In my previous post about Pope Francis, I wondered at his choice of this name. What part of his heritage did this represent?  For the most part, my questioning that it just might be his admiration of Francis of Assisi –  going by the evidence of the way he lived his life as a Cardinal – was dismissed as fanciful at best, ignorant at worst.

Nope, no way was it Assisi. Experts decided he was picking Francis because of the co-founder of the Jesuits, Francis Xavier. I even got a few emails taking me to task for my ignorance.

It was a hard call, and I didn’t think we’d be let in on the decsion so soon. But It’s such a rare treat when my discernment turns out to be on the right track that I thought y’all should know: the press has been told that he has decided to be like Francis of Asissi, and that during his time in the chair, this will be a church of the poor.

Hmmm…that’s a very broad definition for an institution which is wealthy and tied down to a vast, even global, bureaucracy with the usual fierce turf wars that are always rampant in large institutions. Despite his desires, Francis will be more limited than he’d like, for sure. But he certainly knows that.

There are small clueful changes nonetheless. I’ve seen pictures of him in his white cassock but the papal slippers are notably absent so far. He appears to be wearing black street shoes in the photos to date. We may see him in Franciscan sandals before we see him in those soft papal slippers. A small sign, but just going by intuition – which is how I arrived at the Francis of Assisi notion – it’s a signal to watch.

Makes you wonder why he became a Jesuit, right? I think it was his intellectual predilections during his early seminary days. A scholar with a master’s degree in Chemistry will find a congenial intellectual home in the Society of Jesus. On the other hand, a Cardinal in charge of a large diocese with so many desperately poor people would find himself drawn to his Italian heritage. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint (along with Catherine of Siena) of Italy and this new man is only one generation removed from Italy. Francis of Assisi was a rich young man who sold all he had right down to his underwear and set off to serve the poor in Italy. He is beloved by them yet.

There are already stories circulating about Francis and his face-to-face work with the poor in Buenos Aires – no doubt they will soon reach apocryphal levels.

This is interesting already. First we had the iconoclastic Benedict and his almost unprecedented retirement. The ever-hungry maw of the 24/7/365 news monster must be fed and Benedict will provide fodder for a long time to come. But now this new guy comes along, breaking the rules in his own style and jornolists – who in reality couldn’t care less about religion – are happy to bundle up more feed for ravenous News Cycle.

For real insights on this papal reign, occasionally check out the Acton Institute [it’s on the sidebar].  They will be following him closely, as they did Benedict. But it won’t be for jornolistic reasons. They will be attempting to reconcile their mission to the poor with whatever Francis has in mind.

Francis of Assisi succeeded so well that his petition is even included in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. It is not only a prayer for the times we live in, it is ageless:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen