One of the most popular movies of 2022 was titled Elvis. Everyone knows who that is. Since much of the film took place in my hometown of Memphis, I naturally went to see it. I even wrote a column at the time about how my life and Elvis’ life had crossed (e.g. I was baptized at a church across the street from the housing project where Elvis was living with his parents). Not everyone liked the stylistic elements of the movie, but the most common critical remark was “the film made Elvis relevant again.” We got a feel for what had largely been lost over the last sixty years:  the excitement of his live concerts in the 1950’s, the first few films in which he appeared, and then the first few years of his return to live concerts in the late 1960’s. But those brief years of musical genius were largely buried under the cheaply made movies in the 1960’s with forgettable songs, his later concerts when he was fat and bloated and in a drug induced stupor, and most significantly, the hundreds of Elvis imitators who emerged after his early death. They appeared at street fairs and small clubs, and they were all a bit pudgy and wearing his most outlandish costumes. Someone once asked, “Why doesn’t anyone imitate the young Elvis?” The answer was, “Because no one can.” That was true until we saw the movie.

While the comparison may be inappropriate, what the movie did for Elvis Presley is what Pope Francis has done for the Catholic Church. For many people, he has made the Catholic Church relevant again. As I write these words on Monday morning, Pope Francis has been hospitalized with pneumonia since February 14. Although he has shown some improvement, his health remains very precarious. Whatever his health permits him to do going forward, his impact on the Church during the twelve years he has been Pope is unquestionable.

This kind of thing happens every so often in church history. I have vague childhood memories of Pope John XXIII, a very charismatic figure, who at the beginning of the 1960’s called for a world meeting of bishops and theologians in an effort to “open the windows” and let in some fresh air. I experienced the impact of that meeting when I was starting high school and the experience of attending Mass changed radically from what it had been. For a brief season the many changes in the Church energized a new generation of Catholics. When John Paul II became Pope in 1978, he brought a youthful energy, a history of resistance to Communism, and gave encouragement to more traditional Catholics, who had felt marginalized for some time. But as John Paul aged and became more bound up by Parkinson’s Disease, his presence waned. Pope Benedict was an academic who wrote some beautiful messages, but was also embraced a lot of papal trappings of the past. More and more the Catholic Church had become, in the words of one bishop, “an old scold.” We condemned much of modern life, but we did not seem to live in it.

From the moment Pope Francis stepped out on the balcony after his election, it was clear that he was different. Although the pope is the ultimate insider, Pope Francis always comes across as the ultimate outsider. This was important to a generation that had become mistrustful of institutions. He liked to mingle with people in ways that most important people do not. He did not just talk about caring for the poor; he washed the feet of prisoners on Holy Thursday. He became a strong advocate for the environment, an issue important to most younger people but one still largely ignored by politicians. He has angered government leaders by speaking up for migrants. He opened some doors to the laity and to women that had been previously closed., and he has closed some doors to the traditional Latin Mass.  He spoke about morality in a way that made sense to people in a Post-Christian culture. It was not just about being on the right side or the wrong side of the law, but are your growing in understanding of Christ’s teaching? He has asked bishops and pastors to look more at how the structures of the church can serve people than how people can conform to the structures of the church. In the end, he has disappointed both traditionalists and progressives within the church by not taking up their side more vigorously. There may be a good reason for that. A couple of months ago at a gathering of Chicago priests, Cardinal Cupich said that Pope Francis had said at a bishops meeting that he believed his main responsibility was to preserve the unity of the Church. In that context we can understand some of the decisions he has made.

The Catholic Church, of course, is not the Pope; but every leader sets a certain tone. Whatever the future brings, the time of Pope Francis will not soon be forgotten.

                                                                            Fr. Joe