85% percent of Catholics are unhappy*

[flaming] hot takes on the Francis papacy round 1

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I find it so bizarre that the public expected immediate hot takes on Francis as soon as he dies. Would you ask me to write a hot take about my dad the day after he died? Those of us who actually have reverence for the chair of Peter need time to grieve, to pray, and to process our thoughts. And so, two weeks later, here we are: our hot takes on the Francis papacy (part 1).

And FYI you can read our entire collection of Francis content here. Especially this piece, which is our most important Francis thing ever.

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Live footage of me poking the pope’s hand

Francis became pope just a few months after I “reverted” to Catholicism. During that time, I had encountered numerous Catholics who had different styles of living their faith. The vast majority focused their energies on matters of morality, politics, and piety. For them, the crux of being Catholic meant avoiding mortal sin, advocating against abortion or for immigrant rights, or going to TLM and obtaining lots of plenary indulgences. I should note that I encountered many of those Catholics on Tumblr.

But then there were others I met [irl] who focused their attention on the person of Christ himself, and the ways that he was revealing himself in the mundane details of reality. Their intimacy with Christ lived in the context of the everyday (and not apart from it) distinguished them from the other Catholics I met: they were genuinely happy. There was something contagious about their joy that made you want to follow them and find out about the source of their happiness.

A few months later, Pope Francis published his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, emphasizing that the heart of the Christian experience is the joy of encountering and being in relationship with Christ. And that the Christian’s main purpose in the world is to share this joy, to be a sign of hope in a world that is becoming increasingly hopeless.

Surely, apologetics, doctrine, ethics, politics, social justice, etc. matter. And this is not to say that Christians should never publicly defend their faith. But if this is all we think about, we are missing out on the purpose for which Christ came into the world in the first place. Our priority—the most essential thing—is the joy of meeting Christ. Everything else is secondary. If Christianity doesn’t make us happier (no, not in a sentimental sense, but in an existential sense), then it is a big waste of time.

The Pope’s exhortation incited me to spend more time with those happier Catholics, and to distance myself (a lil bit, not completely) from those who focused on more secondary things. This is not to dismiss the fidelity of those who were focused on those other important but less essential things. In the words of Francis, “who am I to judge” them as human beings? But I can indeed judge that these people were less happy, as their priorities were not wrong, but out of order. And it soon became clear to me that Christians who prioritize secondary matters over the essential matter of falling in love with Christ tend to be less excited about sharing the gift of his love with others…and so are less capable of being signs of hope and agents of good in the world.

Many falsely believe that the main problem in the world today is that people are “too secular,” “too liberal,” or “too morally lax.” But I’d argue that it’s that people are in despair, empty, hopeless. It is from this that people’s rejection of God, the Church, and morals stems. Thus, what’s needed most from people of faith is to testify to that fact that there is indeed hope, that life is beautiful, and that God is present in our suffering. Yes, we also need to witness to certain moral ideals (which are NOT separate from the hope that Christ brings, but rather flows forth from it). My point is that when I’m in a secular environment, my main question is: how can I share my joy, hope, and gratitude with others? How can I share this experience of being infinitely loved by Christ with the people around me?

Whereas most of the other Catholics I knew emphasized the need to explain or defend the faith to non-practicing Catholics, Francis reminded me of the need to accompany them…to share in their suffering and to share my joy with them, to pray for their happiness, and to affirm the small flecks of hope and goodness already present in their lives. This did not preclude challenging or correcting these loved ones—but it reminded me that doing so was not the priority. This approach went on to shape my relationships with my non-religious and non-practicing Catholic friends and family, making them flourish in ways I had never dreamed possible. In other words, this approach opened the door for God to manifest unforeseen graces in my relationships with these people.

On that note, I was amazed to see how Francis’ tone made my lapsed friends and family feel more comfortable with the Church. Surely, they had false hopes that he was going to sacramentalize gay relationships and ordain women priests. But it also made them want to start praying again. Some of them even wanted to go to Mass and to confession again. It made some of them want to forgive family members that hurt them, and it made others want to spend more time feeding the poor.

No, none of them became “devout Catholics” who assented to all of the teachings in the Catechism. Some of them still fornicate, use contraception, and are in gay relationships. Some of them still place too much hope in financial security. But they definitely became holier people…they drew closer to God, and because of this, became happier. Francis taught me that what was most important with these loved ones was not to correct their cognitive dissonance, but to celebrate the small ways they were growing closer to God. As for their cognitive dissonance and their mortal sins, it was more important that I pray for and do penance for them, than to blatantly correct them (which I did do when I discerned it was appropriate to).

Pope Benedict’s clarity and boldness inspired numerous people to go “all in” in their relationship with Christ…to live lives of true sanctity and devotion. Personally, I think this is a great thing. But Benedict’s poignant clarity risked alienating (and DID alienate) a lot of people. He said imprudent (even if true) things about other religions that damaged the Church’s relationship with them. His erudite intellectual (and German) temperament made him intimidating. But at the end of the day, my opinion on Benedict’s contribution to the Church and world (or lack thereof) doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the Holy Spirit wanted that for the Church and world at that point in time. (And who am I to say I know better than the HS?)

Francis was more open-minded, but also more ambiguous. He didn’t inspire lots of people to go all in, but he did inspire a lot of people to inch a little bit closer. In typical Jesuit fashion, he placed a great deal of trust in the freedom/conscience of the individual person and the creativity of the HS…in its power to work miracles in “irregular circumstances.” This is risky. Yes, he erred on the side of vagueness and even scandal at certain moments. So who’s better, who’s worse? Again, this is not for us to say. The HS wanted these guys in the chair of Peter at the particular moments in time that It put them there.

In the plethora of the hot takes after Francis’s death, I’ve yet to see anyone mention Evangelii Gaudium. I’ve mostly heard criticism of his ambiguity and authoritarianism, and praise for his open-mindedness and attention to the poor. I don’t deny that these “takes” are true. But to me, these are all secondary matters. Few of us focus our attention on how the Spirit used Francis to shape our relationship with Jesus. Few of us focus on the fact that the cornerstone of his papacy was that he reminded us that we are called to bring the joy of the Gospel to the existential and material peripheries of the world.

As the conclave begins, let’s remember the Church is not a democracy. And that as much as we are entitled to our opinions, they don’t matter all that much. While I had plenty of [negative] opinions about Francis, my main concern when listening to him was not whether he was doing/saying what I thought was best for the Church, but rather to be curious to see what the Spirit was trying to communicate to me through him in order to draw me closer to Christ. I’m very thankful for how the Spirit used Francis to bring about my conversion and make me a happier person who is excited to live life and share my happiness with others. I hope the Spirit uses whoever the next pope is to bring us all closer to Jesus (even if I really don’t like him!).

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*I made up that statistic that 85% of Catholics are not happy. But in my experience, that’s mostly true. About 85% of the Catholics I meet focus on secondary things, and thus are not super happy people. This is not to say that they aren’t good, holy people. But it’s to say that they are missing out on the greatest part of Christianity: that loving Jesus makes life more full and exciting. And ultimately, society has little use for such sticks in the mud.

In the words of Jermaine Cole, “[don’t] you just wanna be happy?”

Stay tuned for more flaming hot takes later this week!