The Humble Pope
April 17, 2013
If
you know anything at all about the new Pope, Pope Francis, you must
know this: he is the humble Pope. From the day of his election he has
been widely praised for his humility. A recent article from The Washington Post is representative, lauding him for his humble deeds.Over the past two weeks, with one act of humility after another, Pope Francis has proven he’s willing to break with tradition. Just after being named the new pontiff, he asked the faithful to pray for him, rather than the other way around. He’s refused to stand on the customary platform above other archbishops and dressed himself in simpler vestments than his predecessors. He’s made a practice of shunning the rich trappings of the position, from paying his own hotel bill to opting out of the palatial apartment popes have lived in for a century in favor of simpler digs.
On Maundy Thursday it is traditional for the Pope to wash the feet of a dozen people. Where Popes have traditionally washed the feet of priests, Francis chose to wash the feet of twelve juvenile inmates. Such deeds are consistent with his legacy from Argentina where he was reputed to fly coach instead of first class and to ride public transit between home and office. These are the deeds that have proven so attractive and that stand in stark contrast to many of his predecessors.
What is humility? Humility, in the words of Wayne Mack, “consists in an attitude wherein we recognize our own insignificance and unworthiness before God and attribute to Him the supreme honor, praise, prerogatives, rights, privileges, worship, devotion, authority, submission, and obedience that He alone deserves. It also involves a natural, habitual tendency to think and behave in a manner that appropriately expresses this attitude.” Mack gets straight to the heart of humility when he shows that it is expressed before God before it is expressed before man. Humility before others must grow out of humility before God. If we are fundamentally proud before God, we simply cannot be humble before man.
By definition and by Catholic dogma, Francis is no humble Pope.
The Vicar of Christ
According to the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, the most fundamental claim about the Pope is that he is the Vicar of Christ. “For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.” A vicar is a substitute (as we see in the word vicarious), which means, according to James White, that the Pope “functions in the place of Christ as the earthly head of the Church as Christ is the heavenly leader.” The Pope claims to be Christ’s representative on earth, left here to rule the Church. Yet this claim demeans the role of the Holy Spirit, for it is the Spirit to whom Christ has entrusted his church. As White says, “The truth of the matter is that the Holy Spirit’s role has been taken over by the hierarchy of the Church, and the individual Christian is subject to that authority as a matter of his eternal salvation.” Pope Francis proclaims that he is Christ’s Vicar on earth and that he, like Christ, has supreme and unhindered authority on earth.The humble Pope must revoke his blasphemous claim to supremacy and instead direct people to the care of the Holy Spirit.
Infallibility
The claim of infallibility simply cannot be reconciled with the claim of humility.
The
Roman Catholic Church attributes infallibility, the impossibility of
error, to the Pope “when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and
teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority,
he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the
whole Church.” Essentially, this doctrine teaches that God has given us a
spokesman on earth who can authoritatively and infallibly address the
most difficult questions related to life and doctrine. While the
specifics of papal infallibility are complex and debated, in any form it
infringes upon the authority of the Bible. Again, James White explains:
“Papal infallibility is really the capstone of the entire denial of sola scriptura.
We are told we can find an infallible guide in the person of the Pope,
one who can speak for the Church without question on matters of faith
and morals. It is impossible not to point out the simple fact that in
this doctrine one finds the final step in a process that began with the
first addition of a human tradition to the Scriptures: the process of
replacing the Holy Spirit of God with a structure of man’s making.” The claim of infallibility simply cannot be reconciled with the claim of humility.
The humble Pope must declare his own fallibility and instead call
upon the church to examine in the light of God’s Word every word he
speaks and every word his predecessors have already spoken.