Angelus News | July 29, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 15
On the cover: A pilgrim walks on his knees outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2019. For our special pilgrimage issue, on Page 10 Mike Aquilina writes on how the urge to leave everything and travel afar is as old as Christianity itself. On Page 14, Elise Ureneck recounts the unexpected graces of her last pilgrimage with her late mother, and on Page 16, California historian Stephen Binz points the way to the pilgrim path in our own backyard. On Page 20, Pasadena native Jenny Gorman Patton tells of finding the healing she needed, rather than the one she wanted, at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, France.
On the cover: A pilgrim walks on his knees outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2019. For our special pilgrimage issue, on Page 10 Mike Aquilina writes on how the urge to leave everything and travel afar is as old as Christianity itself. On Page 14, Elise Ureneck recounts the unexpected graces of her last pilgrimage with her late mother, and on Page 16, California historian Stephen Binz points the way to the pilgrim path in our own backyard. On Page 20, Pasadena native Jenny Gorman Patton tells of finding the healing she needed, rather than the one she wanted, at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, France.
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me, and said, ‘Do not forget about the poor.’ Those words<br />
were carved on my mind.”<br />
Thus, the Francis papacy was born.<br />
It’s ironic that Cardinal Hummes, who did so much to<br />
inspire the vision of this papacy, including its particular concern<br />
for the Amazon region, died <strong>July</strong> 4 at the age of 87, just<br />
as the latest steps in Pope Francis’ ongoing reform campaign<br />
were being revealed.<br />
On <strong>July</strong> 13, Pope Francis named three women to the<br />
Vatican’s über-powerful Dicastery for Bishops, formerly the<br />
Congregation for Bishops, which is responsible for recommending<br />
new bishops to the pope around the world.<br />
A good argument can be made that nothing any pope ever<br />
does is more important in terms of shaping the culture of<br />
the Catholic Church than the appointment of bishops, so by<br />
choosing who’ll recommend those names, a pope in effect is<br />
choosing whose instincts and preferences he trusts to set the<br />
tone for the Church for the next generation.<br />
The women named to the Dicastery are Sister Raffaella<br />
Petrini, FSE, secretary general of the Governorate of the<br />
Vatican City State; Sister Yvonne Reungoat, FMA, former<br />
superior general of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians;<br />
and Maria Lia Zervino, Ph.D., president of the World<br />
Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations.<br />
“I am open to giving (women) a chance,” Pope Francis said<br />
in an interview with Reuters days before the nominations, after<br />
being asked by the news agency about his plans to further<br />
promote the role of women at the Vatican.<br />
“This way, things are opening up a bit,” the pope added.<br />
At the time, Pope Francis didn’t specify which women he<br />
intended to appoint to the bishops’ panel. Still, for traditionalists<br />
who believe that such matters should pertain exclusively<br />
to clergy, it was the latest papal pronouncement destined<br />
to engender heartburn.<br />
To be clear, not everyone is ready to hail Pope Francis as<br />
the “Great Reformer,” in the phrase of his leading English-language<br />
biographer Austen Ivereigh.<br />
Some Catholic feminists find Pope Francis’ steps so far<br />
toward empowering women — naming a woman, for example,<br />
as the <strong>No</strong>. 2 official in the Vatican City State, another<br />
as an official of the Synod for Bishops, and so on — to be<br />
half-measures, and remain frustrated that he hasn’t moved to<br />
ordain women as deacons, a measure recommended by the<br />
very Synod of Bishops for the Amazon Region that his good<br />
friend Cardinal Hummes did so much to encourage.<br />
“How much longer should Catholic women be expected<br />
to be grateful at being offered crumbs from the table?” asked<br />
Kathleen Cummings, professor of American Studies at the<br />
University of <strong>No</strong>tre Dame,<br />
Maria Lia Zervino, an Argentinian who is<br />
president of the World Union of Catholic<br />
Women’s Organizations, shows Pope<br />
Francis a document on June 11, during a<br />
meeting in the library of the Apostolic Palace<br />
at the Vatican. The Vatican announced<br />
on <strong>July</strong> 13 that the pope had named<br />
Zervino to be a member of the Dicastery<br />
for Bishops. | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA<br />
in a <strong>July</strong> 6 statement.<br />
In other areas, too, some<br />
object that Pope Francis’<br />
reforms fall short of real<br />
change. From the left,<br />
one hears such objections<br />
about his openness on<br />
LGBTQ issues, which<br />
falls short of endorsing<br />
gay marriage; from the<br />
right, some grouse that the<br />
pope’s advocacy for the<br />
unborn doesn’t include<br />
Communion bans for pro-choice Catholic politicians.<br />
Such complaints are baked into the cake for anyone in a<br />
position of leadership. One person’s “reform,” inevitably, is<br />
another’s failure or disappointment.<br />
What no one can reasonably doubt, however, is that Pope<br />
Francis has remained true to the charge given by his friend<br />
Cardinal Hummes, not to forget the poor.<br />
We got another reminder this week, when the Vatican confirmed<br />
that Pope Francis will travel to Assisi, his namesake’s<br />
home, for the sixth time on Sept. 24. The occasion will be<br />
the first in-person gathering of a new movement he helped<br />
launch called the “Economy of Francis,” which brings<br />
together young economists, businesspeople, academics,<br />
and other change agents desiring to build a new economy<br />
inspired by the vision of St. Francis of Assisi.<br />
One prays that Cardinal Hummes, whatever his own<br />
private catalog of frustrations and disappointments over the<br />
last nine years, nevertheless may rest in peace, knowing his<br />
legacy lives on in the papacy he helped name.<br />
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.<br />
<strong>July</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2022</strong> • ANGELUS • 25