Mackenzie 2013/2
Behind the Meaning of the Pope’s Names
The new pope’s choice of ‘Francis’ hints at the direction of his reign.
Enter Pope Francis. The first Jesuit pope. The first from Latin America. It is, indeed, a historic moment for the papacy. Those who waited for a leader from the new Catholic world will no doubt be __( I )__ by the choice, but his new status as the leader of a global church requires a different persona and a new mode of action. The new pope speaks not only for Argentina, Latin America, and the Jesuits, but also for the entire Roman Catholic world.
It is precisely for this reason that cardinals shed their names along with their brightly __( II )__ vestments. Historically, the tradition ofselecting a new papal name dates back to the sixth century, when Pope
John II swapped his awkwardly __( III )__ name Mercurius for the solidly Christian John. At the same time the selection of religious names is more than an opportunity to symbolically cast aside individual identity. Papal names chart a course for the future by summoning up the past. The new pope assumes either the mantle of religious heroes and leaders from days gone by or the virtues of the Innocents and the Piuses. The selection of the name both forges a new identity and signals how the pope wishes to be seen and remembered. It is, in essence, not only the answer to the __( IV )__ question “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” but also a way of preemptively writing one’s own reviews.
Traditionally popes have been __( V )__ of reaching too high, of appearing too self-congratulatory. The office of the pope is built, literally and metaphorically, on the legacy of St. Peter, the apostle of Christ, whose remains lie beneath the papal seat in the Vatican. But there has been no Pope Peter II. Thus far, no pope has had the audacity to present himself as standing in continuity with the favored disciple of Jesus. Nor would Pope Francis have been able to select the name of the founder of his own order. A Pope Ignatius—after Jesuit founder Ignatius of Loyola—would have appeared self-serving.
At first blush, Pope Francis’s selection of a previously __( VI )__ papal name—he is no 23rd anything—marks a break with the past and augurs well for those looking for a move away from deeply entrenched institutionalism. The new pope symbolically clears the deck for a new period of Catholic history. For a church desperately in need of an administrative makeover, it creates a nominally blank slate for the pale-garbed pontiff.Newsweek
The article clearly states that
the name of the new pope was chosen taking into consideration the fact that he is a Jesuit and a Christian from the new Catholic Church.
religious heroes have been more and more common in Latin America, and since Pope Peter II no other pope has been encouraged to use unusual names.
popes have never wanted to look down on people. On the contrary, they have always served as apostles of Christ and have been able to reach high posts in the Vatican.
Pope Ignatius would never have chosen a different name due to his intentions of breaking with the past and of cleaning up the name of the Catholic Church in the modern world.
the new pope has been praised for having chosen a brand new name, which has never been adopted before in the history of the Catholic Church and which will likely bring high hopes of future changes in the same Church.
Tudo com nota TRI em tempo real
