VATICAN CITY (CNS) — From the moment he took the helm of the Catholic Church’s sprawling hierarchy, Pope Francis positioned himself as a pastor close to the people he served, and he called out the behavior of priests who were distant from and thought they were superior to their flocks.
The pope set the tone early for his consistent rebukes of clericalism by including it in his first apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium,” the 2013 document that was considered a roadmap for his pontificate.
Discussing the need to recognize the baptismal dignity and gifts of the laity, the pope wrote that sometimes laypeople did not have the necessary training to exercise leadership, but often “room has not been made for them to speak and to act, due to an excessive clericalism which keeps them away from decision-making.”
Pope Francis’ campaign against clericalism was waged when meeting both ordinary parish priests and “princes of the church,” as cardinals once were known.
In a 2016 homily — given at a morning Mass with members of his international Council of Cardinals — he said that modern-day priests “feel superior, clerics distance themselves from the people,” and the poor and humble suffer as a result.
“The evil of clericalism is a really awful thing,” he added.
In an open letter published in 2023, Pope Francis told priests of the Diocese of Rome that clericalism is “a disease that causes us to lose the memory of the baptism we have received” and leads to priests exercising authority “without humility but with detached and haughty attitudes.”
The papal message has reached those preparing for priesthood, too, Msgr. Andrew R. Baker, rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, told Catholic News Service.
In an email interview in March 2024, the monsignor, head of the largest Catholic seminary in the United States, said that since the start of Pope Francis’ pontificate he has noticed “a growing desire among the seminarians to be other-centered,” in contrast to a pervasive worldly mentality that emphasizes the needs of the self.
“Seminarians today are not becoming priests because they want an easy, revered, and privileged life,” he said. “Pope Francis’ message on clericalism serves the seminarians as a kind of warning if they don’t forget about themselves and serve others.”
At the Vatican Pope Francis tried to lead by example by appointing more laypeople, especially women, to positions of responsibility.
In a significant shift, the pope revised language about who can lead Vatican dicasteries, the departments that make up the Roman Curia, opening the door for laypeople to be at the helm of the church’s governing bodies.
St. John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic constitution “Pastor Bonus” had dictated that the top Vatican offices would be led by a cardinal or archbishop and specified that “matters requiring the exercise of power of governance be reserved to those in holy orders.”
Pope Francis replaced that language in 2022, writing in his constitution “Praedicate Evangelium” that “any member of the faithful can preside over a Dicastery or Office.”
Immediately following the promulgation of “Praedicate Evanglium,” he named three women, including a laywoman, to the Dicastery of Bishops, the Vatican office that helps the pope choose bishops. Before the reform, only cardinals and a few bishops were members of the body.
One of the three women, Salesian Sister Yvonne Reungoat, told CNS that her appointment was “one sign among many” of Pope Francis’ desire to respect the different vocations of the church’s members and incorporate them into its decision-making.
While some priests still exercise their ministry as “a power over others, who then become inferior,” Sister Reungoat said she receives “absolute respect of our vision and equality” from the cardinals and bishops in the dicastery.
Pope Francis, she said, understood the complementary nature of men and women working alongside one another as well as the fruitful collaboration of the church’s lay and religious members — both dynamics that cut down on clericalism.
The listening that took place as part of Pope Francis’ 2021-2024 Synod of Bishops on synodality, she said, allowed “a large, free expression of the sufferings, many sufferings, caused by clericalism and which remain wounds to be healed.”
Merely stating the problem of clericalism and its consequences is not enough to solve it, she said, but “the act of being able to express it and that such (sentiments) are accepted is a step on a journey of change.”
“That doesn’t mean these steps will necessarily change the whole world, but I believe they are irreversible,” she said.
Cardinal Robert Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, told CNS that having women members of the dicastery “contributes significantly to the process of discernment in looking for who we hope are the best candidates to serve the church in episcopal ministry.”
To deter attitudes of clericalism among bishops, he said, “it’s important to find men who are truly interested in serving, in preaching the Gospel, not just with eloquent words, but rather with the example and witness they give.”
In fact, the cardinal said, Pope Francis’ “most effective and important” bulwark against clericalism was his being “a pastor who preaches by gesture.”
Pope Francis tackled the issue “head on through some of the talks he’s given to the Roman Curia,” urging clerics at the highest levels of the church’s hierarchy “to examine ourselves and think about what it means to also be at the service of the church.”
“His message is precisely to inspire, to lead, to push all of us who are members of the clergy to not get so caught up in a lot of the external trappings but look for ways to truly be examples of the mercy, the compassion, the healing of Jesus Christ,” Cardinal Prevost said.
Read More Remembering Pope Francis
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