It is now over a month since the election of Pope Francis and it is clear that he has a strong agenda of reform in mind. From his symbolic refusal of the red cloak on his election by the conclave, to his washing of the feet of young offenders in detention, both male and female, believers and non-believers, he has set a path of change in the Church starting from the top, but with ramifications for the Church as a whole.
Of course it is difficult to get into the mind of a person who might have been pope eight years earlier, when it appears he requested those who were voting for him to direct their votes to Cardinal Ratzinger. Would the intervening years have been filled with 'what ifs'? Would he have viewed the direction taken by Benedict XVI and wondered how he might have dealt with the issues that arose?
While we are not likely to know the answers to this without some personal revelation from Francis himself, it is clear that he came to the preconclave debates with a strong sense of purpose. As the cardinals gathered prior to entering the conclave they were given the opportunity to present their case for the qualities needed in the new pope. Cardinal Jorje Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, gave a speech which was ecclesiastical dynamite.
He spoke of the dangers of a Church becoming 'self-referential' and 'sick'. He warned of the dangers of a 'theological narcissism' overtaking the Church. He referred to the Gospel image of Jesus knocking on the door wanting to enter our lives. 'But think of the times when Jesus knocks from within to let himself out. The self-referential Church seeks Jesus Christ within and does not let him out.
'The Church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only in the geographical sense but also to go to the existential peripheries: those of the mysteries of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and of religious indifference, of thought, of all misery.'
Statements such as these do not arise in a vacuum. They are not a disinterested statement of timeless theological truths. They arise from an analysis of the current situation of the Church and the direction it had taken in the last eight and possibly more years.
For all the personal respect and deference Francis has shown to his predecessor, these words read like a repudiation of the direction in which the Church had moved under his reign.
What is more, this is the very man elected by cardinals handpicked by John Paul II and Benedict XVI with an agenda of reining in what was perceived as the excessive openness of the post-Vatican II Church. This is a truly remarkable occurrence, to the point of defying ecclesiastical logic.
Francis has continued the same themes in homilies and talks, as well as through symbolic actions. In a recent homily reported by the Vatican Insider, Francis spoke of the need for the Church to build bridges, not walls.
Christians who are afraid to build bridges and prefer to build walls are Christians who are not sure of their faith ... When the Church loses this apostolic courage, she becomes a stalled church, a tidy church, a church that is nice to look at, but is without fertility, because she's lost the courage to go to the outskirts.
The Church is called to be inclusive in its mission:
I remember when as a child one would hear in Catholic families, in my family, 'No, we cannot go to their house, because they are not married in the Church.' It was as an exclusion. No, you could not go! Neither could we go to [the houses of] socialists or atheists. Now, thank God, people do not say such things, right? [Such an attitude] was a defence of the faith, but it was one of walls: the LORD made bridges.
He acknowledged that taking this path may lead to the Church making mistakes. But 'if you make a mistake, you get up and go forward: that is the way. Those who do not walk in order not to err, make a more serious mistake.'
It was not uncommon during the reign of Benedict XVI for people to speak of a 'smaller but purer Church'. While there was some debate as to the provenance of this phrase, and whether Benedict saw this as desirable or merely an observation of the direction the Church was heading, it would seem that to Francis such an outcome would represent a failure of courage on the part of the Church.
He knows mistakes might be made in keeping the Church more inclusive, but he is not afraid of this. He knows too that it is difficult to evangelise a world that one constantly demonises. He wants to build bridges to the world, bridges of dialogue and cooperation.
Whether they knew it or not the conclave cardinals initiated a quiet revolution in electing this man.
Neil Ormerod is Professor of Theology at Australian Catholic University. His latest book, with Cynthia Crysdale, is Creator God, Evolving World (Fortress Press, 2013).