A Poor Church for the Poor

In a talk Pope Francis gave today to Korea’s religious communities he had seemingly harsh words for those who take vows of poverty but live in luxury.  He called this hypocrisy that damages the souls of people.  He emphasized the importance of the Church’s witness of poverty in the lives of professed religious, especially to a world that prizes efficiency and consumption.  We know that this is a central concern for Pope Francis, but lest we dismiss it as solely his personal preference, we need to recall that this was also a concern of Pope Benedict XVI.  In fact just before he abdicated the papacy, in his final trip to Germany he addressed the importance of poverty for the Church’s mission:

Secularizing trends – whether by expropriation of Church goods, or elimination of privileges or the like – have always meant a profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness, for in the process she as it were sets aside her worldly wealth and once again completely embraces her worldly poverty. …At those moments in history, the Church shared … the demands of a poverty that was open to the world, in order to be released from her material ties: and in this way her missionary activity regained credibility.  History has shown that, when the Church becomes less worldly, her missionary witness shines more brightly. Once liberated from material and political burdens and privileges, the Church can reach out more effectively and in a truly Christian way to the whole world, she can be truly open to the world. She can live more freely her vocation to the ministry of divine worship and service of neighbour.

This is exactly what Pope Francis means when he says he wants “a poor Church for the poor.”  He has explained that a poor Church is one that realizes it has nothing of its own to give of redemptive value, that absolutely everything it has is from Christ, upon Whom it is completely and totally dependent.  Yet, he insists that it is not sufficient to know a theoretical poverty; one must experience it, to touch the flesh of the poor Christ in order to learn humility, solidarity, sharing, and love. 

Francis is beginning the Church’s return to a radical Christian poverty with those who have taken this vow.  We have been told that he is working on a new encyclical on this very topic.  Yet, he is also clear that every Christian is called to a radical living out of the life of Christ in the world.  This will be very hard for many of us to accept, but history shows us that renewal in the Church generally begins with reform among religious who then influence the laity.  There is a very close connection between restraint in material consumption and holiness.   How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. 

This connection between poverty and mission is also linked to Francis’s desire for a Church for the poor.  He recognizes that the poor are sinners just like the rich.  However, he is convinced that among the baptized poor there is a powerful spiritual fecundity which can and must be harnessed.  Their daily experience of poverty provides great opportunity for the New Evangelization and it is in the area of popular piety that this emphasis should be focused.  Popular piety seems to originate among the poor but it extends to the rest of society in its evangelizing efficacy.   For these reasons, popular piety is a central concern for the New Evangelization.  For more on this topic, take a look at our article on Popular Piety and the New Evangelization.