The New Pope of the ...

Thinking of the next Pope: He must be a man who,

from the contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ,

helps the Church to go out to the existential peripheries,

that helps her to be the fruitful mother,

who gains life from “the sweet and comforting joy of evangelizing.”

Of the new Springtime.

I thought again last night: "This is new.  This is completely novel...  Pope Benedict signaled the change, prepared the Church for it."  The papacy is changing - not going away - but it is changing.  Paul VI sold the tiara, and gradually the trappings of an extinct 'monarchical-style' system have been set aside.  Paul VI became the first 'Pilgrim Pope' travelling extensively, to evangelize and minister.  We have witnessed it - watched it happen over the decades.  Yet the office is held in even higher esteem today, continuing to retain it's supreme authority - spiritually, morally and temporally.  Why else would International media stop to document the change from Benedict to Francis?

It seems to me it is a mystery unfolding in our day.  Perhaps I'm overreacting?  Maybe I'm mistaken?  At any rate, I came across the following, the address Cardinal Bergoglio made to the pre-conclave General Congregation Cardinals.  Perhaps it helps us to understand better the new Pope and how he is officiating...

Evangelizing implies Apostolic Zeal 

1. - Evangelizing pre-supposes a desire in the Church to come out of herself. The Church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual currents, and of all misery. 

2. - When the Church does not come out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential and then gets sick. (cf. The deformed woman of the Gospel). The evils that, over time, happen in ecclesial institutions have their root in self-referentiality and a kind of theological narcissism. In Revelation, Jesus says that he is at the door and knocks. Obviously, the text refers to his knocking from the outside in order to enter but I think about the times in which Jesus knocks from within so that we will let him come out. The self-referential Church keeps Jesus Christ within herself and does not let him out.

3. - When the Church is self-referential, inadvertently, she believes she has her own light; she ceases to be the mysterium lunae and gives way to that very serious evil, spiritual worldliness (which according to De Lubac, is the worst evil that can befall the Church). It lives to give glory only to one another.

Put simply, there are two images of the Church: Church which evangelizes and comes out of herself, the Dei Verbum religiose audiens et fidente proclamans; and the worldly Church, living within herself, of herself, for herself. This should shed light on the possible changes and reforms which must be done for the salvation of souls.

4. - Thinking of the next Pope: He must be a man who, from the contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ, helps the Church to go out to the existential peripheries, that helps her to be the fruitful mother, who gains life from “the sweet and comforting joy of evangelizing.” - Source