Since his death, Pope Francis has been known as a reformer, an outsider, an influential and modern person. He is all that. But he is also the butler of the oldest institution in the Western world. He protected the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, even if he did so in his own style.
This is evident in one of Francis’ last writings, which has been provided to The New York Times but has not been published before. This is a book written for young Catholics, about the church’s teachings on love and marriage. The book comes from the YouCat Foundation (the abbreviation of Youth Doctrine, or the short for doctrine), a Vatican-approved organization that publishes the church’s teachings in ways that young people can understand. The Foundation distributes books in 70 languages around the world.
In the foreword, Francis clarifies the church’s position in marriage: it is a priority, one of the divine importance, only between men and women. He did not break the new doctrine foundation. Nevertheless, the letter illustrates who Francis was the Pope: a pragmatic and compassionate communicator who skillfully repackaged without having to change the teachings of the modern church. (Read the full text here.)
“This is a confirmation of the legacy,” said Raúl Zegarra, a Catholic professor at Harvard. “This is indeed a classic text for the pope.”
His rhetorical style
Francis captured most of his approach to the Pope in his opening remarks.
“In my Argentine homeland, there is a dance I really like, a dance I often attend when I was young: Tango,” wrote Francis, the first Pope in Latin America. He then compared Tango to marriage in all of his “discipline and dignity.”
“I’m always moved to see young people who love each other and have the courage to turn their love into something great: ‘I want to love you until death makes us a part of us.’ What an extraordinary commitment!”
In this regard, Francis emphasizes a basic Catholic doctrine–marriage is the supreme commitment of holy. But he does this with charm rather than austerity. “This is a characteristic of the way he teaches,” said Brett C. Hoover, a Catholic theologian and professor at Loyola Marymount University.
Francis is an expert in the use of symbols to convey spiritual lessons (according to the tradition of the allegorical parables of Jesus’ Bible). Francis may have developed a skill when he taught literature to high school students in his 20s. As the Pope, he weaves metaphors, symbols and even jokes into narratives. Francis once said that a good pastor should “smell the smell of sheep.” He compared the church with the sickest “field hospital” in society.
This approach helped Francis connect with a wide audience, in comparison with his predecessor, Shy and Academic Pope Benedict XVI.
“He made comments accessible,” said Margaret Susan Thompson, a professor of history at Syracuse University. “It’s vision and touch.”
His connection to reality
Francis has been commemorated as the “Popular Pope” in recent days. He turned to the grim reality of life – poverty, disease, pain – and refused to look away. He washed the prisoner’s feet. He called people to shelter churches in Gaza every night. “He always tries to articulate the problems of our time,” Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said in sympathy at Francis’ funeral.
This is obvious in the foreword. Francis soon took root with real-life marriage wishes – statistical possibilities for divorce. “I am not blind, nor are you blind,” he wrote. “How many marriages have failed today after three, five, seven years?” He even personalized the message: “Maybe your parents started the sacrament of marriage with the same courage, but could not achieve their love completion.”
Francis has shown throughout the pope that he understands the church’s commands—divorce, celibacy and same-sex marriage before marriage—may feel unfulfilled.
“Francis was a parish priest and then a city bishop.” Mr. Hoover said.
Shortly after his election, he ignored tradition and married 20 couples, including some who had lived together and one with an adult child. In 2016, he opened the door to divorced and remarried Catholics, accepting communication by providing more latitudes to local pastors and bishops. In 2023, he decided to allow the pastor to bless the same-sex couple.
“This experience really shapes this preface, it really shapes his entire pope,” Mr. Zegarra said.
His legacy
Now that Francis is past, his letter will no longer be printed in the book “Love Youth” – it will be the work of the upcoming Pope.
Nevertheless, it not only highlights the Pope’s style, but also some of his signature policies. In it, Francis repeatedly mentioned his 2016 apostle counsel “Amoris Laetitia,” a 256-page document on the family calling for the church to be more inclusive. He also mentioned his suggestion that the church has established a “marriage cafeteria”, which will prepare people for marriage.
For some, this letter will affirm Francis’ love legacy – practice it, prioritize. For others, this would be the last reminder that he did not go like they hoped the ever-evolving church doctrine.
It is also a document, in all his works, the Commission can decide whether to grant Francis approval. Ms Thompson said the committee attempted to analyze in detail what the Pope wrote.
For all those who read it, Francis presents the last attraction.
He wrote: “Believe in love, believe in God, and believe in your ability to take on the adventure of love that lasts a lifetime. Love wants to be permanent; ‘until further notice’ does not love,’ he wrote.
“We humans have no desire to keep, and those who often don’t have this experience (unconsciously–there will be wounds for the rest of their lives. Instead, those who enter the league have lost nothing, but get everything: a fulfilling life.”
