MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Francis, a name full of history, signals and pure orthodoxy

Francis of Assisi chose a life of poverty and simplicity

In choosing a name no other pope had ever taken, Pope Francis could be signalling that he sees the need for change in the Roman Catholic Church. The name recalls two of the church’s most famous saints.

One is Francis of Assisi, the man from the Umbrian hill town who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to found the Franciscan order of friars in 1209, embracing a life of poverty and simplicity and going out in the countryside to preach a message of joy and peace.

The other is Francis Xavier, a globe-trotting Spaniard who became one of Christianity’s greatest missionaries, and was a founding figure of the Jesuit order, of which the new pope is a member.

Pope Francis didn’t cite either of those famous men when he made his first public speech as pontiff on Wednesday night, but within an hour of his presentation to the world from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, his choice of name was being hailed as heralding what could be his priorities at the helm of a troubled church.

Umbria’s bishops sent congratulations in a message noting that the new pope had taken up name of the saint of Assisi, one of Italy’s patron saints who in his time sought to `’renew the church.”

`’It was precisely Francis the Lord asked to repair his church in ruins,” the bishops said.

Pope Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, had explained his resignation last month, the first pontiff to step down in 600 years, by saying he didn’t have the mental or physical stamina to shepherd the church, rocked by scandals and confidential leaks in the Vatican’s bureaucracy and losing many faithful to secularism or more dynamic forms of worship.

Since Francis is associated with peacemaking, the choice of name could foretell the pope’s priority to bring a sense of serenity to a church feeling rudderless by Benedict’s departure.

Both the last two previous popes, John Paul II and Benedict, had set as a key aim of their papacy the rejuvenation of their flock, especially in Europe, where many have left the church, many because of the sexual abuse scandals. They also worried about the defection of souls to lively evangelical churches, especially in Latin America, which accounts for 40% of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

Although both Francis of Assisi and Francis Xavier could have inspired the new pope in selecting his name for posterity, it was more likely the Italian friar who was the main inspiration, said Monsignor Raymond J. Kupke, a professor of church history at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

“He was a man of great simplicity, down to earth, a man of the people,” Kupke said. “Also Francis of Assisi spearheaded a great evangelization movement of the 13th century. He embraced a new way of being religious in the world.”

But choosing the name of one of Italy’s patron saints also ties the new pope to Italy, the homeland of all popes of the last few centuries until 1978.