My Response: I agree . It is time for a conversation and mutual blessing! Bridget Mary
….”Meanwhile, the successor to Francis, in addition to continuing ministry focused on those who are marginalized, could demonstrate his papal bona fides as a unifier. He could begin by thanking and embracing ordained women priests, apologizing for their ex-communication, and asking them if he might concelebrate the Eucharist with them as a sign of a new moment of shared leadership. He could apologize to and welcome LGBTQIA+ Catholics as full church members with access to all sacraments including marriage and ordination. He could embrace divorced and remarried people, commending them on their choice to remain part of a large and diverse communion. He could abolish tombstones to the unborn at Catholic parishes. He could assure people who chose abortions that their choices are their own and that they are free to make them in good conscience.
The reset necessary is thorough-going and structural. If it sounds like a dream, it is. But that’s how change happens.
Without an overhaul of structures from a hierarchical to an egalitarian church, dreams of synodality cannot come true. As the Synod’s Final Document demonstrated, the hard issues that face an institution poisoned by prejudice and riven by sexual abuse need more changes than were embraced by Francis at the Synod. But it was a start.
Millions of people prayed for Pope Francis in his last month, making him a unifying symbol not as a pope but as a person dealing with life’s inevitable end. I admire that he did it his way. He seemed to set aside his doctors’ orders of two months of complete repose in favor of one last Holy Thursday visit to prisoners, public blessings through labored breathing, and a final tour around Saint Peter’s Square in the Popemobile to greet his people.
I suspect that Francis knew that his days were numbered—all of ours are—and made his own choices. In that sense, he was much like women who want to be priests, or people who choose to have abortions, or those who love people of the same sex, or immigrants choosing another country. To be human is to choose. I haven’t heard anyone critique his choices. Let it be a lesson to the judgmental as we reset our communal moral compass.
Pluses and minuses notwithstanding, Francis exited the earthly orbit at a time when moral leadership is at a premium. In his February 10, 2025 letter to the United States Catholic Bishops supporting immigrants and refugees, he insisted on “the dignity of every human being, without exception.” A massive Catholic reset would hasten that day. “
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