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Journalist and Vatican analyst reflects on ‘Papacy of Francis’
By LINDA M. LINONIS
boardman
With wit and enthusiasm, John Allen engaged the 288 people who attended the lecture sponsored by the First Friday Club of Greater Youngstown.
The program took place Thursday at Antone’s Banquet Center.
Allen, associate editor of the Boston Globe and senior Vatican analyst for CNN, spoke on “The Papacy of Francis.” The speaker addressed the “Francis effect” and the three pillars of his papacy. “He is the most popular religious leader on the planet and the most popular leader in the world,” Allen said. That claim could be supported by the pope’s 12 million Twitter followers. “Only Lady Gaga has more,” Allen said.
The pope’s approval rating is the envy of politicians. Allen said 80 percent of Americans “approve” of the pope while 91 percent of American Catholics feel that way. “That’s amazing in the divided Church in America,” he said.
Allen said Pope Francis set the tone of his papacy early on. He visited Brazil in July 2013, just a few months after a papal enclave elected him pope March 13 after the resignation of Pope Benedict on Feb. 28. He participated in World Youth Day, Allen said, but also visited a slum and a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
Allen summarized Francis’ papacy into three pillars. “Leaders in service” is the example he set. “He reframed the impression of Catholic leadership,” Allen said. “Leadership and symbols of authority ... think not about power and privilege but in terms of service.”
Secondly, the “pope is on a mission.” He wants Church leaders to get out of the “sacristy and into the streets where real people live.”
The pope, Allen said, hosted three homeless men and their dog, Marley, to share in his birthday breakfast and invited a teen with Down syndrome to ride in his popemobile.
“Mercy as a core Christian value” is the third pillar. Allen predicted that the often-uttered phrase by Pope Franics ... “the Lord never tires of forgiving, it is we who get tired of asking,” will be the watchwords of his papacy. He wants the world to “hear, see and taste the Church’s mercy.” Allen said the pope is aware of the diversity in the Catholic Church but believes the foundation will bring it together to be the “field hospital of the world.”