Change is in the order of things; yet, it is religious heads that are seldom in the forefront of initiating change. Not so Pope Francis, the head of the 1.3 billion strong Catholic community spread across the world. The reform-minded Pope, who began his papacy since 2013, has come up with a new decision to break with tradition when he named a woman as under secretary of the synod of bishops. She would be the first woman to have voting rights in a panel that reviews questions of religious doctrine.
Christianity and Islam are, at their apex, male-centric though the former has a large army or nuns forming part of the institutionalized set-up. Hinduism, by contrast, accords higher importance to goddesses, though at the ground level the domination of males is evident in all spheres of life across the spectrum.
The 84-year-old Argentine-born Pope Francis had drawn special attention when he began softening the Church’s attitude towards homosexuals and lesbians. Three years after he was ordained as Pope, he made it clear that homosexuals too are god’s children and by 2019, he said “lesbian tendencies are not a sin.” By the present appointment, the Pope has stressed the need for greater participation for women – who form half of the humanity — in church affairs.
Religions are guided by sacred texts. At the same time, much of the religious practices are based on interpretations of texts and it is here that an open-minded approach is advocated. Pope Francis, on his part, had made it clear a “conversion of the heart” is important for the reform process. Christianity’s strengths are that it has an organised and highly disciplined institutional framework. Thus the head of the Catholic church is well-endowed to lead reforms, also by adherence to the basic tenets of the religion.
It is not often that a reform-minded priest comes as the head of a church order. But here is someone who has shown the boldness to support even what was most-unacceptable to his predecessors; same-sex civil marriages; something that was scoffed at by past generations.
There are lessons for the rest of the world to learn from the way the Roman Catholic Church is seeking to change itself, in terms of attitudes, even in the face of resistance from within the church. Reform is the key word; and reform is what politicians in India and elsewhere are mostly scared of, due to three reasons — lack of vision, lack of initiative and lack of courage.