In an analysis first published by Italian religious news blog Il Sismografo and reprinted here, Luis Badilla, the blog’s lead editor, looks back at Francis’ (almost) three year pontificate, coining the term “overview effect” - a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight – to describe his analysis.
The “overview effect” is a term used to describe a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from orbit or from the lunar surface. It refers to the experience of seeing first-hand the reality of the Earth in space. From space, national boundaries vanish and the planet is seen in its entirety, as an organic and panoramic whole. Badilla’s use of the expression, first coined by Frank White in 1987, has a very precise purpose here: it refers to perceptual effects as a whole, including emotions, feelings, empathy and the way each individual elaborates perceptions.
Three years on since the start of Francis’ pontificate, an overview effect is perhaps now possible. “Gliding over” the first 33 months of his pontificate, we have put together a list of key aspects which is not, however, exhaustive:
(1)Doctrine and reform
Under Francis’ reign, the Catholic Church is going through a crucial moment and along its current trajectory, it could be tracing the main elements that will characterise it in the upcoming decades. Pope Francis has set in motion a gradual but firm reform process, which, if steered towards certain points of no return, will turn the process currently underway into an irreversible historical change. This “plan” is not based on some Bergoglian model or project. The end goal and the path towards it are simple: a return to the essential, to Jesus and his Gospel. Francis out it like this: “Christian doctrine is not a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts, interrogatives - but is alive, knows being unsettled, enlivened. It has a face that is not rigid, it has a body that moves and grows, it has a soft flesh: it is called Jesus Christ.” (Florence, 10 November 2015). This is the true meaning of Pope Francis’ reform and if this is not perceived globally, in its entirety, it is impossible to understand Francis’ pontificate; in fact there is a risk of heading down misleading paths, making statements of minor importance; above all, there is a risk of confusing form with actual substance.
(2) Mercy and humanism
The very soul of the Pope’s efforts has one name and one name alone and it unveils the highest essence of the spirit within: the Mercy of the Father “that forgives all, always”. Francis says: “In the light of this merciful Judge, our knees bend in adoration, and our hands and our feet are strengthened. We can speak of humanism only starting from the centrality of Jesus, discovering in him the traits of the authentic will of man. It is contemplating the face of Jesus died and risen that recomposes our humanity and also that which has been fragmented through the toils of life or marked by sin. We must not domesticate the power of the face of Christ. His face is the image of his transcendence. It is the misericordiae vultus. Let us allow ourselves to be looked at by him. Jesus is our humanism. Let us always be unsettled by his question: ‘who do you say that I am?’ (Mt 16:15)” (Florence, 10 November 2015).
(3) The Beatitudes and the Samaritan
In the Pope’s eyes, the credibility of the Evangelical announcement and message is to be found solely in the coherence between the life and faith of each Christian, from the first down to the very last, across the Church. There are no exceptions, shortcuts or excuses. Every single Christian who is a true Christian, albeit a sinner – but never a papier-mâché Christian or a parlour room Christian –, is called to reflect on the face of Jesus Christ, despite their smallness and despite being sinners. The life of a true Samaritan Christian unfolds in the Beatitudes and so each of them becomes a disciple and a missionary. The Samaritan enacts God’s will, only in this way can the credibility of the Gospel truly shine. In this context, the Pope’s morning meditations in St. Martha’s House, his brief homilies (which some tried to play down as thoughts for the day), are a hallmark of Francis’ magisterium and his pontificate. Their key relevance is not to be underestimated. At the St. Martha House masses, Francis converses with faithful, with every single Catholic in every corner of the world.
(4) The family as a specific place for Man and Church
By now it is clear as day that Pope Francis sees the family as a privileged place for man and the Church, the essential step towards a new evangelisation. Francis concluded the Ordinary Synod on the Family by emphasising: “We have seen, also by the richness of our diversity, that the same challenge is ever before us: that of proclaiming the Gospel to the men and women of today, and defending the family from all ideological and individualistic assaults” (24 October 2015). During the General Audience last 18 November, Francis highlighted: “Christian families make the threshold of their homes a great sign of the Door of the mercy and welcome of God. It is precisely how the Church will have to be recognized, in every corner of the earth: as the watchman of a God who knocks, as the welcome of a God who does not close the door in your face with the excuse that you are not part of the household.” “A Church that presents these three traits — humility, disinterest, beatitude — is a Church that is able to recognize the action of the Lord in the world, in culture, in the everyday life of the people. I have said it more than once and I repeat it again to you today: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures” (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 49).” (Florence, 10 November 2015).
(5) A Bishop of Rome who walks with his people: content and form
Many have referred to it as “Bergoglio style”. It all started on the evening of 13 March 2013, when the Archbishop of Buenos Aires appeared at the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica and introduced himself as such: “You know that it was the duty of the Conclave to give Rome a Bishop. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one... but here we are... I thank you for your welcome…And now, we take up this journey: Bishop and People. This journey of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the Churches. A journey of fraternity, of love, of trust among us. Let us always pray for one another. Let us pray for the whole world, that there may be a great spirit of fraternity.” Over the course of the past 21 months, Francis has exercised his papal primacy focusing on the kind of evangelical simplicity that is mentioned in a number of instances, in the documents of the Council but often ignored because it is uncomfortable for the Church and authority. In this case, style is substance.
(6) Jesus’ sentiments and power
In the speech he gave in Florence last November, addressing not only the Church in Italy, but the entire Catholic Church, Francis wished to stress: “We must not be obsessed with “power”, even when it takes on the face of a useful and functional power in the social image of the Church. If the Church does not assume the sentiments of Jesus, she gets disoriented, she loses her way. If she instead assumes them, she is able to live up to her mission. The sentiments of Jesus tell us that a Church that thinks of herself and of her own interests would be sad. The Beatitudes, after all, are the mirror in which we see ourselves, the one that allows us to know whether we are walking on the right path: it is a mirror that does not lie.” The second and last time the Pope used the word “power” in this address, he added: “May God protect the Church of Italy from every surrogate of power, image and money. Evangelical poverty is creative, welcoming, supportive and rich in hope.” There is certainly historical evidence to back Francis’ claim that power “spurs the Church not to be humble, disinterested and blessed”.
In the same address in Florence asked the rhetorical question: “So what do we have to do, father? — you would say. What is the Pope asking of us?” To which Francis answered: “It is up to you to decide: people and pastors together.”
(7) Synodality as a fundamental dimension of the Church
According to Francis, “What the Lord is asking of us is already in some sense present in the very word “synod”. Journeying together — laity, pastors, the Bishop of Rome — is an easy concept to put into words, but not so easy to put into practice,” Francis said on 17 October at the ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops by decision of Paul VI, explaining his conviction regarding the vital importance of synodality. Francis then observed: “From the beginning of my ministry as Bishop of Rome, I sought to enhance the Synod, which is one of the most precious legacies of the Second Vatican Council. For Blessed Paul VI, the Synod of Bishops was meant to reproduce the image of the Ecumenical Council and reflect its spirit and method. Pope Paul foresaw that the organization of the Synod could “be improved upon with the passing of time”. Twenty years later, Saint John Paul II echoed that thought when he stated that ‘this instrument might be further improved’.” Francis said on many occasions and in different contexts that: “a synodal Church is a Church which listens, which realizes that listening “is more than simply hearing”. It is a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn. The faithful people, the college of bishops, the Bishop of Rome: all listening to each other, and all listening to the Holy Spirit, the ‘Spirit of truth’ (Jn 14:17), in order to know what he ‘says to the Churches’ (Rev 2:7)”.
The Pope did not limit himself to pointing out a path, underlining, “it is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium”. He wished to outline the consequences in a clear and transparent way, avoiding ambiguity and pointless words. “The first level of the exercise of synodality is had in the particular Churches. (…) “The second level is that of Ecclesiastical Provinces and Ecclesiastical Regions, Particular Councils and, in a special way, Conferences of Bishops.” “The last level is that of the universal Church. Here the Synod of Bishops, representing the Catholic episcopate, becomes an expression of episcopal collegiality within an entirely synodal Church. Two different phrases: “episcopal collegiality” and an “entirely synodal Church”. This level manifests the collegialitas affectiva, which can also become in certain circumstances “effective”, joining the Bishops among themselves and with the Pope in solicitude for the People God.”
In this context, Pope Francis concluded: “While reaffirming the urgent need to think about “a conversion of the papacy”, I willingly repeat the words of my predecessor Pope John Paul II: “As Bishop of Rome I am fully aware [...] that Christ ardently desires the full and visible communion of all those Communities in which, by virtue of God’s faithfulness, his Spirit dwells. I am convinced that I have a particular responsibility in this regard, above all in acknowledging the ecumenical aspirations of the majority of the Christian Communities and in heeding the request made of me to find a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation”.
