In the media hugger-mugger before the papal conclave began, most cardinals spoke of the need for reform.
But they had in mind different kinds of reform: an evangelical reform that would focus on renewing the faith of all Catholics; a disciplinary reform that would tightly define Catholic identity, act against dissent and unify the Church against the 'secularist threat'; a structural reform that would address those aspects of governance and culture that contributed to the sexual abuse crisis and to alienation among Catholics.
Pope Francis will address these proposals not simply as sociological challenges, but within a Catholic framework that developed in the face of the late medieval pressure for reform of the Church in its head and its members, culminating in the Reformation.
In this understanding the Church has divine and human aspects. In its faith and essential structures the Church is simply a gift that is held in trust. It is unchangeable and holy, so that Catholics' access to God through its sacraments and teaching is guaranteed.
But the Church is also a sociological reality composed of human beings and their structured and unstructured ways of relating. Human beings are sinful, and so the church needs constant reform.
In weighing how Pope Francis may set reform within this understanding of the Church as both holy and sinful, Augustine's complex treatment of the holiness of the Church may be helpful. He argued that the Church would be holy in an unqualified sense only at the end of time.
He said the Church is holy in the sense that Christ, who is the active power in its teaching, sacraments, governance and mission to the poor, is holy. But as a human reality, the Church is mixed: it comprises those who choose God above all things and those who choose other things before God. In that sense it is not holy. And finally he described the Church as a school for holiness. Through it Christ forms us to choose God above all things.
From this perspective the priority in any reform will be to strengthen the hope of Catholics in the future transformation of the Church at the end of time, and their awareness of Christ's presence and activity of Christ within the teaching, sacraments and outreach of the Church. That is the context within which Pope Francis will situate structural and disciplinary reform.
In the Catholic Churches of the Western world, at least, this hope and faith run counter to a prevailing culture, in which only what can be detected empirically is real, and our hope is confined to what takes place in our universe. So faith and hope need encouragement.
Popes and bishops have instituted programs to encourage this kind of faith and hope. They have had varying degrees of success. The most effective seem to have focused on the depth of faith rather than on its content, have been led by lay people, and have touched relatively small groups. This argues for local reform initiatives that build diversity in the sense of being Catholic. There is no magic bullet. But there is a great need for encouragement.
The mixture of good and evil in the Church invites realism. Catholics should expect that the relationships embodied in even given structures like the papacy, episcopal governance and in the life of congregations will be infected by the desire for power and control, resentment, pride, a sense of entitlement, and other signs of sinfulness.
Reform will mean attending to these signs, changing the culture that breeds infection, and recognising that changes in structures are not ends in themselves.
If the Catholic Church is to be a school for holiness it must reassure Catholics above all that it is a safe school — that its pupils will not be abused. In schools, this normally demands a change of culture to shift focus from reputation and power to the dignity, growth and empowerment of students. In the Catholic Church it will mean dealing decisively with the abuse of power by clergy in sexual and other areas at both Roman and local levels.
Of the three proposals for reform — evangelical, disciplinary and structural — Pope Francis will certainly give priority to evangelical reform both of head and members because it is fundamental to other kinds of reform. He will preach the Gospel with its high understanding of human life and freedom. His simplicity of life will be a gift in this respect.
But evangelical reform will rely on structural and disciplinary reform to encourage the initiative of local churches and to offer reassurance that the Catholic Church is a safe place of schooling for head and members.
But a disciplinary reform that focuses on silencing debate and on making common cause against contemporary secularism would only discourage evangelical reform. If successful, it would turn Catholics' attention away from the hunk of four by two in their own eye to the splinter in the enemy's eye.
Andrew Hamilton is consulting editor of Eureka Street and a policy officer for Jesuit Social Services.