The Final Conversion of Pope Francis - By Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Jennifer Scheper Hughes
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12 A Way Forward Spring 2015 13
RELIGION
The Final Conversion
of Pope Francis
By Nancy Scheper-Hughes and
Jennifer Scheper Hughes
O
n March 12, 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio
of Buenos Aires entered the Vatican papal conclave
in Rome with a heavy heart. He had just resigned
as Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires and had already
chosen a simple room in an Argentine retirement center
for Catholic clerics when he was suddenly summoned to
the Vatican following the shocking resignation of Pope
Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger. Instead, he would now be
sequestered with 114 other cardinals until they reached a
divinely inspired consensus about who would be the next
spiritual and political leader of an estimated 1.2 billion
Catholics, 40 percent of whom live in Latin America.
Two days before the opening of the papal conclave,
Cardinal Bergoglio took a solitary walk through Rome’s
historic district dressed incognito in the black cassock of
a simple village priest. On seeing an old friend, Father
Thomas Rosica, Bergoglio grabbed his hand saying,
“Please, pray for me.” When the acquaintance asked Jorge
Mario if he was nervous, the future pope replied that,
indeed, he was.
Crisis in the Roman Catholic Church had led to the
abdication of Pope Benedict/Ratzinger, a scholarly and
fiercely conservative prelate who owned up to being a poor
administrator. He and his close friend, Pope John Paul II/
Karol Józef Wojtył, were Central Europeans who came of
age during World War II and rose to preeminence in the
church during the cold war. Both popes had participated in
Vatican II, which was led by Pope John XXIII who sought
to “open the window and let in fresh air” and to reposition
the church in the modern world. However, the future
popes, caught up in European cold war politics against the
“evils” of a godless, Soviet Communism, became obsessed
with the “errors” and “excesses” unleashed by Vatican II, in
particular, the rise of Latin American liberation theology.
Although liberation theology was never the dominant
or hegemonic Catholic theology in Latin America, it was a
strong and visible social movement that realigned clergy
and nuns in support of the poor and those who spoke
Pope Francis presides at a general audience.
(Photo courtesy of the Catholic Church of England and Wales.) on their behalf during civil wars in Central America and
>>
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14 The Final Conversion of Pope Francis Spring 2015 15
theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid proposed an “indecent Not surprisingly, the papacies of John Paul II and
theology” that confronted the political trinity of Pope, Benedict XVI fought tooth and nail against this Latin
Nation, and Catholic family that provided the ideology American theological “heresy.” The two previous popes
of right-wing military regimes in Latin America. She saw the new Latin American radical theology as a threat
wrote: “The resurrection [of Christ] was not a theme to Papal authority. They argued that liberation theology
for our generation … Los desaparacidos [that included was no theology at all, but a political project that focused
kidnapped women and their babies] was our theme.” on the “here and now,” rather than a spiritual project
Ivone Gebara, a Brazilian nun and one of Latin concerned with the soul and its afterlife. However
America’s leading theologians, wrote from the perspective liberation theology’s greatest threat to papal authority
of ecofeminism and liberation theology. For nearly two was its empowerment of women as theologians and at
decades, Gebara was a professor at ITER, the liberation the grassroots level as community leaders, catechists, and
theology seminary in Recife. Gebara’s theology emerged pastoral counselors and representatives of the new church.
directly from her intimate work with poor women in the Working in tandem, Pope John Paul II and Cardinal
slums and favelas of Recife in the late 1960s during the military Ratzinger, later as Pope Benedict, actively dismantled
dictatorship years. In her first book, “Longing for Running liberation theology. In 1984, just as the Brazilian military
Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation,” Gebara articulates dictatorship was ending, Cardinal Ratzinger issued his
what she called a theological anthropology embedded in “Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of
Photo by Lothar Wolleh/Wikimedia Commons.
the struggles of everyday life. The garbage in the street, the Liberation’,” which listed the many doctrinal errors and
non-existent or inadequate health care, and above all, the excesses, including its dedication to building a church of
reproductive crises faced by poor women led Ivone Gebara the poor.
to argue for a “religious biodiversity” that was inclusive of In 1985, the Vatican silenced Brazilian liberation
women’s suffering and needs. She saw reproductive rights theologian Leonardo Boff, and Dom Hélder Câmara was
for women as linked to environmental and economic forced into retirement, along with other radical bishops,
sustainability and to the creation of a dignified human life. and theological and political conservatives replaced them.
>>
The Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) in 1962. Ivone Gebara in 2011.
military dictatorships in South America in the 1970s and a call to arms against oppressive dictators. This feet-
1980s. At the 1968 Medellín Conference of Latin American on-the ground, “barefoot” theology introduced new
bishops, liberation theologians took their message further exemplars in a generation of beloved “red bishops”: Dom
into what this might mean in terms of everyday pastoral Hélder Câmara in Recife; Samuel Ruiz in Chiapas; Sergio
practice. The bishops pledged themselves to a new spiritual/ Méndez Arceo in Cuernavaca; and the martyr-bishop of
social contract called a “preferential option for the poor,” El Salvador, Óscar Romero.
which required the Latin American Church to detach itself Less recognized was the central role of Latin
from its colonial moorings and its favoritism toward the American women theologians, such as the Argentine
power elites, the landowning and industrial classes. The Marcella Althaus-Reid and the Brazilian eco-feminist
practitioners of liberation theology called for the growth Ivone Gebara, and women catechists, often illiterate,
of “ecclesiastical base communities” in favelas, poor almost invariably poor, who organized, led, and mostly
barrios, and shantytowns where Catholic clergy and nuns populated the ecclesiastical base communities. The
working closely with lay people would read and discuss the feminist theologians, while in sympathy with the
scriptures as political as well as theological texts. Poverty liberation theology of Leonardo and Clodovis Boff and
and hunger were recast as “structural violence” and as Gustavo Gutiérrez, identified a lacuna in the failure of the
social sins to be challenged and expunged. Liberation progressive theologians to recognize and acknowledge
Photo by Jorge A. Ramirez Portela/AP Images.
theology reconciled Christianity and social Marxism at the suffering of women that included those who were
a time when right-wing dictators overthrew democratic designated as “sinners” and “indecent” because they were
socialist political leaders with the help of the CIA and the single mothers, traditional midwives, or sex workers who
U.S. Congress. had nowhere else to turn during times of extreme scarcity
While in some circles, liberation theology was seen and crisis. Many of these same women became prominent
as a theoretical shift in the cultivation of a critical, leaders in liberation base communities.
sociological, spiritual imagination, in Nicaragua and In response to the wars on “indecency” by the
Guatemala during the 1980s liberation theology became military juntas of the 1960s-1980s, Argentine liberation
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16 The Final Conversion of Pope Francis Spring 2015 17
When in October 1989, Ratzinger closed ITER, Dom Dom Luciano Mendes de Almeida, judged the case The Vatican put pressure on the Superior General personality that had contributed to his decision to
Hélder’s liberation theology seminary, several hundred against Gebara as a heretic was closed, citing her deep of the Jesuits in Rome to stop Argentine Jesuits from dismiss and “let go” of the two “disobedient” liberation
seminarians, nuns, laypeople, and peasants traveled by commitment to, and understanding of, the suffering following the path of the Jesuits in Central America, theology Jesuits, Father Franz (Francis) Jalics, his
foot from the impoverished, drought-ridden interior of and pain of poor women. However, the Vatican’s Brazil, Chile, and Peru in resisting military regimes. former theology teacher, and Orlando Yorio, who had
Pernambuco to protest, and one of us [Jennifer] joined Congregation of the Doctrine and Faith disagreed and Thus, the left-leaning head of the Jesuits was removed, refused to give up their ecclesiastical base community
the demonstration. The powerful social movement that began an investigation of Gebara’s theological writings, and Father Bergoglio took his place without the in a poor parish of Buenos Aires. Bergoglio’s decision
was called liberation theology was eventually destroyed, interviews, and teaching modules. On June 3, 1995, support of most of his religious order in Argentina. put the men in mortal danger. Once removed from
as theologians were disciplined, Professor Gebara was instructed At that time in his life, Father Bergoglio was a pious the protection of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits
if not silenced, and young to refrain from speaking, young priest of conservative political views. He was were kidnapped along with several other liberation
clergy were encouraged to take teaching, and writing for a not a popular superior among the Jesuits, and he was catechists by the agents of Admiral Emilio Massera
up a populist and artificial period of two years, during eventually removed from office in 1979 and assigned and taken to the Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada
charismatic Catholicism to which time she was exiled to serve as Rector of the Colegio Máximo in Buenos (ESMA), where for six months they were tortured,
contest the growth of Pente- to France for theological re- Aires, where he taught theology. In 1986, he was sent interrogated, and rescued at the nick of time by Father
costal churches in Latin education. Today, Professor to Germany to finish a second doctoral thesis. On Bergoglio’s intersessions in person with both General
America. One of the last straws Gebara is struggling with illness, his return to Argentina in June 1990, Bergoglio was Videla and Admiral Massera. Bergoglio walked out of
was the attack on the feminist but she remains totally dedicated again exiled to the city of Córdoba, where he spent two the second meeting with Massera saying definitively
theologians who had never to her feminist theology. solitary years in the guesthouse at the Jesuit rectory. as he left, “I want them to appear.” Soon after, the two
really been incorporated within This period of exile, we suggest, was the beginning Jesuits were removed from their cells and dropped by
the male-dominated hierarchy Enter Jorge Bergoglio: of the conversion of Pope Francis. During his period plane in a field on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where
of liberation theology. They A Vatican in Shambles and a of enforced solitude, Father Bergoglio barely spoke they were found drugged, dazed, and in poor physical
were marginalized even by Catholic Church Divided to anyone. He was even cut off from the other Jesuits condition. The others who were kidnapped with them
their male colleagues who, with Cardinal Bergoglio approached with whom he was living. Bergoglio was coming to were dropped into the sea. This story has been told
the exception of Dom Hélder, the 2013 papal conclave with terms with his (self-defined) rigid, even authoritarian, many times.
found them to be scandalous anxiety. He had come close to Continued on page 58 >>
A memorial to torture victims in front of Argentina’s Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA).
in addressing in public the being chosen as pope in the 2005
sexuality of women in the papal conclave that elected Cardi-
Photo courtesy of Sergio Rubín and Francesca Ambrogetti.
context of a kind of “green” nal Joseph Ratzinger. Bergoglio
feminist theology. withdrew from the competition
Professor Gebara achieved and threw his support to Ratzinger
notoriety when the Vatican when he learned that opponents in
silenced her for two years in Argentina were undermining his
1995. Her difficulties began candidacy by circulating critical
in 1993 with an interview she documents about his history as
gave to the Brazilian news Provincial Superior of the Jesuits,
magazine, VEJA, in which she during Argentina’s infamous
said, rather off-handedly, that dirty war (1976-1983). Among the
abortion was not necessarily a Jorge Bergoglio as a young priest. tens of thousands of victims were
sin for poor women. Given the 150 Catholic priests who refused
extreme poverty of many women in Brazilian favelas, too to bend, as well as hundreds of nuns, lay catechists, and
many births would only result in more hardship for the religious persons who embraced liberation theology.
mothers and their other children. Moreover, Gebara said Bergolio’s complex political history began in 1973
to the journalist, overpopulation puts increased stress when, as a recently ordained Jesuit priest, he was appointed
on natural resources, including decreased access to Provincial Superior of the Argentine Jesuits at the absurdly
potable water, one of the feminist theologian’s main young age of 36. Jesuits are the muscular scholars of the
concerns. For these reasons, Gebara called for greater Roman Catholic Church. Ordination requires more than
Photo by David A. Wilbanks.
tolerance for women’s reproductive rights and needs. a decade of intellectual and spiritual training, often
The article in its day went viral via television rather than culminating in two doctorates, one in theology and one in
the social media. Complaints were raised, and following another chosen field. It was unheard of for a man so young
many discussions throughout 1994, the President and inexperienced to be appointed Provincial-Superior of
of Brazil’s Catholic Conference of Bishops of Brazil, the Jesuits anywhere in the world.
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58 The Final Conversion of Pope Francis Spring 2015 59
The Final selecting a pope from the South, Latin
America, Africa, or Asia. However,
Conversion of the cardinal from Argentina did not
enter the conclave as one of the papal
Pope Francis finalists. But after just 24 hours of
deliberation the conclave had settled
on Bergoglio. When asked if he
(continued from page 17)
accepted the vote, Jorge Mario did
Remember the Women: not give the expected ritualized reply
The First Conversion of “Accepto.” Instead he said, “I am a
Jorge Bergoglio great sinner; trusting in the mercy and
Less noted, however, is the failed patience of God in suffering, I accept.”
response of the former Jesuit superior When he appeared on the
on learning of the disappearances balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica as the
of three women. Two of them were new pope, the well-wishers gathered
French nuns, originally catechists below in Saint Peter’s square were
(catechism teachers) to the mentally confused. They did not recognize
“deficient,” which included their him. But once they heard that the
devoted care for Jorge Videla’s young new pope would be known as Pope
son who had severe and irreversible Francis, they sent up cheers “Viva
developmental problems. A third Francesco! Viva Francesco!”
desaparecida was Father Bergoglio’s Like Wojtyła/John Paul II,
former boss and mentor, Esther Bergoglio/Francis was a first: the
Ballestrino de Careaga, a chemist in first Latin American pope, the first
the factory where the future pope pope from the global South, the first
worked as a student in 1953–1954, Jesuit pope, and the first pope to
just before he decided to enter the name himself after Saint Francis, who
priesthood. Over time, the spiritual was never a pope at all. Both of these
formation of the nuns and Esther outsider popes were/are positioned to
Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.
Ballestrino de Careaga changed as it make decisive public roles in global
was shaped by liberation theology. transitions. The Polish pope, John Paul
They spoke of “an option for the II, gave his blessing to Solidarność,
poor,” while criticizing General contributing to the end of the Soviet
Videla’s option for “power, blood, Union. The Argentine pope played a
and fire.” On December 13, 1977, key role in negotiating the dialogues
Videla’s secretary general broke the A building reflects Pope Francis celebrating mass on Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro. between President Obama and Raúl
news of their kidnapping a week military. Bergoglio agreed to come to After his period of seclusion tended to the needs of young clerics, forgave each other, and co-celebrated Castro that promises a long-overdue
before all three were drugged and the family’s home and to remove and in Córdoba ended, Bergoglio was and he became involved in social the Mass. However, Pope Francis has end to the U.S. cold war in Cuba
thrown into the Atlantic Ocean. The hide any books that might be seen as given another chance and appointed action on behalf of marginal people, not yet made amends to the memory and U.S. policies of meddling with
bodies of two of the women washed questionable or subversive. One of the Auxiliary Archbishop of Buenos including migrants, street children, of the Argentine women who died for perceived socialist agendas in other
up on shore, to be buried in pauper books Bergoglio took away with him Aires in 1992. He emerged as a and asylum seekers. He collaborated their faith under his watch. Latin American nations.
graves. They were later exhumed was “Das Kapital.” He warned Esther strong and popular spiritual leader in the founding of an NGO dedicated The Catholic world quickly
and identified by members of the to be prudent, to drive carefully, and as an effective politician. He to the rescue of displaced refugees The First Latin American Pope warmed up to Pope Francis who was
Argentine forensic team. to wear dark sunglasses, and to be moved quickly up the ladder from and trafficked persons. In 2000, By the time Bergoglio was praised for his simplicity, humility,
Several weeks before she and as inconspicuous as possible. This archbishop to cardinal in 1998. A new Archbishop Bergoglio made the summoned to Rome for the papal and his common touch. The new
her daughter were kidnapped, assistance proved to be not so helpful. Bergoglio began to emerge during most difficult voyage of his life, conclave, the political climate pope refused all the trappings of
Esther Ballestrino contacted Father Both the daughter and, later, her this time, a more tolerant and humble when he paid a visit to Father Jalics had changed. The desire for a new popery: the throne and the papal
Bergoglio asking for help when she mother were kidnapped. While her prelate, not without contradictions in Germany. By all accounts, it was dispensation, a petite reformation palace, the lace and rose slippers.
learned that her daughter, a university daughter was released and survived, but clearly on a different path. He an emotional encounter. Both men of the Roman Church and its Curia, This pope brought well-worn black
student, had been targeted by the Esther was dropped into the ocean. visited poor villas and barrios, he wept, embraced and (presumably) was on the agenda. There was talk of shoes with him from Buenos Aires.
continued on page 64 >>
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64 The Final Conversion of Pope Francis Spring 2015 65
The Final Conversion of Pope Francis there are many versions of Catholicism, each with diverse
histories and religious traditions. Catholics received the
serious dangers facing the modern church. In so doing,
Francis was at risk of repeating a dangerous error, the
new pope differently in Brazil than in Argentina. Three same unreasonable fears he once had of the teachings and
(continued from page 59)
and a half million Brazilians gathered on Copacabana social and political engagements of liberation theology
In Argentina, the archbishop liked to travel by bus and “I don’t know what comes over me,” Pope Francis told Beach to watch Francis drive by in his Popemobile. The priests, nuns, and theologians. Today, he still risks turning
subway and to cook his own meals. In Rome, Pope Francis Antonio Spadaro, the Jesuit editor-in-chief of La Civiltà crowds were euphoric. The pope was seen as agradável, works of mercy by nuns and laywomen of conscience — on
refused to live in the Apostolic Palace, but instead moved Cattolica, in August 2013. The pope had just returned from personable, intimate, unpredictable, and most of all behalf of raped and pregnant women, overwhelmed and
into a one-room suite at the Casa Santa Marta, the five- his first and wildly successful international trip to Brazil animado, full of vitality. “Did you see how he responded suffering mothers, and homeless children abandoned to
story guesthouse that houses cardinals and other visitors for World Youth Day. “I did not recognize myself when I to the crowds? How he accepted a gourd of chá mate the streets and to early death — into theological errors
in Vatican City. He usually takes his meals in the main responded to the journalists asking me questions [about (yerba mate) and slurped it up?” The pope is a man in and mortal sins. Without embracing a new covenant with
dining room on the first floor, although he once surprised gay clergy] on the flight from Rio de Janeiro.” He famously love with life. Brazilians from the shantytowns thought women as equal partners, Francis will be unable to respond
Vatican workers by standing in line with a tray at the told the press corps: “If someone is gay and he searches for that they could teach the new pope about their social adequately to his fellow Jesuit Jon Sobrino’s challenges
Vatican cafeteria, where he sat down and joined five clerks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” He spoke needs and realities. He was seen as flexible and teachable. to him: to fix the unbearable and untenable situation of
from the Vatican pharmacy. He helped himself to a plate in Italian, but he used the English word, “gay,” rather than In Argentina, there were also ecstatic celebrations in the women vis-à-vis the church; to recognize and value the
with codfish, stewed tomatoes, fusilli, and well why not, “homosexual.” Another papal first. streets with cars honking their horns and people shouting indigenous peoples of world; and to love Mother Earth.
he said, “… but just a few French fries.” The pope of the So, who is Francis? What can an Argentine pope do for “un papa argentino!” Some of his former Jesuit colleagues Thus far, Francis has not heard the sigh of the oppressed
people enjoys good food. His tip was a blessing and a photo Latin America and for the world? refused to celebrate the new pope as one of their own, but from women who are turned away from public clinics and
taken with his delighted tablemates. the initial standoff was fleeting. doctors throughout Latin America by the Roman Catholic
His manner is informal, his language colloquial. One Pope for Many Catholicisms bans on contraception enshrined in the laws of most Latin
The new pope soon became famous for his off-the-cuff Despite the unifying symbol of the Vatican and its The Final Conversion of Pope Francis American countries. Some are the victims of domestic
“zingers,” especially when in the air and between his travels. pontiff, Latin American Catholics are an unruly lot, and As a political spiritual leader, Francis has negotiated violence, others of police brutality against their adult sons;
Pope Francis drinks mate offered by a pilgrim in St. Peter’s Square. a détente between Cuba and the United States. He has others are living on the edge of a reproductive cliff. We
welcomed Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Marxists, and atheists know them all too well in the favelas of Brazil and in the
to the table in the task of peacemaking and world repair. He mestizo villages of Mexico, and we know the consequences
has begun to make peace with former theological enemies. of coerced births in the headcounts of tiny graves with
He initiated a rapprochement with 85-year-old Father white wooden crosses and in the municipal ledger books
Gustavo Gutiérrez of Lima, Peru, the father of liberation that tally the deaths of mothers and infants.
theology, and he lifted the ban on the beatification of Óscar Pope Francis has said that the church needs to end
Romero, the first step to sainthood, describing Romero its obsessive preoccupation with sexuality, contraception,
as “a man of God.” Just recently, he initiated the path to and divorce, as these are negative and divisive issues,
sainthood for the beloved Dom Hélder Câmara of Recife. and better to put them aside. But in so doing, the pope is
These acts augur well for the global Catholic community ignoring the doctrinal millstone that is still tied around
and for the family of man. the necks of women and their doctors.
However, to date there is still a disturbing and Lastly, in stigmatizing the writings of Latin American
glaring absence at the center of his new papacy — the feminist theologians, by referring to them as following
family of women. While Pope Francis has reached out to “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic
gay couples who love and support each other, and while faith,” he is not only invalidating the work of serious
he has invited divorced and even remarried Catholics scholars, he presents them as dangerous thinkers.
of both sexes to return to the church and to receive the The new Prefect (under Pope Francis) of the
sacraments, and while he has advocated for equal pay Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard
and called gender disparities in wages a scandal, he has Müller, has declared that “the war between liberation
not yet reached out to women and their reproductive theology and Rome is over” and that liberation theology
suffering and needs. To the contrary, he has stated should be recognized as “among one of the most
many times that he fears “population control” as an important currents in 20 th-century Catholic theology.”
underhanded attack on the poor. Nor has Pope Francis It’s time that Pope Francis begins a much-needed
Photo from Associated Press.
reached out to Catholic theologians who have grappled rapprochement with feminist theologians who have
with the multiple existential threats to the safety of all been silenced and with Catholic women who have been
women, poor or aff luent, illiterate or highly educated. ordained as Episcopal and Anglican priests. There is
Pope Francis is at a critical juncture. Early in his Professor Ivone Gebara, ill but feisty, demanding that
papacy, Francis declared “radical feminism” as one of the the Holy Father listen to women. In an interview on her
>>
BERKELEY REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES, UC BERKELEY
66 The Final Conversion of Pope Francis Spring 2015 67
thoughts about Pope Francis and the We have followed Jorge
theology of women, posted (originally Bergoglio/Pope Francis as he has
in Portuguese) on August 28, 2013, she been remaking himself as a powerful
said: “I’d like to reinforce the idea that and charismatic religious leader
we are the Church, too … The reality who has one important challenge
of faith is inscribed in every person, with respect to the public roles and
then it is sustained in the community private needs of women worldwide.
of people of faith who are able to There is a solution, one with a long
bring justice, mercy, compassion, and and distinguished pedigree, the
mutual aid to the maintenance of life ancient tradition of the intellectual,
for each other. … Seeking collective theological and administrative
responsibility in great and small acts companionship of women to church
leaders, beginning with the close
is the primary challenge for all of us.”
female friends and disciples of Jesus,
Can Pope Francis heal the
including the three Marys — Jesus’
irrational schism between feminist
mother, Mary the mother of James,
theologians and the Vatican? If so, it
and Mary Magdalene, the best
could lead to a long-overdue détente
friend of Jesus who was incorrectly
between the Roman Catholic Church
identified as a prostitute rather than
and its sister churches, Episcopal, the generous and inf luential woman
Anglican and others, which share of means that she was. Saint Francis
the same rituals and sacraments of Assisi consulted throughout his
but allow women to share in the public life with Clare, the founder of
priesthood and in the breaking of the the Franciscan Order of Poor Clares.
bread, and allow married people to Like his namesake, Pope Francis also
become priests. needs the wisdom of strong women
to help him navigate the other half
And The Women He Needs of the world, the still-invisible 50
In taking the name of Saint percent, the part of the world that —
Francis, Jorge Mario might recall despite his concern for the smallest
the close relationship between and least of us and for the “wounds
Saint Francis and Saint Clare, who on the bodies” of the trafficked
shared an intimate intellectual and victims, especially women and
spiritual relationship in co-founding children — still perplexes him and
the mendicant and the cloistered without whom he cannot succeed
Franciscan orders. Francis’s strong, in his invocation of the Catholic
equitable relationship with Clare Church as a new social movement in
as his spiritual companheira was Latin America and in the world.
necessary to the founding of Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Professor
Franciscan theology in praxis, and Chair of Medical Anthropology at
a dynamic theology, rooted in UC Berkeley.
voluntary poverty, that embraced
Jennifer Scheper Hughes is Associate
all creatures, humans and animals.
Professor of History at UC Riverside
Francis often referred to himself and
and co-chair of the Latina/o Critical
to his barefoot friars as “mothers” and Comparative Studies Group of the
rather than as men. We would like American Academy of Religion.
Pope Francis to follow the steps of his
Portions of this article are drawn from a piece
patron saint and to think of himself which will appear in Global Latin America,
as “la mamma” as well as “il papa.” Matthew Guttman and Jeffrey Lesser, eds.,
University of California Press (forthcoming).
St. Francis preaches to the birds,
Leicester Cathedral, England. St. Clare, St. Frideswide’s Church, Oxford.
(Photo by Father Lawrence Lew, O.P.) (Photo by Father Lawrence Lew, O.P.)
BERKELEY REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES, UC BERKELEY
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