Prelate, an expert on the papacy, discusses Pope Francis’s hopes during live-streamed event
The B.C. Catholic
Audiences in Vancouver and Victoria tuned in to the first-ever live streaming of an event at St. Mark’s College.
About 240 people filled St. Mark’s chapel and dozens more online March 31 heard Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, give a keynote address about Pope Francis and the direction of the Church.
“I want to affirm something that I believe many in the popular media miss: Pope Francis puts Jesus Christ and the Gospel before anything else in his life and in his teaching,” said Archbishop Miller.
“For him, to live the Gospel simply and radically is central to any reform in the Church.”
Archbishop Miller, an expert on the papacy, was the special guest for the Catholic college’s annual Carr Lecture. The public event is named after Father Henry Carr, CSB, who founded the college some 60 years ago. He was, like Pope Francis, a “pioneer” of sorts, the archbishop said.
“In keeping with his own Latin American and I daresay Jesuit spiritual roots, the Pope is showing us that the way of the Church today and in the future is the path of Gospel radicalism and simplicity,” said Archbishop Miller.
That “Gospel radicalism” is first of all a call for Catholics to nurture their personal relationships with Jesus.
“He puts Christ and friendship with Him as the centre of the Church’s life,” Archbishop Miller said. The Pope also dreams of a Church that is both poor and for the poor.
“The Church must be poor in imitation of her founder. By making Himself poor, as we read in St. Paul, Jesus did not seek poverty for its own sake, but so that by His poverty, we might become rich.”
The Pope made that message clear when, for example, he chose to live in a Vatican guesthouse instead of the apostolic palace.
The archbishop said the Holy Father also envisions the Church like a field hospital.
“Field hospital staff are first called to treat major wounds, working desperately to stop the bleeding. People are spiritually, gravely, wounded. They are alienated from God. They are stuck in spiritual worldliness. They are adrift in an abyss with no sense of direction or purpose. They need healing, and they need that healing fast.”
Only after their serious wounds are healed can they hope to follow all the Church’s moral teachings.
“He doesn’t want the Church to be locked up in what he calls the small things. The most important thing is the first proclamation about being saved in Christ.”
When the media or other influencers choose to focus only on moral teachings, they “obscure” that essential message.
“Before a person can understand and live the Church’s moral teaching, that person must first grasp that he or she has been gazed upon and loved by a merciful God.”
Pope Francis is also implementing some institutional changes, Archbishop Miller said. He promotes collegiality between bishops and is slowly reforming the Roman curia.
In an interview after the event, Father Robert Allore, SJ, pointed out that some of Pope Francis’s traits or emphases have a Jesuit flavour.
“While Francis is capable of using very plain language, he’s clearly a well-formed individual. He’s very intelligent. He’s clearly a man who has been astutely trained,” said the Jesuit pastor of St. Mark’s Parish.
He added that Jesuits learn to encounter God personally through the spiritual exercises written by their founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola.
“Part of the Jesuit spiritual tradition is that one tries to find oneself on a journey with Christ,” he said. “That personal relationship is supported in the way Jesuits are formed.”
Florence Allaye-Chan, the college’s advancement coordinator, said between 30 and 33 people watched the speech live online.
“We wanted to have this available at no charge so people have information and can be engaged in topics related to Catholicism, faith, and culture.”
Viewers tuned in from parish halls or homes across the Lower Mainland and the Diocese of Victoria.
Due to some technical glitches, other eager viewers, including Bishop Mark Hagemoen of Mackenzie-Fort Smith, were unable to connect. Allaye-Chan plans to iron those issues out and offer online viewings of other St. Mark’s events in the future.
The hour-long Carr lecture was recorded and can be viewed anytime on YouTube under Saint Mark’s College (Vancouver).
