Gongol.com Archives: April 2025
April 21, 2025
Pope Francis and movement in the right direction
Anyone who has given the matter any serious consideration can certainly come up with some way in which Pope Francis disappointed them in his time as Pontiff. It comes with the territory; the Pope, whoever he might be, is one of the world's most prominent voices on moral questions, and yet he remains a human being. It creates a tension between the aspiration towards the divine and the fallibility of human nature that inescapably highlights the shortcomings more than for almost anyone else on Earth. ■ With the Pope, as with any other person, we are best served by assessing their direction rather than their destination. The question that counts is not, "Did he manage to perfect the Catholic Church?", for that is an unattainable goal. If humans are involved, it cannot be perfected. ■ The question that does count is, "Was he moving in a good direction?". Francis himself offered a gentle test of self-assessment in this regard in his encyclical, "Fratelli Tutti": "Each day we have to decide whether to be Good Samaritans or indifferent bystanders." ■ One doesn't need to be Catholic, Christian, or even religious at all to appreciate that the parable of the Good Samaritan is about making a right choice in light of the circumstances before you, knowing that the circumstances will change with each step along the path. ■ The Good Samaritan doesn't make things perfect, but he does right by the victim he discovers in the moment, makes a provision to continue the victim's care, and promises to look in on the victim again when he returns. He makes a series of choices in pursuit of doing right, which is better than remaining indifferent. ■ Pope Francis was never going to be perfect, nor was he going to make every right choice. But he made a number of prominent choices that were visible, important, and directionally right. Over the last 12 years, the world could have done far worse.
