticisms still circulate in cyberspace. However, they are being overcome by the powerful move toward collaboration among those who all bear the name Christian.

To my dismay, when that book was published, it often was dismissed, disregarded, or made light of by some in the then emerging Catholic intellectual class. Chapter I was entitled Evangelical Catholic: A Contradiction in Terms?

I began with a simple claim:

"I am a Christian. I am a Catholic Christian. I am an evangelical Catholic Christian. To many who read all three claims, they are either contradictory or can only stand together in certain limited configurations. Nevertheless, it is my contention and my experience that not only can I be all three, but each is necessary to define my relationship with Jesus Christ and with His Church as well as my role in the Church's ongoing mission to bring all men and women to salvation in Jesus Christ."

All these years later, I still make the same claim.

In fact, the depth of its meaning has only expanded through my lived experience of decades of collaboration with Christians across the confessional spectrum. It has also been deepened by my theological studies. Fortunately, I am also joined by many who make the same claim that they are Evangelical Catholics.

I am currently writing a new book which examines the claim from the vantage point of twenty five years of lived experience and study - stay tuned. If there are any interested publishers reading this article, contact me. 

In February of 2012, right before the consistory where he would be chosen as the successor of Peter, then Cardinal  Jorge Mario Bergoglio gave an interview to the Vatican Insider. He shared from the heart about his missionary mindset and his love for the poor, in all of their manifestations.  He also sent the signal of what has become what I am calling the New Franciscan papacy.

Below I offer two of the questions and answers. The entire interview is well worth reading as Pope Francis continues serving the universal church and pundits continue to pontificate about his alleged "agenda".

It is a simple agenda,if you want to call it that. Like His namesake, the little poor man of Assisi, this Francis is rebuilding that Church on its foundation stones and calling the Church to recover her first love so she can be fruitful in her vital mission. 

The interview signaled his conviction concerning the holiness and character of Bishops and his insights into the necessary reform of the curia. Any observer of the early stages of the new Franciscan Papacy will see that he is implementing what he signaled.

As with all Popes, the choice of the name he took upon assuming the Chair of Peter is significant. With this Pope, it was particularly prophetic. He took the name of the little poor man of Assisi, Francis. The one to whom the Lord appeared and said "Go and Rebuild my Church which you can see is falling down in ruins." 

That humble servant named Francis Bernadone did what the Lord asked him in the thirteenth century. As a result, both the Church and the world were changed. The Church of Francis of Assisi  was not unlike the Church which Pope Francis serves. The world of Francis of Assisi was not unlike the world into which Pope Francis is called to bring the message of the Gospel in its fullness.

The missionary manner and prophetic actions of Francis of Assisi are a key to understanding the missionary manner and prophetic actions of this new Francis for our time. Here are the questions and responses:
 
What do you make of the Pope's decision to call for a year of faith and his insistence on the new evangelization?

Benedict XVI has insisted on the renewal of faith being a priority and presents faith as a gift that must be passed on, a gift to be offered to others and to be shared as a gratuitous act. It is not a possession, but a mission. This priority indicated by the Pope has a commemorative purpose: through the Year of Faith we remember the gift we have received. And there are three pillars to this: the memory of having been chosen, the memory of the promise that was made to us and the alliance that God has forged with us. We are called to renew this alliance, our belonging to the community of God's faithful.

What does evangelization mean in a context such as that of Latin America? 

The context is that which emerged from the fifth conference of Latin American bishops, held in Aparecida, in 2007. It called us to undertake a continental mission; the entire continent is a missionary state. Plans were and continue to be made, but the paradigmatic aspect remains: all ordinary activities of the Church take place in view of the mission. This signifies very strong tensions between center and periphery, between parish and district. We need to come out of ourselves and head for the periphery.

We need to avoid the spiritual sickness of a Church that is wrapped up in its own world: when a Church becomes like this, it grows sick. It is true that going out onto the street implies the risk of accidents happening, as they would to any ordinary man or woman. But is the Church stays wrapped up in itself, it will age. And if I had to choose between a wounded Church that goes out onto the streets and a sick withdrawn Church, I would definitely choose the first one.

Francis is a prophetic Pope with a profoundly moving love for the poor, in all of their manifestations. That includes much more than economic poverty alone. His talk of going to the peripheries out of love is a beautiful expression of the love of the Father for all men and women.

Every time I hear him speak of going to the peripheries, I am reminded of that beautiful image of the love of the Father as set forth in the parable of the prodigal son. (Luke 15:11-32)

The Father does not wait for the son to arrive, he runs out to meet him. The Good Shepherd does not wait for the lost sheep to return, He goes out to meet them. (Luke 15:4)  Do we live this way.

This is the "love of preference" or "preferential option" which Catholic Social Doctrine expounds upon. In Pope Francis, it is being made visible in the flesh, with a bighearted smile and words of commission to each one of us. It is manifested in everything this Pope does. He speaks through words and deeds. That kind of integrated capacity to speak through symbolic acts is characteristic of prophetic people.

In Francis, we have a missionary Pope, perhaps like few in history. He has done nothing but evangelize from the moment he stepped out onto that balcony at St Peters. His words and his actions have set the tone.  They cannot be separated because he understands the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. We are saved and we are being saved, as integrated human persons. We speak through much more than words.

Pope Francis is leading us all to embrace the missionary moment in which we live. He is calling us to live our lives in the heart of the Church for the sake of the world. He is sending us out in response to the command of Jesus to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. (Mk 16:15, Lk. 14:23, Mt. 28:19)

Jesus Christ is Lord. His salvation is extended to all men and women. The Church is God's plan for the entire world. The early Fathers called her the world reconciled and the world in the course of transfiguration because they understood that the Church is not something but Some-One.

The Church is the Body of Jesus Christ and it is joined to Him as head. He continues to walk the dusty streets of this earth, and goes into the peripheries, when we allow Him to live His life through us.

Through Baptism, we were born into a new relational reality; we now live in the Church for the sake of the world. We are called to love the Church with the affection of sons and daughters because she is our mother. There is no plan B through which He will save this world. He established One Church through which to continue His work until His return. She has undergone both purification and reform many other times throughout her missionary journey, for over two thousand years. Her hull may be battered but she is still the Ark of Salvation.

Church history demonstrates that seasons of purification are usually followed by times of great restoration and triumph for the Church. So it is in our own day. This Church that is called Catholic is not a mere human institution. If it were, it would have shipwrecked long ago.

The Church exists to evangelize and the essential nature of the Church is missionary. The Catholic Church has always taught that every single human being on the face of the earth has a right to hear the liberating Gospel message of Jesus Christ as fully revealed in the heart of His Church. That will be accomplished in this hour by you and me, no matter what our state in life, or specific vocation.

We are all baptized into Christ in order to participate in the saving mission of His Church. However, in order to be able to engage such a missionary task, many Catholic Christians need to be renewed in their own Baptismal faith through a personal and transformational encounter with the Risen Lord. In addition, that encounter with the Risen Jesus Christ needs to be strengthened and secured by solid catechesis, ongoing instruction on how to live as a Christian. This is what is meant by the New Evangelization, as the term is used in the Catholic Church.

This New Evangelization invites each of us to live out our baptismal vocation, completely given over to the work of the Lord, in the heart of the Church, for  the sake of the world. It is meant to bring about an authentic renewal of the Church so that she can then undertake a new missionary outreach to the whole world. Only a Church fully alive in the Lord and filled with His Spirit can carry out such an evangelical mission.

The Church is the Ark, the boat, presided over by the Lord. He is at the helm, steering His redemptive course through time. The Lord of the harvest is calling workers for the New Evangelization and the New Missionary Age. He is sending us out on mission, fishing for men, women and Nations. He will work His saving and redemptive mission in and through us, because we are members of His Mystical Body, the Church.

We are at the beginning of a great resurgence in the Church. I know, many people, some whom I greatly respect, dispute such a claim as naive. There is not one naive bone left in this soon to be sixty year old body. If we look with the eyes of living faith, we can see it.

The message of this Franciscan Pope is precisely what is needed to foment and inspire such a new missionary age. Just when her opponents are ready to count the Church out, the sleeping giant is rising. Along with the needed purification of the Church, the seeds of a new springtime are beginning to sprout.

For example, the fact that what are now called the ecclesial movements are flourishing, new and renewed religious communities are growing, new and renewed Colleges and Universities, desirous of being fully and faithfully Catholic, are flourishing, all point to the work of the Holy Spirit. They are the seedbed of vocations, sending out missionaries into every segment of the fields of this age which are ripe for harvest. There is a growing dynamically orthodox Catholic faith and life being manifested among the lay faithful.

The movement of our Anglican friends into full communion, the growing number of other Christians' coming home to the full communion of the Catholic Church, the movement toward the healing of the division between East and West, are all signs of a resurgent Catholic Church and a new missionary age.

The warmth and brotherly affection now being shared between Christians who have been historically divided - as we choose to cooperate in loving mission to an age which has lost its heart, and its moral compass - are but a sign of things to come. Get ready. We are in for a ride. God still loves the world so much that He still sends His Son (John 3:16) All who bear the name Christian continue His redemptive mission, He walks, talks, and reaches out now, through us. There is a lot of work to be done.

The Lord who birthed the Church from His wounded side on Golgotha's Hill is purifying her and renewing her by His Spirit - in order to continue his redemptive work until he returns to bring it to completion. He has been raised from the dead and now walks with our feet, builds with our hands and speaks through our words and witness. This is the Dawn of a New Missionary Age. We are all missionaries. The new Franciscan Pope is out recruiting the laborers for the vineyard and demonstrating the message in word and deed.

The Lord is preparing the soil and spreading the seed. The New Franciscan Pope is Rebuilding the Church for a New Missionary Age.
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Deacon Keith Fournier is Founder and Chairman of Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance. A married Roman Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, he and his wife Laurine have five grown children and six grandchildren, He serves as the Director of Adult Faith Formation at St. Stephen, Martyr Parish in Chesapeake, VA. He is also a human rights lawyer and public policy advocate.

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