The Argentine Jesuit, now best known as Pope Francis, immediately broke the custom set by his predecessors and did not take a summer holiday.

That meant that no one else in the Roman Curia was allowed to slacken the pace, either.

The big papal mass on June 29, Rome's patronal feast of Saints Peter and Paul, used to be the final act of the Vatican's "pastoral/legislative year."

Then the popes (at least John Paul II and Benedict XVI) would usually go to the Italian Alps for a couple of weeks.

Afterwards, they transferred to the Castel Gandolfo papal summer residence in the hills southeast of the Eternal City until late August or early September before going back to work full time.

Francis, on the other hand, has never taken a vacation. Instead, he's traveled and has continued to work.

This year will be no different.

Upcoming plans

Although there are no big papal liturgies officially on the schedule for July and August, the 87-year-old Jesuit Pope will hold an ordinary public consistory on July 1 with the Church's cardinals residing in Rome in order to vote on several candidates he has approved to be declared saints.

This is usually a pro forma meeting without any great publicity or fanfare. However, the Pope's aides announced this one well in advance.

It might be a good idea to keep an eye on it, since it was during such a ceremony on February 11, 2013, that Benedict XVI surprised the world and renounced the papacy.

Don't expect Francis to do that (at least not yet), but he could use this consistory to announce some other major decision for the life of the Church.

In any case, the next several months at the Vatican (or on the road) will likely bring some surprises.

This period will feature an uptick of activity for the elderly Pope, including the longest foreign journey of his pontificate (a September 2-13 visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore).

A critical month-long synod session follows, along with the opening of Holy Year 2025 and—many observers believe—yet one more consistory to create new cardinals.

The end of an era

The Pope Francis era is in its final stage.

Given his penchant for keeping people on their toes, shaking things up and issuing (with greater regularity) conflicting and even contradictory messages, it would not be wise to wager on when this pontificate will finally be concluded.

But Vatican watchers are already trying to draw up a balance sheet of Francis' tenure as Supreme Pontiff.

He certainly has brought to the fore a lot of thorny issues—the role of women in the Church and Catholic teaching on human sexuality, to name just two.

Open discussion about these and a number of other items, such as obligatory priestly celibacy, were off-limits in the previous two pontificates.

The fact that they are debated openly, even inside the Vatican, is extremely healthy. And very disruptive.

The question many reform-minded Catholics are asking is whether Francis has been able to really change anything regarding such topics. And they rightly wonder if this season of openness will be closed down with the next Pope.

These are serious and worrying questions.

What's changed?

Francis has not actually changed any key Church structures.

His long, piece-by-piece "restructuring" of the Roman Curia was not a restructuring at all.

He merely opened up some of the top jobs to lay people (including women), while leaving the organisational layout almost exactly as it has been since the late 16th century when Sixtus V devised it.

The Jesuit Pope, right from the very beginning, said he believes the most important reform concerns mentality or attitude, not structures.

Eleven years on, has he succeeded in changing the mentality in the Church?

It depends on who one is talking about.

It could be argued that he made a very serious tactical mistake from the very outset of his pontificate by alienating the Church's primary workforce—the ordained sacramental ministers.

This includes those clerics who work in the Vatican.

It's hard to be good in a bad system, but there are still some very fine presbyters and bishops in the Roman Curia (and lay people in its communications sector, by the way) who were initially energised by Francis' election.

But the Pope, because of his questionable "bedside manner" of publicly criticising and even humiliating people who work for him, has demoralised and angered those who might have otherwise pushed and promoted his agenda for reform and renewal.

The Pope's constant swipes at the Church's more conservative (younger) priests and his snide remarks about "airport bishops" might play well to anti-clericalists (count me among them!) but they do not garner support from the men whom he (and we) most need to sustain our sacramental life.

That is just a fact.

Many of us believe that one of the most serious problems facing the Church and its future is the crop of younger priests and many of the bishops appointed in the last two pontificates.

Francis has done nothing to win them to his side. On the contrary, he has baited them.

This pontificate has been dynamic and has given much hope (perhaps, at times, false hope) to many everyday Catholics around the world, and even to others who are not full members of our Church or part of the broader Christian community.

Francis has been a breath of fresh air for us. But he also faces (and has even stoked) opposition, only some of which is public and openly demonstrative. How much silent opposition lurks beneath the surface?

This includes the hidden and growing discomfort many of the Church's cardinals have with his sometimes erratic governing style.

In the end, it is they who will eventually elect his successor. It would probably not be wise to place a bet on the man they will choose.

• First published in Typepad
• Robert Mickens has been reporting on the Vatican and the papacy for nearly 35 years.

Francis reportedly used a homophobic word when he discussed the question of gay candidates for priesthood with Italy's bishops on May 20.

The official Church position is that they should be barred from ministry if they are sexually active. Francis's word for "sexually active" was reported as being crude and homophobic.

He has since apologised.

Contrary views

Italian media reported that Francis had used the word "frociaggine" in the closed-door meeting. The word reportedly translates as "faggotness" or "faggotry".

Friends of the pontiff and top Vatican watchers think his use of the word could be his biggest-ever PR disaster.

But it should not obscure his record as a reforming, LGBT-friendly pope, they say.

However, some say his apparent gaffe undermines his authority, raising questions about his convictions and Church reforms.

Foul language - in character

Those who know him say Francis's direct expression is in character.

"I'm obviously not justifying his use of an offensive term ... but it is normal for him in private to speak very, very directly" papal biographer Austen Ivereigh said. "He doesn't talk like a politician."

A personal friend of the Pope - a gay Argentine man - said Francis knows he has a problem with foul language.

"He has never been diplomatic. I am actually surprised something like this didn't happen earlier."

LGBT exclusion out of character

Pope Francis is known for his welcome to all.

Early in his papacy he said "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?".

Last year the Pope allowed priests to bless members of same-sex couples. There was a substantial conservative backlash.

He has lunched at the Vatican with transgender sex workers. He's a close friend of Father James Martin SJ who ministers to the LGBT community.

"The idea that he would be homophobic makes no sense to me" Martin said.

"His record on LGBTQ people speaks for itself. No pope has been a greater friend to the LGBTQ community."

He also supports civil partnerships - though is opposed to same-sex marriages.

He helped victims of homophobic crimes in Argentina in the 1990s "when being gay was tough".

Gay subculture upset

Nevertheless, the Pope's words have upset many.

"Even if intended as a joke, (it) reveals the depth of anti-gay bias and institutional discrimination that still exist in our church" LGBT Catholic rights group DignityUSA said in a statement.

Both Faggioli and Ivereigh said the issue is particularly sensitive for the Italian Catholic Church, given the active gay "subculture" in some of its seminaries.

"My sense was that the Pope was responding to a question about certain behaviour in Italian seminaries, rather than closing off the priesthood to all gay men" Martin said.

Source

• Reuters

Summarising the German position, the head of the German bishops' conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, said the German church would not make decisions that were the Vatican's to make.

"We are Catholic," Bätzing said at a news conference. "but we want to be Catholic in a different way."

Bätzing's statement comes at the close of the German bishops' ad limina visit to Rome. During the visit, they had face time with the pope and met various Vatican departments to provide an update on local church affairs.

As part of the meetings, the 62 German bishops who participated met with various Vatican departments and had a private meeting with Pope Francis.

They also had what was described as an "open" and "frank" discussion on concerns regarding their "Synodal Path" with several Vatican department heads.

In that meeting, Vatican officials suggested issuing a "moratorium" on the Synodal Path process. However, that proposal was not accepted.

The church hierarchy in Germany and the country's influential lay Catholic group launched the reforms after a 2018 report. They found that thousands of abuse crimes were systematically covered up by German church leaders.

Preliminary assemblies of the reform process have sought to address how power and authority are exercised in the church.

During these meetings, lay representatives and German bishops have approved calls to allow blessings for same-sex couples, married priests and the ordination of women as deacons. However, the proposals must be debated further and approved for them to be enacted.

Bätzing assured the Vatican that the German church would "not make any decisions that would only be possible in the context of the universal church," such as changes to the church's core doctrine.

"However, the church in Germany wants to and must provide answers to the questions being asked by the faithful," he said.

The main lay Catholic group involved in the reforms, the Central Committee of German Catholics, said the meeting made it clear that the German church was right to pursue the dialogue in Germany because "it is not a solution to see the responsibility for the reform process solely in Rome".

The president of the group, Irme Stetter-Karp, took issue with the joint statement issued by the Vatican and German bishops, which urged the faithful to be patient.

A "patient people of God" no longer exists, she said.

Sources

• Reuters
• CruxNow
• SCNOW

Women's rights advocates presented the German Bishops Conference with a petition with over 130,000 signatures calling for more women in leadership roles.

Dozens of women also gathered outside Mainz Cathedral, where the conference is taking place, to show their support for the "Maria 2.0" ("Mary 2.0") movement.

Bishops and other officials from Germany's 27 Catholic archdioceses had gathered to discuss key church issues and to elect outgoing conference chairman cardinal Reinhard Marx's successor.

Marx's successor must "lead into the modern world, into the equality that is lived in Europe and in many countries around the world," Mechthild Heil, federal chairwoman of the Catholic Women's Community of Germany, said.

If the new spokesperson for the Catholic bishops is not willing to reform, "that would be the worst thing for us," Heil said.

She explained the protesters do not "want to divide, but are the core of those who carry the Catholic Church".

"We have not made any progress at all in terms of gaining leadership roles within the church," Heil said.

"We carry the local congregations. I think it's quite natural that we want to take on responsibility and thus also power," she added.

Responding to the petition, Marx said he would do his "utmost to make sure that this issue doesn't get sidelined".

The Bishop of Mainz Peter Kohlgraf has suggested that a woman could be appointed nationally to lead the conference's administerial department.

"We could also have a woman leading the secretariat of the German Bishops Conference. That would be an important sign that women could get into management positions," Kohlgraf suggested.

Traditionally, a priest occupies the role.

Besides electing a new chairman of the Bishops' Conference, a leader for the administration office was also on the Conference agenda.

Source

• Deutsche Welle
• Image: National Catholic Reporter