by Gavin Ashenden, TCW
‘Divine speech is woven with enigmas, that by its obscurity it may train the mind of the reader to seek more eagerly.’ – St Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job XX.1
TODAY Pope Leo XIV has held his office for half a year.
Most of us thought that by early autumn, certainly by six months in, we would have had some clear understanding of what kind of pope Leo XIV was going to turn out to be. We were mistaken. It is never easy managing expectations. Indeed, I remember being advised by an elderly friend, a dour Scots psychiatrist, that the key to remaining sane often lies in having realistic expectations, both of life in general and of certain situations in particular. He was talking at the time about a ‘career’ in the Church of England, but it remains excellent advice in all circumstances. He was suggesting there was a constant need to remain on the alert for misinformed and unrealistic expectations and the need to be willing to change them in the light of unwelcome reality.
This was never more true than for Catholics during this alarming period of post-Francis recovery.
The context for this recovery is the fact that much of the Catholic Church is suffering from Post Traumatic Pope Francis Stress Disorder, otherwise known as PTPFSD.
PTPFSD is something new, and none of us has had the opportunity to adjust to it in the past. The experience of Pope Francis’s pontificate is most like the experience of gaslit domestic violence.
Whether one uses simple, if hackneyed, phrases such as indicating left but turning right, or a sense of psychological arrested development that made his papacy more like a young university chaplain getting down with the kids, or the perpetual experience of semi-anarchic Mass which he promised and faithfully delivered – so effectively – none of us ever knew where we were with Pope Francis, and the experience has scarred us for a lifetime.
The consequence of the recent years is that none of us dares trust poor Leo. Worse, we are on the edge of our seats, poised to flee, white knuckles exposed, ready for absolutely anything.