11/18/2023 0 Comments Linkedin background photo travelPutting such young clerics in such important positions ensures a generation’s worth of likeminded leadership in the Vatican and archdioceses around the world. At the same time, he’s elevated several cardinals in their 50s - and in some cases their 40s - including the auxiliary bishop of Lisbon who is organizing World Youth Day. To then implement the vision that emerges from the synod, Francis has been naming a slew of unusually young bishops for key archdioceses - in his native Buenos Aires, Madrid and Brussels, among others. “I really think that for Pope Francis, he felt that ‘OK, now it’s mature’ and it would be good really to involve all the members, all the people in the synod as members” with the right to vote, said Sister Nathalie Becquart, who is one of the key synod organizers. The meeting is intended to give direction on such hot-button issues as the place of LGBTQ+ Catholics and women in the church, and for the first time will feature women and young people voting on proposals alongside bishops. His global canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics about their vision for the future comes to fruition this October with a big synod at the Vatican. Francis’ perennial social justice concerns about climate change, social inequality and fraternity, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine, are expected to be major themes.īeyond Portugal, though, Francis’ multifold strategy for laying the groundwork for the future is coming together and will hit significant marks in the coming months. John Paul II launched in 1986 to galvanize young Catholics in their faith, is expected to draw up to 1 million people for the first post-pandemic event of its kind. “He’s laying the basis now, laying the ground, for the future.”Īnd no better place to put it on display than at a World Youth Day. “The sense I get is that this is the consolidation phase of the pontificate,” said papal biographer Austen Ivereigh. He seems aware that he has a limited sweet spot of time to solidify the changes he believes are necessary for the 21st century church, and is looking to the next generation of faithful and leaders to execute them. Unencumbered by the shadow of Pope Benedict XVI, who died seven months ago, and despite recovering from a second intestinal surgery in as many years, the 86-year-old Francis is opening a frenetic second half of the year with his Portugal visit. After 10 years as pope, Francis is accelerating his reform agenda and making revolutionary changes in personnel and policy that are definitely shaking things up. VATICAN CITY (AP) - When Pope Francis made the first foreign trip of his papacy, to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in 2013, he urged young people to make a “mess” in their local churches, to shake things up even if it ruffled the feathers of their bishops.Īs he embarks this week on another edition of World Youth Day, in Lisbon, Portugal, Francis in many ways has taken his own advice to heart.
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