Church, quo vadis?

Where to, Catholic Church?

That’s the question on many people’s minds following the passing of the most popular pope I have seen in my lifetime.

Pope Francis made the Roman Catholic Church accessible, a refuge for those suffering from the myriad pains of existence. He represented a God who is loving in the purest form of the word, compassionate and merciful.

I know lapsed Catholics who were drawn back to the faith after Jorge Mario Bergoglio became pope. That was no small feat in this age of pleasure-seeking, self-indulgent materialism.

President Marcos is not alone in considering Francis as “the best pope.”

Seeing the global outpouring of grief and sympathy over Pope Francis’ death should make the Church think carefully about veering away from the progressive path through which he had led the faith during his 12-year papacy.

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Staying on the path that Francis chose is not as simple as it seems. Even in global politics, we can see a shift in public preference for a return to conservatism. Will the Church hold on to the faithful who were won back by Pope Francis, or aim for what may seem like a bigger flock of traditionalists?

The selection of the reformist Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pope was seen as a call for change as the doctrinal rigidity of his predecessor, German theologian Benedict XVI, alienated the faithful who thought the Church was becoming an anachronism.

That rigidity turned away from the faith many women who needed spiritual solace when their marriages fell apart, or who opted to become solo parents, or who turned to contraceptives to space childbirths. I know women from my teenage years who would have benefited from spiritual comforting after undergoing clandestine abortions.

Several Filipino priests we interviewed on One News’ “Storycon” pointed out that Francis in fact adhered to Church doctrine, but didn’t want the shepherds of the faith to be judgmental on how people led their lives.

So Francis allowed transgender believers to be baptized and same-sex partners to receive Church blessings although not as couples, saying that homosexuality is not a crime, and “who am I to judge” gays in the Church?

There is pushback against such ideas, as we are seeing in the United States, where an overwhelming majority voted for a president who has decreed the legal and official recognition only of the two genders at birth.

Pope Francis’ positions on immigration riled Donald Trump early on. And yet Trump himself announced that he and his wife Melania would be attending Francis’ funeral. US Vice President JD Vance and his family also managed to meet with the pope on Easter Sunday, the eve of his death.

Francis promoted understanding of why marriages break up and allowed divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion. He still opposed ordination of women, but gave them a voice in the selection of cardinals.

If the next pope decides to return to conservatism, will such reforms be rolled back, and will it weaken or strengthen the Church?

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Even in our country, religious devotion, which is very much alive, tends to tilt toward conservatism. We saw this devotion again during Holy Week.

Why do people turn to religion? There are so many things that science still cannot explain, so many human afflictions that continue to stump scientists, and so much phenomena that we can only describe as otherworldly.

We haven’t even unlocked the mysteries of sleep. As Billie Eilish put it, when we go to sleep, where do we go?

So what’s wrong with believing in souls, in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in resurrection and redemption? Religious faith can be good for mental health.

Having been educated in a Catholic parochial school run by a religious order, I found my grade school Catechism lessons comforting. For a child terrified by ghosts and malevolent critters lurking in the dark, I found comfort in the idea that there were always benevolent spirits watching over me.

Even if the Holy Trinity and Mother Mary were busy watching over millions of other people and trillions of God’s other creations, we were taught that we had individual guardian angels hovering over each of us, keeping us company. And that if we clasped our hands in prayer and looked up to the sky, we could have a direct line to a God who loves us.

What comfort those concepts gave my young mind. I loved the rituals of the faith, the weekly bonding with my family for Sunday mass, and especially the activities celebrating Christmas and the Christian feasts.

The idea that good always triumphs over evil also helps shape children’s early behavior. This, of course, goes through layers of nuancing on the road to adulthood, as the interpretation of certain aspects of good and evil become subjective.

By the time I began working after graduation from the secular, radicalized University of the Philippines, I had developed ideas that went against teachings of the Church on many basic issues of the faith related to life in the modern world.

The love, it seemed, had gone from my Church, replaced by unbending dogmatism that would later be compounded by scandals involving clergy sexual abuse, corruption and financial mismanagement. In this Church, most of us were sinners destined for eternal damnation.

I saw no redemption until Pope Francis came along. Seeing the reactions to his passing, I know I’m not alone in feeling his effect on the sheep that strayed far away from the Church.

With Pope Francis joining his Creator, will the sheep wander away again? This will depend on the path the Church takes in the coming weeks.