It is not because Pope Francis is moving in the desired direction that his Church, that stubborn old mule, will be keen to follow him!
Just because the Pope wants it doesn’t mean the Pope can.
He is the head of the church, be it! But does the body always do what the head demands?
That’s what I said to myself as I listened to the brave François’ formal apologies on behalf of his two-thousand-year-old institution…
Certain malcontents in the Church will surely tell themselves that this “progressive” Pope is no more eternal than any other and that perhaps they will like the next one better!
Who can predict the outcome of the next conclave?
Jesuit
Is it a coincidence that the first pope to sympathize with the lot reserved for Native Americans by the Canadian regime instituted by John A. Macdonald, which employed part-Catholic labor, is also the first Jesuit pope?
The Jesuits certainly need not be ashamed of their track record in New France.
They are often the ones who immersed themselves in the indigenous cultures they discovered and even wrote the first dictionaries.
The Catholic Church has always been able to blend with local cultures in all corners of the world without abolishing them.
I remember a Christmas festival among the Mayans where the ancient deities, including the jaguar, were represented… something unimaginable among Protestants!
In fact, banishing the Jesuits was one of the first decisions made by the British conquerors here!
To proceed
If the Pope does not want his first tentative steps toward First Nations reconciliation to be his last, he must ensure that his policies outlast him.
Not only will he open up the Vatican archives to unravel the dark side of history, will he also have the tact to appoint a few bishops or archbishops among First Nations priests?
