The Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio Essay

The Pope is the head of the Church: he represents the ultimate religious authority. However, as a Bishop of Rome, the Pope is also in command of certain secular affairs, including some military aspects. Certainly, the Pope is a link between the earthly and the divine realms. Problems arise when the imperfect world the Pope physically lives in interferes with his heavenly objectives. Taking Pope Gregory I as an example, I am going to look at his letters to analyze how he reconciled his political and spiritual goals, whether he valued one category over the other, and how he justified it.

He wrote, “To suffer and to endure, therefore is the lot of humanity” (Novarum, 5). He argues that as consequence to sin, man must suffer in life therefore the unequal fortunes are a norm. Pope Leo XII also states, “…unequal fortune is a necessary result of unequal condition,” and that it is “…far from being disadvantageous,” (Novarum, 5). Man is equipped with different skill sets and this difference in capacities is essential for success in business. This provided a solid theological foundation for capitalism; capitalism’s success depended on the different working capacities of

On March 13, 2013 white smoke ushered in a new era within the Roman Catholic Church. For the first time in its history, a Pope from the Americas was chosen to lead. It was expected that the newly elected American Pope, who called himself Francis after St. Francis of Assisi, would help restore the Catholic Church’s reputation, reform the clerical bureaucracy, and reinvigorate Catholic participation. In the first few months of his papacy, that is exactly what he did.

In the United States, there has often been debate over whether the U.S. Constitution is a “living constitution.” A “living constitution” is the idea that the interpretation of constitutional phrases should take into account the contemporaneous society. In other words, practices and traditions of the government have the ability to change and transform over time in accordance with the changes in society. Similarly, there has often been debate in the religious community as to whether the practices and traditions of the church have the ability to change and transform in order to better suit the needs of its constituents. Two Popes in the Roman Catholic church, Pope Francis and Pope Pius IX, have published documents with opposing viewpoints about the church’s ability to change and transform over time. The aforementioned documents also highlight other issues commonly debated within the church. Ultimately, Pope Francis favors a more progressive church, that is opento change, while Pope Pius IX favors a church with more rigid guidelines that follow traditional practices.

He further explained that “the faithful ought not to think that just because priests preside over Mass that they are more important than the people who make up the church itself” (USA Today). Pope Francis is pushing for these reforms in the church because he believes that some of the old traditions in the church are incorrect and immoral and that something needs to change for the better.

If we travel back to the year 1500, the Church (what we now call the Roman Catholic Church) was very powerful both politically and spiritually in Western Europe. For some time the Church was seen as an institution weighed down by internal power struggles. Popes and Cardinals often lived more like kings than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed political as well as spiritual power. They commanded armies, made political alliances and enemies, and, sometimes, even waged war.

The Catholic Church is the oldest major religion in the Western world. Littered with peace, love, and humility, along with violence, turmoil, and controversy this institution has seen, heard, led, and had influence over the majority of everything and everybody that there was in the last two millennia. This has included ordinary people, Kings, Queens, Generals, Nobleman, Royalty, and everything in between, and has endured since the beginning of the modern era, Anno Domini. They great spiritual and monetary machine created a powerful reign over the entire world’s Catholics, and remains so to this day. For the purpose of background for my visit to a Catholic Church, being Presbyterian, I did historical research before I visited. I

St. Francis of Assisi was born in Umbria in the year 1182. He was a child every father hoped for, he was filled with life, a determined and courageous individual. He was gifted with rather good looks, qualities that attracted friends and a gift of leadership. His father was an extremely wealthy merchant in Assisi. But this son, his favourite, was the one who broke Peter Bernardone’s heart. The boy turned on his father, and in a vicious event that eventually resulted into a public scene. St. Francis of Assisi stepped away from his father, his business and left his father in a state of immense emotional suffering.

Nonetheless, anti- Catholicism still exists in different ways in modern times. While there are no longer legal prejudices that bar Catholics from holding government positions, the rhetoric still exists in every day culture. There are still individuals who are misled concerning Catholic doctrine. It is not considered inappropriate to make fun of Roman Catholic beliefs, unlike it is considered taboo to make fun of Jewish customs. For any type of insensitivity, this lies in the lack of understanding that many individuals have regarding what is truth and what is fiction and the false foundation that much of this rhetoric stands upon. For centuries Protestants were misled by the beliefs that a Catholic influence in America would introduce papal control. Today, this belief is largely overshadowed by generalized misinformation, rather than fear of domination. The government has taken measures to prevent righteous arson from fanatical groups, an improvement from the 1800’s, where the burning of Catholic churches and convents was rampant. Perhaps one aspect that has changed drastically since early American times is the amount of news media given to the pope. Currently Pope Francis is a world renowned icon who is giving a positive outlook to Catholicism with his “common man” to his homily and interaction. Pope Francis is dispelling the hierarchical stigma attached to the Catholic Church, which as illustrated, was the source of discrimination and oppression for Catholics

Despite the age of these systems, the Catholic Church continues to operate close to them, similar to when they were adopted. The misunderstanding and prejudice towards these systems cause many people to adopt anti-Catholic beliefs for contemporary issues in America. The democratic political system in America clashes with the hierarchical lineage that the Catholic Church possesses. The problem arises when anti-Catholics claim that Catholics are un-American because they follow a hierarchy, rather than the “American” system of democracy. The democratic system allows the people to vote for their leader to govern them, however, the Catholic leader, the Pope, is not chosen by the people of the Catholic Church. Un-American criticism continues with the debates and movements on Sexism and Feminism. As women’s roles are changed, the Catholic Church is keeping true to its origins by keeping the governing body, the priesthood, bishops, Cardinals, and the Pope, a completely male role. The Church is criticized by many as being sexist and by that, un-American, for not allowing ordination for women. “Many Americans / view the church’s ban on women’s ordination largely in terms of democratic principles, or ‘rights’ and representation’” (Martin). Anti-Catholics throw up these accusations of sexism without contemplating the true role of women in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis said in an interview “’Look, in the Church women are more important than men, because the church is a woman / The Church is the bride of Jesus Christ. And the Madonna is more important that popes and bishops and priests’” (Ruiz). This governing structure, as well as other beliefs of the Catholic Church, seem confusing or silly to post-enlightenment ideas. As human philosophy has developed after the Enlightenment, the Church has kept the doctrine the same. This has not caused the anti-Catholic community to criticize

Present day with President Trump, Catholics again are ready to step in if President Trump does something similar as President Obama had done during his years in office. In actuality the Catholic Church isn’t stepping in to help the GOP from crumbling, they are aware of the

On March 13,2013, at the age of 76, Jorge Bergoglio was named the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church becoming not only the first citizen from the Americas but the first non-European and first Jesuit priest to be named pope. before Pope francis was named pope he was not widely known but when he was appointed the role of pope stories of his humility quickly picked up, for example when Pope francis would choose to live in a simple two room apartment rather than the luxurious papal accommodations in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

I would like to compare/contrast Pope Francis vs. Pope Benedict XVI. During his first year in office, Pope Francis has become one of the world’s greatest social innovators. Many have celebrated Pope Francis as a spiritual leader, diplomat, and a politician. Pope Francis is a leader to start something new by launching a global campaign against hunger. Using social media, such as YouTube, Pope Francis sent his message out to elect a day, December 10th, for a world-wide rally. Additionally, Pope Francis is known for sending out tweets @Pontifex. By the use of social media, the Pope has captured attention all across the globe. Take for instance the time Pope Francis washed the feet of Muslim women in prison. Bloggers went wild with photos that

"Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Honorable members of the Congress, dear friends…” so begins Pope Francis’ speech addressing a joint session of Congress. Formally addressing his audience to begin his speech, and acknowledging the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” he received warm applause from the congress-people. The Pope’s intro then calls those listening to our shared responsibility for the common good, therefore setting up the rest of his speech nicely. From this introduction, the rest of the speech will talk about the responsibilities of those who lead our great nations. Throughout the rest of the speech, one can easily analyze the speaker, with plenty of content. Listening to the Pope speak, one can find portions he

The Papacy is the office of the Pope. The word pope comes from the Latin form of the word “Papa” which means father. The office of the Pope or rather the papacy is responsible for a wide variety of things. Specifically the Papacy’s main responsibility is the spiritual well being of the members of the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church rose to power in the 6th century and lasted throughout the 9th century. There were several different circumstantial and also coincidental factors that contributed to the high regard of the church by the 6th century. The beginning was the church’s unsolicited popularity. This could be linked to its relationship with the early apostles. The Roman Church was the first in the empire