A personal reflection on Pope Francis (Written 2nd March 2025)

 As I write this Pope Francis is seriously ill in hospital and the Catholic world is praying for him. During the past hundred years or so the proportion of Catholics has remained fairly steady at about 16% of the world’s population which has trebled in number. However, the centre of balance of the Church has dramatically changed. In 1910, Europe was home to about two-thirds of all Catholics, and nearly nine-in-ten lived either in Europe (65%) or Latin America (24%). By contrast in 2010, only about a quarter of all Catholics (24%) were in Europe. The largest share (39%) was in Latin America and the Caribbean. (Figures from Pew Research)

 

This change was reflected by the installation of Pope Francis, the first non-European pope for over a thousand years with his different. As the first Jesuit pope he has a charism of being grounded in love for Christ, a focus on discernment and animated by the spiritual vision of St. Ignatius of Loyola, to help others and seek God in all things. It is unsurprising that his modus operandi has come as shock to many in the west. 

 

His first encyclical  published in the year 2013 the Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium”, is the true ‘guiding manifesto’ of his Pontificate, in which he called for a new evangelization characterized by joy, as well as the reform of ecclesial structures and the conversion of the papacy, so that they may be more missionary and closer to the purpose intended by Jesus. For this reason, also in 2013, the Pope established a “Council of Cardinals” whose task is to study a project to revise the Apostolic Constitution “Pastor bonus” on the Roman Curia, dating back to 1988.

 

Since this beginning he has published other encyclicals dealing with the family, “Amoris Laetitia,” and the duty of care that we owe to the world, “Laudato si’ on Care of our Common Home.”

 

Like all of us Pope Francis is not without fault, but nobody can doubt his determination and zeal to carry on with the work and mission of his predecessors who have sat in the Chair of Peter to evangelise the world. His determination to carry on with his work can be seen by the start of his “Synod on Synodality” that is still evolving and transforming how the Church functions.

 

What has Pope Francis achieved? To start, the pontiff has achieved a great deal by living simply, speaking his mind, promoting frugality, and working for peace and justice. Pope Francis makes the news regularly with his reforms and proclamations. He has simplified annulment rules, threatened to shut down the Vatican Bank if it didn't embrace transparency and reform, and moved toward liberalizing the Vatican's stances on the environment, and the economy. He has also placed women in high positions within some of the Vatican departments. In the process, he's angered conservative and traditionalist Catholics around the world, who feel he's going too far, too fast. 

 

Personally, I think that Pope Francis is what the Church needs in this day of age. Sadly, I fear that his days are numbered. I hope and pray that the changes he has instituted are allowed to fully develop by his successor which I suspect will be before the year end.

Barry Mellish 2^nd March 2025

Who is responsible for the single old folk?

 I have a situation with an elderly cousin, or rather elderly widow of a cousin of mine. We are coping more less OK; but this situation is I suspect not uncommon and is part of what I feel is a major situation - care of the old and vulnerable and who is responsible for single old folk?

My cousin, we will call her "Mary", is a childless widow in her mid-nineties. She has no family members physically closer than a two hour plus drive away. Who would have been her closest relative, her sister,  has died as has one of her sister's two children. The other child is in his early eighties, suffers with Parkinson's, and is a four hour drive away! So in terms of blood relatives who could help we are down to great nieces and great nephews who are working, have their own families and are at least two hours away.

Her nephew and niece on her husband's side are in their sixties, do not have good health and are a four hour drive away. So we are left with folk like me, her husband's cousin and we are a two hour plus drive away so we cannot just "pop over". She has LPAs in place for Finance and Health & Welfare. (I am one of the two attorneys)It is easy enough to keep her finances in order using online banking and fortunately money is not an issue. But Health & Welfare LPAs do not kick in until the person has lost the capacity to make decisions and although she is in the early stages of dementia she does not cross the loss of decision making capacity threshold.

She has carers and they are very good but I cannot help feeling that her quality of life could be so much better if there was someone who could gently persuade her into doing things. Neighbours help with shopping and do the odd "handyman" job and there is a local tradesman who is trustworthy and reliable who does bigger things.

Maybe I shouldn't worry, but I do. I understand and accept that people shouldn't be bullied into doing things. Just because something is not what I would like doesn't mean it is wrong for other people. "Mary" says that things are fine, but she is slowly deteriorating and it is sad to see it happen. Talking to carers they themselves have similar issues with their own parents who live a distance away.  I guess that all we can do is let "Mary" make her decisions and we support her as best we can. At least she has us and others who visit when able and phone regularly. What about those who literally have nobody and have financial issues? 

Political and economic issues will ebb and flow. Leaders come and go and the shock waves that they cause will fade. But there will always be an ageing population who deserve our love and support.