The pope’s coat-of-arms and motto

Pope Francis has decided to keep his relatively simple bishop’s coat-of-arms, combining it with traditional papal symbols.

It features the Jesuit emblem and seal (the Greek letters IHS for the name of Jesus, the cross and nails surrounded by a sunburst.) Below are a star on the left, a symbol of Mary, and an image of nard flowers, a symbol of St. Joseph (I know they look like grapes, but they’re flowers.)

Framing the coat-of-arms are the papal miter and silver and gold keys, linked by a red cord.

The pope’s Latin motto “miserando atque eligendo,” recalls a passage from a homily of St. Bede, describing how Jesus chose St. Matthew as his disciple: “He saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him.”

St. Bede’s point was that Jesus chose Matthew not in the usual sense, but with a merciful understanding — something the new pope has already made a theme of his pontificate.

A note on this blog's comments section

Some of you who have sent comments on blog postings may have noticed that they haven’t been published in the last couple of days. It’s a technical glitch. The content management folks are working on it and think they’ll have it fixed tomorrow.

I especially want you to know this because the comments to date have been so varied and interesting. When I launched this website and blog, I was warned to expect vitriol and idiocy if I opened it to comments. Instead, I’ve found that 99 percent of comments are to the point and within the margins of good taste (well, within my margins of good taste, since I’m the one moderating them.)

Thanks to all for your input and feedback.

With new pope, hopes for ecumenical springtime

Pope Francis’ first few days have already generated an abundance of hope on many fronts, and one of them is ecumenism.

The fact that the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, is attending the pope’s inaugural Mass tomorrow is rightly seen as a milestone in Catholic-Orthodox relations. That hasn’t happened since Catholics and Orthodox split in 1054.

Of course, Pope Francis does not yet have a “record” on relations with other Christian churches. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, however, he dropped some clues.

According to Bishop Gregory Venables, the Anglican bishop of Argentina, then-Cardinal Bergoglio was apparently not enthusiastic about Pope Benedict’s move in 2011 to create a structure in the Catholic Church to welcome disaffected Anglicans.

In remarks published by the Anglican Communion News Service, Bishop Venables said Cardinal Bergoglio “called me to have breakfast with him one morning and told me very clearly that the ordinariate was quite unnecessary and that the church needs us as Anglicans.”

Bishop Venables described the new pope as “consistently humble and wise” as well as “outstandingly gifted,” and as someone who would treat him as an equal in joint services.

In a broader sense, Pope Francis’ whole approach to the office of the papacy has generated hope for an ecumenical springtime. So far, the new pope seems intent on downplaying papal power and highlighting his role as a unity figure among his brother bishops.

It was striking that in his initial appearances, he repeatedly referred to himself as the “bishop of Rome” rather than emphasizing his role as an authority figure in the universal church.

Many experts say one of the biggest ecumenical obstacles, especially in dialogue with the Orthodox, is the way papal primacy is carried out. The key issue is how the pope’s universal role of authority and service is balanced with the pope’s collegial relationship with all the bishops.

Pope Francis has given every indication that he takes collegiality seriously. Addressing the members of the College of Cardinals the day after his election, he told them that “we are as brothers.”

“We are that community, that friendship, that closeness, that will do good for every one of us. That mutual knowledge and openness to one another helped us to be open to the action of Holy Spirit,” he said. While all roles in the church are not equal, he added, they need to work in harmony.

Italian Father Bartolomeo Sorge, a leading Jesuit intellectual, told reporters that the expectation of greater collegiality was a reasonable one.

“It’s significant that Pope Francis, in the brief words he pronounced immediately after his election, spoke of the ‘church of Rome’ that presides in charity over the other churches. This awareness could be a prelude to achieving the kind of collegiality that the (Second Vatican) Council foresaw and that has yet to be realized,” he said.

In his first major audience after his inaugural Mass, Pope Francis is meeting Wednesday with the representatives of other Christian churches who came to Rome for the event. That’s the moment we should get a clearer sense of his ecumenical intentions.