Upon selecting a papal coat of arms, Pope Francis retained the shield of his coat of arms from his days as bishop, placing it in front of the traditional symbols of the papacy. Pope Benedict had replaced the triple-layered tiara atop the papal coat of arms with the simpler miter of the Bishop of Rome. The three golden horizontal stripes represented the authority given to Peter stretching to heaven, earth, and under the earth. Two keys of St. Peter are crossed behind it, joined by a red cord. Pope Francis retained these traditional symbols. For the shield of his coat of arms, Pope Francis retained his own former blue shield. Symbols of the Society of Jesus are placed at the center; a golden sun with 32 rays with the monogram IHS in the center capped with a cross and having three nails crisscrossed below it.
IHS stands for Iesus Hominem Salvator (Jesus, Savior of Men). Below and on each side, Pope Francis placed his own chosen symbols. To the bottom left is an eight-point golden star, representing the Blessed Mother. In fact, Pope Francis had his pontificate dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima on May 13 before dedicating the whole world to her on October 13. To the right is a golden clump of spikenard flowers, a symbol popular in Latin America for St. Joseph.
During Vatican II, Pope John XXIII had added St. Joseph, chaste husband of the Virgin Mary and patron of the universal Church, to the Roman Canon of the Mass. On May 1, 2013, Pope Francis added St. Joseph to all the other options for the Eucharistic Prayer to ensure that the model of fatherhood, chastity, humility, and service would be included in the prayers of every Mass throughout the world. Pope Francis chose March 19, the feast of St. Joseph, as the date for his inaugural Mass.
Beneath the coat of arms is a scroll that carries his motto, miserando atque eligendo (seeing through the eyes of mercy, he chose him). If there is one word to encapsulate Francis' pontificate, it is ‘mercy’. At his first Angelus at St. Peter’s Square on March 17, Pope Francis told the crowd, “Never forget this: The Lord never gets tired of forgiving us. It is we, who get tired of asking for forgiveness.” Offering God’s mercy is Pope Francis' answer to the problems and evils of the world and the people who are entangled in them. Pope John XXIII at his opening speech on October 11, 1962, at the Second Vatican Council - the gathering of the bishops of the world which met from 1962 to 1965, pastorally touching nearly every aspect of the Church’s life - exhorted the bishops, “Nowadays... the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations.”
To the same extent that Franciscan peace is often misunderstood for a shallower counterfeit, mercy is too often subjected to a similar misunderstanding. Mercy is not naiveté of evil that assumes that “I’m okay, you’re okay.” Mercy should not be confused with moral relativism. Instead, mercy is the voice that tells us to “hate the sin but love the sinner.” It understands that sin is something that eats away at the person, but still encourages the person sinning to be treated as a person and with love. It was with mercy that Jesus told the women he saved from those who wished to stone for her adultery, “Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more” (John 8:11).
Pope Francis constantly reminds us in his homilies to have mercy on others by refraining from gossip. In a homily on September 13 at Sanctae Marthae to the Vatican staff, he preached, “The Lord does not waste many words on this concept. Further on [in the Gospel] he says that he who has hatred in his heart for his brother is a murderer.” There is no room for gossip in the life of a Christian, and it arises from judging others. Gossip and judgment destroy solidarity and break down the culture of cooperation. Instead of gossiping, Pope Francis urges the people, “Go and pray for him! Go and do penance for her! And then, if it is necessary, speak to that person who may be able to seek remedy for the problem. But don’t tell everyone!” Gossip was also a theme of special interest in Bergoglio’s homilies as cardinal.
The topic of mercy came up in Pope Francis' interview with Father Spadaro. The Holy Father said, “A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.” Here his answer focuses not on the question of homosexuality, but on mercy. Pope Francis has always said that he follows the teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in all things. The Catechism states in paragraph 2357 that “tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
The Catechism continues in paragraph 2358 regarding homosexual persons, “This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them at trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.” What Pope Francis is saying is not new; it is a pastoral application of the teachings of the Catechism with an emphasis on mercy and the person.
Journalists approached Pope Francis on his flight back from World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro about rumors of gay priests within the Vatican. As usual, his response was a disarming one that looked to the person and made the headlines, since his response was so unusual for a pope. “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” It was the first time a pope had used the word ‘gay’ to refer to a person with same-sex attraction, and he probably did so because that is how they refer to themselves. We all have desires that are disordered and that is why we sin.
The Pope is conveying a strong message: who are we, the people, to judge if a person is tempted in a different way than we are? Priests are called to celibacy, and a priest with same-sex attraction is called to celibacy just as a priest who is attracted to the opposite sex. Currently, candidates for the priesthood may only have attraction for the opposite sex if they are to be ordained. If Pope Francis makes a change has yet to be seen, but what is clear is that Pope Francis sees homosexuality as a temptation to the person. Someone who is Catholic and gay and truly ‘searches for the Lord’ will find that he or she must not act on those temptations, just as a heterosexual Catholic not in a Church marriage must not act on temptations regarding the opposite sex.
Pope Francis always tries to look first to the person. In his interview with Eugenio Scalfari of La Repubblica, an atheist, the journalist joked that his friends told him that the Pope only accepted the interview to convert him. Pope Francis responded, “Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.” During the interview, the Holy Father did not hold back on sharing about the message of Jesus and even asked the journalist penetrating questions to lead him to recognize the truth. That is evangelization. While it was later noted that the elderly Scalfari did not take notes or record the interview and thus may not have recalled the wording correctly, the difference that Pope Francis highlighted between proselytism and evangelization is that proselytism is a preaching that does not consider the person, while true evangelization is a personalistic sharing of the Gospel message done with love.
Pope Francis applies the principle of mercy to atheists as he did when he was a cardinal. His approach to atheists is one of respect and of open arms. One of the Holy Father’s spontaneous morning homilies at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, intended for the Vatican staff and their families, made headlines, “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class. We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all. And we all have a duty to do good.”
It is Catholic teaching that the mercy of God extends to all people and not just Catholics. According to Vatican II, “[The Church of Christ] constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church... although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity” (from Lumen Gentium). A distinction might be made between redemption, which is offered to all, and salvation, which may not be received by all because of a lack of response to Christ’s redemption. Those outside the bounds of the Catholic Church can be saved, but as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) clarified in a document called ‘Dominus Jesus,’ it is presumably more difficult because the full elements towards salvation are in the Catholic Church.
Still, we are all children of the same God, whether we believe in him or not. We have much to share. All people of good will share in God’s common gifts of goodness, truth, and beauty. Pope Francis continues, “And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: We need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: We will meet one another there.”
At his first meeting with the journalists on March 16, he modeled a respect for those of other faiths: “I told you I was cordially imparting my blessing. Since many of you are not members of the Catholic Church, and others are not believers, I cordially give the blessing silently, to each of you, respecting the conscience of each, but in the knowledge that each of you is a child of God. May God bless you!”