Saturday, January 19, 2019

VICARIUS

A non-Catholic asked me recently a very pointed question about Pope Francis. It was not actually critical of him, but was asking why he is not a better example of what the Catholic Church teaches. It was actually very profound for someone who is not trained in Catholic theology. I gave a simple answer that points out the problems with treating the Pope as a celebrity, and also the fact that the Pope in Catholic theology is never viewed as perfect in holiness.

This also reminded me of the medieval acronym for "Vicarius" (the word in the Pope's title of "Vicarius Christi" which means "representative of Christ"). "Vir Inutilis Carens Auctoritate Rare Intelligentiae Umbra Superioris" shows up somewhere as a unique example of how they often thought of the Popes. The Latin phrase means essentially: “A useless man, lacking authority, rarely of intelligence, the shadow of his superior” (thanks Fr. Z). Yet, the Church still stands even when led by "useless men" (and that has happened more than once).

It does not appear in medieval times that there were people leaving the Church in droves when they had bad Popes. Rather, they just hunkered down and focused on what really matters -- faith in Christ Himself. One of the bad effects of having two very likeable Popes in a row (John Paul II and Benedict XVI) is that we expect to be able to like the current Pope. No such promise exists, and we should be careful not to presume that if we do not like him that he is automatically out to destroy us. Maybe he is out to destroy us, but whether or not that is true, we are still supposed to maintain our hope and faith in our Savior, not His "Vicarius".

Is it OK to dislike Pope Francis? Well, I would want to be cautious about that. We each must examine our hearts to determine if our dislike is genuinely an outgrowth of our love for God and all the things of God, or if we are just being cranky and finding reasons to gripe about every bad thing that occurs. In fact, if you spend some time reading 1 and 2  Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament, you will see that God often gives us bad leaders precisely because He wants to test us to see if we will respond with faith in Him or throw up our hands in despair (and those who did the latter, were dealt with by the Lord accordingly). We each need to examine our hearts to determine whether we are passing this test that God is putting us in.

Do we have a good Vicarius or a bad Vicarius? I have spoken my opinion about this previously, but that is not really the issue. What matters is that we trust God to protect us from idolizing a good Vicarius, as well as from the attacks of a bad Vicarius (which is certainly possible). What would the latter be like? God never promises that we will not have to go through serious persecution (and He actually says if we are faithful, we will have to!). Ready yourself now. Husbands, help your families to be ready. Priests, help your parishioners to be ready. Let all of us do what is needed to stand firm for the future.