Church, Interrupted

January 25, 2021
British historian Cornwell (A Pontiff in Winter) offers a comprehensive and evenhanded appraisal of the first seven years of Pope Francis’s papacy. The book opens with the issues facing Francis at his election, including a “dysfunctional Church” with shrinking numbers of active members and the ongoing influence of the Benedictine tradition in Rome. Exploring Francis’s early actions to combat corrosive gossip and institute disruptive changes, Cromwell praises the pope’s ability to “hold opposites in tension” with “bold prudence” as he reorients the Church toward serving the poor. Cornwell also addresses the difficulties Francis has encountered with the sex abuse scandal (specifically lagging reforms in Chile). Francis, unlike his predecessors, has pushed for greater interfaith dialogue, especially with Jews, and weathered criticism from conservative Catholics on a variety of issues, such as his stance on allowing communion for remarried Catholics and his Laudato Si encyclical addressing environmental degradation. Cornwell optimistically considers how lasting the “Francis effect” will be, comparing him favorably to seventh-century pope Gregory the Great, whose “readiness to abase himself, confess his mistakes, his ignorance, his fallibility, and sinfulness... shook up the office of the papacy with reverberations right down to the twenty-first century.” This thoughtful consideration of Francis’s early actions and influence will appeal to anyone interested in the challenges facing the Catholic church in the contemporary era.

January 15, 2021
A contextual examination of Pope Francis and his effect on the church. Cornwell, a Vanity Fair contributor and author of numerous books on Catholicism, provides a comprehensive view of the current papacy through a variety of issues, crises, and achievements. As the author notes, "I have focused on a consistent feature of his papacy: a capacity to hold opposites in tension, his many paradoxes giving rise to disruption." Among other topics, Cornwell explores Francis' attacks on Vatican gossip and "fake news," his reforms of the church's finances, and his accepting attitude toward other faith traditions. His liberalizing tendencies do not always win him acclaim from reformers, however, who expect him to do more. For example, regarding the pope's views on women, "Francis would be criticized every day of his pontificate for failing to bring women forward in the Church; but the extent of his interruption was unprecedented. His initiatives would offer a significant alteration and hope for the future." Cornwell views Francis in the context of his struggles against what many believe to be an ossified institution, and he reports on his papacy in a largely positive manner. He does focus a few chapters on Francis' most regrettable moments, namely his mishandling of the global sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in recent decades. Even here, however, Cornwell's tendency is to excuse the pontiff's missteps. Much of the narrative focuses on Francis' particularly pastoral approach to his role and to Catholicism. His emphasis on mercy is manifested in his nonjudgmental statements about homosexuality, his call for an easier way forward for divorced and remarried Catholics, and his dedication to fighting poverty. Cornwell's study is useful and wide-ranging but largely unobjective, displaying Francis as a great yet humble man with much of the world poised against him. An in-depth, less-than-critical study of the current pope.

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