The Pope’s visit was all pomp and ceremony, non-stop coverage, and mostly uncritical media observations of the all-male spectacle. One commentator even called the Pope the closest thing to God on earth. Maybe, but certainly not the closest thing to Jesus on earth.
Christians are folks who follow Jesus and his teachings. Lots of institutions and individuals claim to be Christian, but few follow his teachings and example as laid out in the Gospels, the source of our understanding of his life and teachings.
We praise Pope Francis for his preaching on poverty and wealth, the importance of helping the poor, the sick, the stranger, the oppressed (unlike his Church which historically surrounded itself with the trappings of wealth and aligned with the powerful). Francis is right since Jesus’ embrace of the downtrodden and rejection of wealth was central to his teachings.
But that is where the Christian part stops. On so many other teachings of Jesus, the Church has strayed far from his teachings and embraced practices that flatly contradict Jesus.
First, the Catholic Church is rigidly hierarchical in structure despite the fact that Jesus adamantly rejected hierarchy for his church. Jesus exhorts his disciples not to seek positions of authority over others. “You are not to be called Rabbi since you have one teacher and you are all brothers. . . and do not be called leaders, since you have only one leader, the Messiah.” (Matt. 23: 8-12) Time and again the disciples jockey for leadership positions only to be rebuked by Jesus and told to be like children, “the least among all of you.” (Luke 9: 46-48; Matt: 18: 1-3) Elsewhere he contrasts his new order with the Gentiles when his disciples argue about which of them is greatest, reminding them of the “kings of the Gentiles who lord it over them.” (Luke 22: 24-27)
Jesus goes further in rejecting hierarchy when he rejects patriarchy, deeply imbedded in all aspects of culture in his day. He is unequivocal: “Call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven.” (Matt. 23: 9) Consistent with this view, there is only one word used to refer to men in the new Christian order, “brothers,” never “father.” In rejecting patriarchy, Jesus repeatedly affirms that all are equal brothers and sisters – the anthesis of male-dominated patriarchy. What are we to make of the Pope’s elevated position as “Holy Father” and all priests as “Father?”
Perhaps the most unchristian aspect of the Church and the Pope’s visit is the rejection of women’s equality. Everywhere the Pope surrounded himself with men. Yet Jesus was a radical egalitarian in his day, accepting women as equal to men. Over and over Jesus violated the rigid rules of his day that treated women as unequal, inferior to men, unworthy and unclean.
The women who surrounded Jesus did everything that men did, contrary to tradition and Hebraic law, preaching the Word, converting Jews and Gentiles, holding services in their homes, breaking bread in commemoration of Jesus, working as missionaries. So accepting of women was Jesus that he often upset his male disciples who could not understand what he was doing, as when he discussed theology with an “unclean” Samaritan woman at a well and revealed himself to her as the Messiah. (John 4: 1-27) Or when he allowed women, single and married, to accompany him on his ministry (Luke 8: 1-3; Luke 23: 27; Matt 27: 55-56; Mark 15: 40-41). Or when he rejected the traditional role of women by berating Mary for admonishing her sister who is listening to Jesus and failing to do housework. He tells Martha, in effect, to get her priorities straight for “Mary has chosen the better part,” learning, not something women did in Hebrew culture. (Luke 10: 38-42)
Pope Francis follows Church tradition in insisting that women’s role is “mother.” Yet nowhere in the Gospels do we find any statement by Jesus affirming motherhood as woman’s role. On the contrary, he affirms no differences in the calling of women and men. In one incident, a woman in a crowd to whom Jesus is speaking shouts, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.” Jesus does not support this, responding instead, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11: 27-28) When Jesus is being led to the crucifixion, he is followed by women wailing at the sight. He tells them not to weep for him, but for themselves and their children, saying, “Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed” – a shocking notion in his day. (Luke 22: 26-29)
And what of the position of the Pope and the Church banning contraception. The pain and suffering caused women and families by this ban, especially among the poor, is incalculable - not to mention incoherent for one who preaches care of the environment but totally ignores rampant overpopulation at the heart of climate change. Or the extreme position that abortion cannot be allowed even when a mother’s life is threatened - indeed even when both woman and fetus will surely die, as in a recent case, or when a 10 year child is raped and forced to bear the child. Such policies loudly proclaim the utter lack of woman’s worth. Both abortion and contraception were practiced in Jesus’ day, but he saw fit not to mention either – surely telling us how little they mattered to him morally, unlike the Church which obsesses about both.
Pope Francis is adamant in rejecting women priests. The argument has been that women were not chosen to be among the “twelve apostles.” Strange indeed, since in Jesus’ day in the early church, women did everything men did. The names of these women pepper the Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s letters. Most revealing, Paul speaks of Junia as “foremost among the Apostles.” (Corinthians 1) Indeed Paul refers to himself as an Apostle, although he was not one of the twelve. Biblical scholars have long argued that women were Apostles and that the twelve represent only those meant to minister to Israel’s twelve tribes. (Matt. 10: 5; 18; 28) There is nothing in the ministry of Jesus that would reject women as ministers equal to men, though he does reject a priesthood as such.
Others have referred to an old aphorism, “To exclude is to revile.” The Church has long reviled women, going so far as to oppose the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
As for the family, Pope Francis and the Church accept the biological nuclear family as central to the community of the Church. Jesus does not. To Jesus, the family is the community, literally. When his mother and brother seek him and cannot get through a crowd listening to him speak, Jesus is told that his mother and brothers seek him. He responds, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Turning to the crowd he says, “Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3: 31-35; Luke 8: 19-21) Again and again those who follow Jesus are called to leave everything, including biological family. Although Jesus accepts the commandments, including “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother” in the normal course of things, Jesus is raising the bar exponentially for how his followers should live their lives in the new Christian era that goes far beyond the natural, conventional order of things.
Is the Catholic Church Christian? Sadly, the Church has strayed far from the teachings of Jesus.
Rosemary Agonito is author of Hypocrisy, Inc: How the Religious Right Fabricates Christian Values and Undermines Democracy.