Popular but facing opposition, Pope Francis marks 10 years as pontiff

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Pope Francis marks 10 years as head of the Catholic Church on Monday, hugely popular but facing internal dissent after a decade of reform, even if he has left basic doctrine intact.

When he appeared at the balcony of St Peter's Basilica on March 13, 2013, in his plain white papal robes, the newly elected Jorge Bergoglio immediately presented an image of a different kind of papacy.

The smiling, outspoken Jesuit was in sharp contrast to his reserved, intellectual predecessor Benedict XVI, who shocked the world by becoming the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign.

And Francis had a plan – to reform the governance of the Church plagued by inertia, clean up its murky finances and turn its focus outwards.

While he has not deviated from some staunch Catholic beliefs – he has called abortion murder and homosexuality a sin – he has shown a more compassionate and less dogmatic approach, including condemning the persecution of gay people.

"No more demonisation of homosexuality, debates on extramarital relations or the contraceptive pill... all that has been taken off the table," noted Italian Vaticanist Marco Politi.

Instead, the 86-year-old pontiff – who is seemingly never happier than when among his flock – has emphasised social justice, inter-religious dialogue, the environment and the rights of refugees.

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/world/popular-but-facing-opposition-pope-francis-marks-10-years-as-pontiff.phtml

Pope Francis in an interview with Argentine publisher Jorge Fontevecchia on Friday.

On the eve of his 10th anniversary as Pontiff, Francis said that he's in good health, though he's been “thinking a lot” about his mortality and admitted that he misses “strolling around the streets” of Argentina’s capital - which he hinted that he might visit after elections this October.

While he criticized “gender ideology,” he emphasized that “the exaggerated, rootless right wing is very dangerous, it worries me.”

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1. Francis as pontiff has given me hope.

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2. +1

He's tried to swing the Catholic Church to the political center (even center-left!), something that's made a lot of the curia and the donor class very uncomfortable - especially after 35 years of the Opus Dei-coddling papacies of John Paul II and Benedict.

And those efforts - plus health problems - have clearly taken their toll on Francis.

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3. Yes. Keep him in your prayers.

It's always good to remember, too, that the American church is not the global church. In fact, only eight percent of Catholics currently live in the U.S.

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4. Will do.

It's worrying to see how much weight he's put on, ever since that torn ligament in his knee has mostly kept him wheelchair bound.

At his age (86), it'll be hard to turn back the clock from that.