The Church of Francis- 'Going back to the roots and walking slowly at the pace of the people' : An Interview with Paulo Suess

http://iglesiadescalza.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-church-of-francis-going-back-to.html

"Mission, participation, proximity to the poor, dialogue, structures at the service of the people of God -- these are the pastoral concepts being launched again by Pope Francis," the theologian states.

"Pope Francis' theology is missionary, pastoral and spiritual, guided by proximity to the poor at the various peripheries of the world -- geographical, social, cultural and existential peripheries," states Paulo Suess in an interview granted to IHU On-Line via e-mail. For him, Francis' most important speeches "are his gestures", so that "his trip to Lampedusa was more important than his encyclical Lumen Fidei...His methodology of seeing and discerning reality before making speeches and acting, could now be taken up again by the bishops' conferences all over the continent."

In the following interview, Suess assesses the speeches given by the Pope during his visit to Brazil and emphasizes that the message to the Brazilian bishops is "a retelling of the Aparecida document...Beginning with the story of the two disciples of Emmaus who are fleeing Jerusalem and the 'bareness' of God, Francis makes an interpretation of the Exodus from the Church, examines the reasons for it, to then give the message to the shepherds. 'Are we a Church that's capable of bringing the people who are fleeing back to Jerusalem, where are our roots are? Are we still able to speak of these roots in a way that will revive a sense of wonder at their beauty? What is more lofty than the love revealed in Jerusalem? Nothing is more lofty than the abasement of the Cross, since there we truly approach the height of love!'"