Pope Francis’ second year the one to watch

At the time of writing this column the Church and the world are commemorating the first year of Pope Francis’ pontificate. The bulk of that commemoration is celebratory but that approach is far from unanimous. While they have been relatively quiet about it up until recently, some of the more conservative elements within the Church are clearly unhappy with the Holy Father, with their Holy Father. I say “their” because if even the most reactionary of Catholicism is to mean anything it has to accept papal authority. Roman Catholicism implodes and is irrational without it.

I don’t share their complaints but that doesn’t mean I can ignore them. Like it or not, there are many traditional and orthodox Catholics who have been faithful and loyal through bad times as well as good and now feel as if their dedication has been rejected. They’d do well, of course, to recall the prodigal son and his brother’s complaints. Understandable but not desirable.

Understandable? Oh yes. It’s not been an easy time for serious Catholics since the 1960s. Many of their cultural assumptions and some of their fundamental beliefs have been challenged and marginalized. Until the late 1980s there was a cloud of confusion and instability around the Church, with too many individual bishops and even priests allowed to extend their personal opinions into parish policy