Someone a few weeks ago mentioned having been to a music concert, and gave me the musician's name. I responded with the "smile and nod" and said, "oh, good". He knew I had absolutely no idea who the musician was. Dumbfounded, he came right out with it: "you've never heard of him have you?" I had to admit I had not (and I have to admit right now that I do not even remember who it was). He even asked a second time to see if I was joking, but, no, I was not. Generally speaking, I do not have an attraction to celebrities. I have no interest in meeting them or getting my picture taken with them--they are just humans in the difficult situation of being in the public eye.
Let us try an experiment on this subject. Name a celebrity that everyone has heard of. Go ahead and take a few minutes to think of one. It might be hard to think of one that everyone has heard of. Sadly, I can name one: Pope Francis. I could not say whether he has created this state of affairs, but it is true. I am not speaking just about the fact that people know his name, for that is not the same as being a celebrity. There are many whose names might be known by a lot of people, but they are not celebrities, per se.
A "celebrity" is usually someone who is not only well known, but also provides some kind of entertainment (though he does not need to be a professional entertainer to provide entertainment). A celebrity is someone whom others want to get their picture taken with, or get a signed autograph from. A celebrity has fans. On the other hand, a person who is merely well known, will usually not fall into these categories.
Whether this situation is by the hand of Pope Francis or not, it is a genuine situation. People are seeing and treating Pope Francis as a celebrity. I am not sure if he has shown up on the cover of The Enquirer yet, but I would not be surprised if he has. It is this treatment of him as "celebrity" instead of "Holy Father" that has helped to contribute to much of the confusion that we have in the Church today. The Catholic usage of the term "father" is not an accident (the Apostle Paul used it of himself in relation to his parishes that he founded), nor is it unbiblical (in spite of what many protestants claim). It is fully intentional.
The priest as "father" of his parish has certain "fatherly" duties. He is the one in charge (the buck stops here). He is the one to lead his "children" in the worship of God. He is also the one to teach them about Him. The same is true of each Bishop, and the same is (supposed to be) true of the Pope. When, however, the Pope is treated as a celebrity who is in charge of a large corporation (like the man who owns Facebook, Mark something-or-other; I think it starts with a "Z") then we get confused. This somewhat prevents the Pope from doing his duty as "Holy Father" of the entire Catholic Church.
It also, unfortunately, creates an awful temptation for the Pope. This is so because he is tempted to behave like a celebrity. Bring to mind the "photo-ops", and the quick conversations with off-the-cuff unprepared comments ("Pope Francis--over here--can I get a few words from you? Please speak into the mic. What is your opinion of the latest Avengers movie?"). Additionally, this has also encouraged the world to go overboard with the understanding of the Pope's authority. No priest or bishop is an infallible leader of his people; they (like physical fathers) make mistakes and commit sins, and they need to repent of them. So, generally speaking, we understand this in the arena of a parish or a diocese; but it seems to have been confused for the Pope.
To a certain degree, it may be better if the world would just ignore the Pope for a while. Then he might be able to focus on the duty of leading the Church throughout the world, and stop being concerned about the media throughout the world. After all, a good father does not draw attention to himself, but rather sees his duty to help his children to grow in their faith so that they can go out into the world and do what they are called to do. Let us pray that our Holy Father would see this as his duty; let us pray that Christ our Lord would grant him this grace.
