Just a month before the opening of the Second Vatican
Council, Pope John XXIII said in a radio address that the Church wants to be “the
Church of all, especially the Church of the poor.”
Just days into his papacy Pope Francis told a
gathering of reporters, “How I would like a Church that is poor, and for the
poor.”
It is well-known that Jorge Bergoglio, while serving
as auxiliary bishop and then as Archbishop of Buenos Aries had earned the
nickname “slum bishop” because of his ministry among the poor and broken
members of his archdiocese.
His own lifestyle gives witness to Gospel values: “Go,
sell what you have, give to the poor, and come, follow me” (Mk 120:21). “Do not
store up for yourselves treasures on earth…” (Mt 6:19).
Several times in his apostolic exhortation Gospel Joy Pope Francis focused attention on the world’s
poor, urging justice, economic change, alms and spiritual care. He also
encouraged our learning from the poor (“They have much to teach us,” #198) and to
be cautious of a lifestyle that excludes others (“The culture of prosperity
deadens us...” #54).
One of the criticisms leveled against the Second Vatican
Council is the little mention of the Church’s ministry to the poor. Only eight
of the Council’s 16 documents refer to the “poor,” and the total references are
but 24.
Bishops from poor diocese were particularly
concerned about the Council’s failure to address the issues of poverty.
Just days before the Council’s final session, about
40 bishops (mostly from Latin America) gathered for Mass in the catacombs of St
Domitilla (a series of underground caves in Rome where thousands of early
Christians are buried).
Although many of these bishops had been meeting on
their own and apart from the Council to discuss the problems of poverty and how
the Church should respond to them, on this occasion (November 16, 1965) the group decided to
enter into a pact, agreeing to change their personal lifestyles to better
reflect Gospel poverty.
Although the original signed text is missing Bishop Bonaventura Kloppenberg (a
German-born Brazilian bishop who died in 2009) did leave among his papers a
complete text of the pact, which he titled “Pact of the Servant and Poor
Church.”
It is believed that Archbishop Oscar Romero, of San Salvador,
who was martyred in 1980 and beatified by the Church in 2015, was the driving
force behind the formation of the so-called “Pact of the Catacombs.”
The opening statement of the pact says, “We bishops
assembled in the Second Vatican Council, are conscious of the deficiencies of
our lifestyle in terms of evangelical poverty. Motivated by one another in an
initiative in which each of us has tried to avoid ambition and presumption, we
unite with all our brothers in the episcopacy and rely above all on the grace
and strength of Our Lord Jesus Christ and on the prayer of the faithful and the
priests in our respective dioceses. Placing ourselves in thought and in prayer
before the Trinity, the Church of Christ, and all the priests and faithful of
our dioceses, with humility and awareness of our weakness, but also with all
the determination and all the strength that God desires to grant us by his
grace, we commit ourselves to the following.”
Then comes a series of lifestyle changes and
initiatives the signing bishops agree to undertake; among them are:
--we will try to live according to the ordinary manner
of our people in all that concerns housing, food, means of transport, and
related matters.
--we renounce forever the appearance and the
substance of wealth, especially in clothing (rich vestments and loud colors)
and symbols made of precious metals
--as far as possible we will entrust the financial
and material running of our dioceses to a commission of competent lay persons
--we do not want to be addressed verbally or in
writing with names and titles that express prominence and power (such as Eminence,
Excellency, Lordship); we prefer to be called by the evangelical name of “Father”
--we will do everything possible so that those
responsible for our governments and our public services establish and enforce
the laws, social structures, and institutions that are necessary for justice, equality,
and the integral, harmonious development of the whole person and of all persons
--when we return to our dioceses we will make these
resolutions known to our diocesan priests and ask them to assist us with their
comprehension, their collaboration, and their prayers.
This catacomb pact was developed and signed 50 years
ago. The majority of the histories of Vatican II never mention the pact. Most
Catholics never heard of it. It is hard to determine whether the agreement had
influence on the churches of the signers.
But it appears that Pope Francis knows of the pact,
or at least shares in its convictions and provisions. Look at the propositions
and then look at Pope Francis’ ministry, and the two fit like hand in glove.
Full text of the Catacomb Pact is available online,
e.g., http://www.sedosmission.org/web/attachments/article/137/Catacomb
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