On Friday Pope Francis did two quite traditional papal things. He authorised the sainting of two predecessors: Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. And he published an encyclical letter, Lumen Fidei. These things were in continuity with the past. But as is now expected of him, he tweaked the continuity in distinctive ways.
In recent years continuity in the Catholic Church has been the object of controversy. Continuity has come to stand for the continuing claims of the forms of liturgy, governance and theology of the pre-Vatican II church within the present church. John Paul II has been seen as an emblem of continuity and his prospective canonisation as its vindication. Those making claims for radical change often appeal to Pope John XXIII who called Vatican Council II.
In the encyclical and the decision to canonise both popes, Francis has refocused continuity. It has to do with honouring different perspectives in the name of a greater common mission, not about choosing between them.
The double canonisation certainly endorses the claims both of change and of continuity in the Church. But it also points to a deeper cause dear to Francis: the call to Christians to look beyond church and to take the Gospel into the world around them. Both popes were notable for that: John XXIII by reorienting the Church through the Council, and John Paul II by his international mission.
The encyclical makes a similar statement of continuity between Francis and his predecessor. It also expresses the self-confidence of a pope who is happy to celebrate and own his predecessor's insights while doing things in his own way. The encyclical completes Benedict's trilogy on faith, hope and charity. Francis describes it as the work of four hands, but to an inexpert eye his contribution may appear to have consisted more in pruning than in adding.
Lumen Fidei is a retrospective exhibition of Jozef Ratzinger's gifts as a theologian and as a European intellectual, showing him to be deeply read in the Christian tradition and in European intellectual history. He also displays a poet's eye for developing the possibilities of biblical and Patristic images.
His presentation of Christian faith is rich and positive. He portrays it as a discovery that changes people's lives and fills them with enthusiasm. It touches their hearts deeply but also engages their questioning minds. It gives them confidence in living, and grounding for their relationships and their aspirations for a