[Pope Watch] The 4-minute speech that got Francis elected

MANILA, Philippines – How did a cardinal from Buenos Aires, hardly considered a papabile in 2013, become the first pope from Latin America?

Vatican commentators have attributed the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, later known as Pope Francis, to a nearly four-minute speech in a pre-conclave meeting.

In this speech, Bergoglio criticized a “self-referential” church, one that thinks too much of itself. He said that the Church “is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries.” He posed this as a challenge for the next pope — which would turn out to be him.

Bergoglio delivered this speech during the pre-conclave meetings called “general congregations.” 

“A general congregation is simply a meeting of the cardinals,” said Father Aris Sison, spokesperson of the Diocese of Cubao and a veteran commentator on ecclesiastical affairs, on Rappler Talk. 

The general congregation is the venue to decide matters such as the date of the Pope’s funeral and the start of the conclave. It also includes “discussions about the state of the world, the state of the Church, our present needs, and maybe the qualifications and characteristics that we will most probably need in the next pope,” Sison said.

While cardinals have often said the conclave is the work of the Holy Spirit, the general congregations are the venue where much of the more “human” aspects happen.

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“The general congregations offer a forum that’s more open and discussion-oriented than the actual conclave,” said John Thavis, a veteran Vatican journalist, in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter. “This allows cardinals to exchange views, identify candidates and, to some degree, lobby for their favorites.”

The cardinals are already holding general congregations ahead of the conclave to elect Francis’ successor. The conclave is set to begin on May 7.

Will another candidate from the Global South gain the approval of the cardinals through a speech like Bergoglio’s?

But what, in the first place, did Bergoglio tell his brother cardinals? 

Francis gave an outline of his speech to Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega, the archbishop of Havana, in 2013. He also allowed Ortega to share the information.

Here is an outline of Bergoglio’s 2013 speech, as published by Vatican Radio:

Bergoglio’s Intervention: A diagnosis of the problems in the Church

Evangelizing implies apostolic zeal

1. Evangelizing presupposes a desire in the Church to come out of herself. The Church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual currents, and of all misery.

2. When the Church does not come out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential and then gets sick. (cf. The deformed woman of the Gospel). The evils that, over time, happen in ecclesial institutions have their root in self-referentiality and a kind of theological narcissism. In Revelation, Jesus says that he is at the door and knocks. Obviously, the text refers to his knocking from the outside in order to enter but I think about the times in which Jesus knocks from within so that we will let him come out. The self-referential Church keeps Jesus Christ within herself and does not let him out.

3. When the Church is self-referential, inadvertently, she believes she has her own light; she ceases to be the mysterium lunae and gives way to that very serious evil, spiritual worldliness (which according to De Lubac, is the worst evil that can befall the Church). It lives to give glory only to one another.

Put simply, there are two images of the Church: Church which evangelizes and comes out of herself, the Dei Verbum religiose audiens et fidente proclamans; and the worldly Church, living within herself, of herself, for herself. This should shed light on the possible changes and reforms which must be done for the salvation of souls.

4. Thinking of the next pope: He must be a man who, from the contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ, helps the Church to go out to the existential peripheries, that helps her to be the fruitful mother, who gains life from “the sweet and comforting joy of evangelizing.” – Rappler.com