Pope Francis and Mercy: A Dynamic Theological Hermeneutic

by Gill K. Goulding, CJ

Overview

This theological study examines how Pope Francis lives out mercy in his own Petrine ministry and calls for it to be lived out by the people of God.

The centerpiece of Pope Francis’s pontificate from the very first days has been his proclamation of the importance of the mercy of God. While facing global problems of climate change, terror, political destabilization, refugees, and dire poverty, the Holy Father has articulated the mission of the Church through mercy, love, and forgiveness to reveal the compassion of God for all and particularly for those most vulnerable existing on the margins of society. In this compelling study, Gill Goulding, CJ, examines for the first time the critical and determinative role of mercy in Francis’s papacy using his homilies, allocutions, encyclicals, and addresses as primary sources. Goulding traces the theme of mercy in Francis’s thought, attending to its Ignatian foundations and its Christological, Trinitarian, and ecclesiological significance for the Church today, particularly the impact of his reappropriation and elevation of the discourse of mercy on the work of the Curia in Rome.

Goulding enters into dialogue with other theologians, including Romano Guardini, Walter Kasper, and Hans Urs von Balthasar, to demonstrate a continuity between Francis and his predecessors, especially Benedict XVI, in this area of mercy. In addition, Goulding argues that the influence of St. Ignatius Loyola, in particular his Spiritual Exercises, needs to be taken into account, paying special attention to Francis’s call for the practice of discernment. Throughout Pope Francis and Mercy, Goulding lays the groundwork for future research and suggests a wider appreciation of the necessary tools to enable an engagement with mercy in our contemporary world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268206451
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	01/15/2025
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gill K. Goulding, CJ, is professor of systematic theology at Regis College, University of Toronto, and senior research associate at the Von Hügel Institute, University of Cambridge. She is the author of A Church of Passion and Hope: The Formation of an Ecclesial Disposition from Ignatius Loyola to Pope Francis and the New Evangelization.

Read an Excerpt

On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome amidst all the beauty and splendor portrayed, there is the image of God stretching out a hand in the creation of a human person. A finger points, it forms and creates the reality of history in a gratuitous act of divine generosity. All particular historicity is established in that moment and temporal reality continued to be marked by the presence of God at work within the world, forming a covenant with his chosen people to which he faithfully adheres despite the infidelities of the people. With the incarnation the presence of God amongst God’s people becomes a personal encounter in Jesus Christ. His life, passion, death and resurrection mark a definitive engagement and an irrevocable commitment of God to human persons. In the growth of the early church we see a community growing in faith and understanding amidst the trials of persecution and exile. Across many generations there have been significant moments of history in the life of the Roman Catholic Church. In the elevation of Cardinal Bergoglio to the pontificate of Pope Francis we encountered another such moment. Here was a man ‘from the ends of the earth’, the first Latin American and the first Jesuit Pope.

It was not just the manner of his being announced to the crowd outside St Peter’s Basilica, where 6000 accredited journalists had waited patiently for a puff of white smoke, that made us conceive we were touching history. It is the way that Pope Francis lived out the manner of his papacy, such that he was seen to put into action the words he spoke. Central to this enactment was the way he called the Church to a radical encounter with Christ and a re-appropriation of the gospel message.

A man of gestures both large and small the Holy Father commanded respect even from those who profoundly disagreed with him. People were attracted to him and intrigued by him and perhaps especially those who would designate themselves as non-believers. His statements and gestures were simple, direct and profound. At times they seemed to be a passionate enactment of the gospel. His leadership was novel. He was the first pope for centuries to believe in the fruitfulness of tension and disagreement, within the leadership of the Church; and he advocated the principle of dialogue and the operative tool of discernment as key skills for governance. It is also noteworthy that in the Church’s relations with international nations, in his first three years in office Pope Francis met with every Head of State with whom the Holy See has diplomatic relations most of whom trod the path to Rome to greet him. In this new papacy world leaders saw a figure willing to engage international issues and speak out in favor of the poorest members of society. Essential to the mission of the Church was the need to reveal the compassion of God for all and particularly those most vulnerable existing on the margins of society.

Facing global problems of climate change, terror, unemployment, political destabilization of an unprecedented international order, refugees, and dire poverty, Pope Francis gave shape to his compassion through endorsing a clear trajectory of mercy, love and forgiveness as pre-eminently the mission of the Church to contemporary cultures and communities of faith. “Mercy cannot become a mere parenthesis in the life of the Church; it constitutes her very existence, through which the profound truths of the Gospel are made manifest and tangible. Everything is revealed in mercy; everything is resolved in the merciful love of the Father.” This could not be a more distinctive assertion of the importance of mercy, in no way is it a mere appendage rather it is the operative dynamic of the Church’s existence, revelatory of the good news of the merciful love of God. In addition, for the Holy Father, the mercy of God has a concrete face and a generative heart in the incarnate Word - Jesus Christ. Here, we see the central consistent importance of Christology for Pope Francis’ thought both in terms of his teaching and his preaching.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

1. Foundations for a Dialogue on Mercy

2. Ignatian Influence on Pope Francis

3. Specific Christological Underpinnings of Mercy

4. The Trinitarian Horizon

5. Engaging Ecclesiological Ramifications

Conclusion

Postscript

Appendix – Mary Mother of Mercy

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

There have been some fine biographies and related studies where the authors have attempted to tease out Pope Francis’s complex character, personal history, influences, and teaching. . . . Goulding’s book could be said to begin where these other studies end. As a theologian she understands and is comfortable with the term 'mercy' in a way that these other authors sometimes are not.” —Brian O’Leary, SJ, author of To Love and to Serve

"Goulding delivers a thorough, concisely-argued elucidation of the theological concept of mercy under Francis." —Heythrop Journal

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