Pope Francis in danger of talking himself into trouble

Though they are seen as refreshingly honest to some people, the Pope’s opinions on women and procreation are irresponsible, writes TP O’Mahony

It’s a fair bet that the whispering has started in the upper echelons of the Vatican about the “follies” of Pope Francis. This is a Pope in real danger of talking himself into trouble.

“The world has fallen in love with Pope Francis, which is a good thing, but we should be cautious of the constant claims that he intends to change church teaching,” warned Anthony Murphy, editor of the Catholic Voice newspaper, last October.

That warning has since taken on added pertinence. During a recent visit to the Philippines, Pope Francis again expressed his support for Humanae Vitae, the anti-contraception encyclical issued in 1968 by Pope Paul VI. Then, on the flight back to Rome from Manila, Pope Francis made comments about a pregnant woman that were both insensitive and disingenuous.

Speaking to journalists, the Pope, while upholding the Catholic Church’s ban on contraception, said Catholics do not have to “breed like rabbits”, but should practise “responsible parenting”. He cited the case of a woman he met who was pregnant with her eighth child after seven caesarean sections. “That is an irresponsibility,” he said. Although the woman might argue that she trusts in God, “God gives you the methods to be responsible,” he said.

If it is an irresponsibility, then it is also an irresponsibility on the part of the Pope, who steadfastly maintains the position that the only licit forms of family planning are the so-called natural or rhythm method and abstinence from sexual intercourse. In the 21st century, Humanae Vitae is almost universally regarded as a discredited encyclical. In the words of an editorial in the English Catholic weekly The Tablet, it is “just wrong”. Sadly, however, there are still parts of the world where official Catholic teaching on family planning holds sway.

In addition, the Vatican regularly uses its statehood status to demand a place at international conferences (a place denied to other Churches) to use its influence to block programmes that promote the use of condoms, either for family planning purposes or in the battle against AIDS.

Austen Ivereigh, author of a new book entitled The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope, writes that “Francis’s radicalism is not to be confused with a progressive doctrine or ideology... He will not compromise on the hot-button issues that divide the Church from the secular West — a gap liberals would like to close by modernising doctrine”.

Ivereigh tell us that Francis has given more interviews in 18 months as Pope than in 12 years as cardinal-archbishop in Argentina, along with airborne press conferences where no question is off the table. “In one interview at the end of 2014, with the Rome daily Il Messagero, the reporter felt comfortable enough to ask if she could make a criticism. ‘Of course,’ said Francis. She took him to task for talking about women only as wives and mothers, rather than rulers of states or big businesses. He understood the point, and said they were working on a new theology of women.”

The Dublin-based theologian Gina Menzies has said the “most disappointing aspects of Francis’s papacy to date is in relation to women”. The criticism that the Catholic Church is not an inclusive church has been powerfully voiced in Mary T Malone’s new book, The Elephant in the Church. “Even Pope Francis, with his refreshing new openness to new possibilities, has definitely linked himself with his predecessors on the subject of women, at least on the subject of women’s ordination. When he speaks of a new theology of women, he is definitely not speaking about Christian feminist theology, but about a theology of women done by men, as it has always been done.”

Ms Malone, who taught for many years at the University of Waterloo in Canada and now lives in Wexford, was not alone in being dismayed that, in his very first major document, the ‘Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium’ (‘The Joy of the Gospel’) released in November 2013, Pope Francis chose to reiterate the view of his predecessor, John Paul II, that the ordination of women was a closed question. “The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion,” said Francis.

Ms Malone points out that, in recent interviews, “women are the topic on which Pope Francis has least to say, except to indicate that he is fearful of feminists, or ‘female machismo’ as he terms it. It is a wholly male discussion of a male Church, with a male conciliar tradition and a male-dominant renewal”.

Whether Pope Francis can, or even wants, to change any of this remains to be seen and may come to be regarded as the litmus test of his pontificate. All we can safely saw at this stage is that, despite the numerous press conferences and the fact Vatican journalists are busier than ever, the utterances of this much-quoted Pope on women do not support the description of him by his latest biographer as “the great reformer”.

• The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope by Austen Ivereigh is published by Allen & Unwin at £14.99; The Elephant in the Church: A Woman’s Tract for Our Times by Mary T Malone is published by The Columbia Press at €12.99.