“Pope Francis’ passing is a big loss to the Catholic Church and the world because he was a pope who was not afraid to confront issues,” says Fr. Robert Reyes, also known as “the running priest,” when asked about the death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who served as the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The pontiff took his papal title after St. Francis of Assisi.
Luis Cardinal Tagle with Banaue Miclat and son Raja at a funeral service in 2017. (Photo courtesy of Alma Miclat)
“The next pope has to be a pope of peace, a pope of reconciliation, which is very difficult in this divided world,” continues Father Robert. Known for his social and political activism, the parish priest of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Project 8 and vicar forane of the Sto. Niño Vicariate, says, “As we mourn the passing of the pope of hope, we now start the deep process of prayer discernment for the pope of peace because the most threatened now is world peace.”
Pope Francis made his mark by being deeply engaged with both political and environmental conflicts around the world and speaking out against global abuses and the misuse of political and economic power. His shoes will be too huge to fill.
“Whether he was talking about a serious issue, a serious situation like the war in Ukraine, in Afghanistan, or refugees anywhere in the world, the people and the pope became one.”
Father Robert recalls the pope’s last act, which was to create this very simple approach to synodality, the walking together in dialogue and discernment—and while walking, listening to each other. “There’s so much alienation. There are so much layers upon layers of alienation between and amongst people. He was trying to remove that. Kaya nga ang ganda—bridges, and not walls. He is the bridge between man and God,” explains Father Robert.
‘I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets….’
In December 2013, Pope Francis gave an “apostolic exhortation,” calling for big changes in the Catholic Church, including rethinking long-held but antiquated customs. He preached, “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and clinging to its own security.”
In autumn of 2014, the pontiff showed he was progressive even in scientific issues when he supported the Big Bang theory and evolution. The newspaper The Independent quoted Pope Francis: “The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.” He also said that evolution “is not inconsistent with the notion of creation.”
He tackled political blockades, bringing together Cuban President Raul Castro and US President Barack Obama in a historic meeting that precipitated significant foreign policy changes.
He visited Paraguay, Bolivia and Ecuador, and beatified more than 30 people, including Óscar Romero, a prelate from El Salvador who was assassinated in 1980 because of the liberation theology he espoused and his activism to protect marginalized people. The pope also set a record for canonizing more than 900 saints, and approved the canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, “a 15-year-old boy of the internet age and a model of holiness of the digital age.”
The pope set a record for canonizing more than 900 saints, and approved the canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis
“Remember when he came to the Philippines in 2015?” recalls Father Robert who was in Luneta and saw a crowd of six million. “That was the biggest crowd ever that came to Luneta. Why? I think even people who have not yet met him were able to see eye-to-eye and face-to-face with him. This is a pope who tried to connect with us.”
Fr. Robert Reyes
Father Robert was also in Tacloban in January 2015, when the pope went to meet the survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. He saw the crowd, soaking wet. “The rain did not prevent people from coming and did not prevent the pope from taking the risk to come even as there was still a storm brewing that day.”
Father Robert says that he saw how people really wanted to touch lolo Kiko’s robe, and to meet his gaze. The compassionate pope was trying to connect with everybody as much as he could.
“During the Mass,” Father Robert says, “it was a sea of yellow, yellow raincoats; you could sense the energy, the synergy that this pope seemed to create. And it was most human, much more than human.
“If you were there out of faith, not only out of curiosity, but out of belief, you were trying not to see a superstar, a rockstar. Perhaps you were trying to see the face of God. And that was what I felt. God was there and the pope was his instrument for making it happen. All throughout his life, parang ganoon si Pope Francis.”
He describes the Pope: “When he talked, he minced no words. He did not edit himself. But he was also not impudent. His use of language was very delicate, very sensitive. Yet he was not afraid to ruffle feathers.”
And that’s the reason, “kaya marami ring nagagalit sa kanya (Many are angry with him).”
Asked about the homosexual priests in the Church, the pope replied, “They are priests! And I don’t look at them as homosexuals. Who am I to judge when it comes to LGBTQIA?”
He was the first pope to say, “Who am I to judge?”
“He was not afraid to call a spade a spade and to call out dictators, thieves, cruel people, violent people,” adds the running priest.
In June 2015, Pope Francis released a 184-page encyclical warning of the dangers of climate change. In this letter entitled Laudato Si, he wrote: “If present trends continue, this century may well witness extraordinary climate change and an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for all of us.” He chided world leaders for failing to “reach truly meaningful and effective global agreements on the environment.”
Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict, a theologian, according to Father Robert, wrote theological treatises and dogmas, for the Eucharist, for the priesthood. “Francis wrote about what was relevant in the world. Even world leaders took notice. He did not only think for Catholics, he thought for everyone. He was the universal spiritual leader. He was not a leader for Catholics only. Even Buddhists and Muslims, and all kinds of church denominations appreciate him. You didn’t hear any word from him against other denominations.”
Father Robert adds, “He said religion is like a song, a song to God, and each one who writes a song from his faith is writing a song to God. His faith is a song to God. And we have different songs, different melodies, different lyrics, but still the same song to the same God. The content will be slightly different, but it is universal. The tune may be slightly different, from culture to culture, but the music is basically the same. Because everything that points to God in the end will be harmonious. And it will bring people together rather than divide them. And that will be his lasting contribution.”
The Conclave, the assembly of cardinals tasked to elect the next head of the Catholic Church, meets starting May 7 at the Sistine Chapel. The Italian words “con clave” (meaning “with a key,” as in locked with a key) underscore the arrangement that the cardinals are locked in the 15th-century Sistine Chapel to ensure secrecy and to protect them from outside influence. Telephones, cell phones, radios, televisions, and internet connections are removed, letters and newspapers not allowed.
The Italian words ‘con clave’ (meaning ‘with a key,’ as in locked with a key) underscore the arrangement that the cardinals are locked in the 15th-century Sistine Chapel to ensure secrecy and to protect them from outside influence
The conclave can have many rounds of voting until one candidate, or papabile (pope-able or possible pope), gets a two-thirds majority. The last two conclaves, when German Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict in 2005 and Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis in 2013, were wrapped up in just two days.
This year’s conclave has the largest number of Filipino cardinal electors—Luis Antonio Tagle, Jose Advincula, and Pablo Virgilio David—which underscores the Philippines’ rising influence in the Catholic hierarchy. Another cardinal, Orlando Quevedo from Mindanao, is also in the Vatican but cannot vote because he is past 80 years old.
The Filipino prelate Tagle and the Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin are seen by most Vatican observers, according to Reuters on May 2, as the obvious frontrunners. Pietro Parolin has served as the Vatican’s Secretary of State since 2013 and as a member of the Council of Cardinals since 2014, the same year he was made a cardinal. Cardinal Tagle is the Pro-Prefect for the Section of First Evangelization of the Dicastery for Evangelization, while overseeing Rome’s Pontifical Urban University.
Father Robert believes there could be a dark horse.
Fr. Isidro Marinay, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Manila, tells us: “Cardinal Tagle is the darling of the crowd, but the cardinal electors have a completely different view of Church leadership. Having said that, Cardinal Tagle has the mind and heart of Pope Francis for continuity—synodality, simplicity, and Church as a field hospital for the broken and the peripheries.”
He adds that Asia could be a periphery, and it would not hurt to have the first Asian pope. “In the Church, if we talk about Asian cardinal who could be the next pope, it is Cardinal Tagle.” He adds, “US cardinals will vote for him as he was trained in the US. And being in the close circle of Pope Francis, he already knows the Vatican bureaucracy. Diplomatic relations between the Vatican and China are complicated. A pope with Chinese roots can help mitigate the tension.”
Father Robert thinks that in addressing controversy and contentious issues, Cardinal Tagle would not venture into dangerous waters. He, however, says that he’ll be happy if Chito Tagle becomes pope. “He was my classmate (in San Jose Seminary). How can I not share in the joy because it’s the highest position anyone can receive? And it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy, because as young as Chito was when we were classmates, we were all saying that he definitely will be a cardinal. He’s brilliant and very talented. And some said, and maybe a pope.”
One of them was the late Fr. Catalino Arevalo, a Jesuit who was the Asian representative in the International Theological Commission (ITC) that was run by Ratzinger for many years. Arevalo appointed Tagle to take his position in the ITC after the former retired. “He knew and saw not just the possibility, but the reality of how Chito would find his way in this maze of power that is the Vatican,” says Father Robert.
I had a chance to meet Cardinal Tagle in 2014 and 2017. The first was a happy occasion, when we had dinner upon the invitation of Fr. Sid Marinay of St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori Parish Church in Makati. Father Sid was my husband Mario’s advisee for his doctoral dissertation at the University of the Philipppines Asian Center. The second meeting in 2017 was for a funeral mass for Mario’s nephew, Dr. J.P. Lirio, when the archbishop gave a homily and comforted the bereaved Lirio family. On both occasions, the good father was naturally kind, engaging and charismatic. He was especially attentive and sweet to my little grandson, Raja. No wonder he’s called the “Asian Francis.”
All things considered, the choice of who will be the next pope rests on the two thirds votes from more than 120 cardinal electors. Father Reyes thinks that all the elements, dangerous elements, ingredients of war, are there. The next pope should know how to bravely navigate the Church in this maze of conflict. “He will have to study Pope Francis’ legacy of his last 12 years and build upon it. Because it’s a beautiful foundation for the next 100 or the next 1,000 years.”
