Just What Kind of Revolution is Francis Calling For?
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/atheologies/7217/just_what_kind_of_revolution_is_francis_calling_for/July 30, 2013
By MANUEL A. VÁSQUEZ AND SILVIA ALVES FERNANDES
Francis’s visit to Brazil has generated an enormous outpouring of emotion and fervor. From the moment he stepped out of the plane he was been mobbed by throngs of excited followers straining to see and touch him. Francis has relished the opportunity to get close to the people which, among other things, has given his security detail veritable nightmares. What accounts for this tumultuous reception, particularly in the wake of so much popular frustration and anger expressed in street protests just a couple of weeks ago?
Judging by the testimony of many Brazilians who flocked to see Francis, it has a great deal to do with his impressive capacity to express empathy, care and intimacy, a capacity eloquently conveyed through speeches and symbols, such as his address upon arrival in which he humbly declared: “I have learned that to have access to the Brazilian people, it is necessary to enter through the door of their immense heart. So, allow me that in this hour I may delicately knock on this door. I ask permission to enter and spend this week with you.”
More importantly, Francis expresses a genuine embodied desire to be present, lowering the window of the car transporting him amid the multitude, kissing babies, hugging people with disabilities, walking the streets of Varginha in the cold rain. With a self-effacing humor, he told the crowd, “When I first decided to come to Brazil, I wanted to knock on every door and say good morning . . . ask for a glass of water, drink a coffee but not a shot of cachaça [a popular hard liquor].”
Without essentializing Brazilian culture, anthropologists such as Sérgio Buarque de Holanda and Roberto DaMatta have observed that Brazilians value very highly informality, the personal touch, the affective force and cordiality of friendship and kinship ties, and the intimacy of home as a space of human warmth, authenticity and safety against the competitive, impersonal, and cold world of the street. Drawing from his own background, Francis’s sermons and actions strongly resonate with these Brazilian “habits of the heart,” as sociologist Robert Bellah put it, particularly at time of widespread economic uncertainty and persistent social inequalities. One ecstatic young Catholic from Varginha put it well: “I think this pope is very different . . . . He hugs people. He’s from the people. This pope is a Brazilian.”
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I have never been a fan of the RCC and their hierarchy, including the popes.
But they are here to stay, imo, and even a minor turn in the right direction gives me a glimmer of hope.
They could be such a powerful organization for good. I'm not optimistic, but I would like to see them at least stop perpetuating bad.
It's a really tough one for me. I don't want to be in the position of defending him or his institutions.
On the other hand, my son is about to marry into a very catholic family and will most likely convert.
It is for him, his new family and his children that I hang on to a shred of hope for the RCC as an institution.
And for all the other good catholics on this earth.
You are such a dear and I feel so fortunate to have you as a friend.
Hope all is well.
