By: Carissa Clark

On March 13, 2013 the start of a new era for the Catholic Church began when Jorge Mario Bergoglio had been appointed Pope of the Vatican church. Pope Francis is extremely different than the past appointed popes. He encourages openness beyond the Catholic Church; he promotes the belief that the church needs to accept and not judge all people with different walks of life and faiths. By doing this, he is doing a variety of outreach efforts to start educating and changing the thinking of Christians who do not agree with his views.    

To help establish changes beyond the church, he uses Situational Theory to help further his outreach tactics. He has acknowledged that not everyone communicates equally with the Vatican Church, so he has identified which groups who need more attention and how to rely his messages to them.  In this case, He has acknowledged that atheists and non-Christians are judged and looked upon negatively within the church. After acknowledging the problem, he has seeked out ways to address and correct the problem. One way of doing this, Pope Francis released the first encyclical letter specifically seeking out Atheists to get his message across.  On September 11, 2013 Pope Francis wrote a long letter to the Italian liberal daily La Repubblica to affirm that an “open dialogue free of prejudices” between Christians and atheists is “necessary and precious.”

Since the letter was released, there has been a lot of positive feedback in the news from reporters, one example is Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent for the London-based Catholic journal The Tablet. He stated in his covered story about the letter: “Francis is still a conservative … But what this is all about is him seeking to have a more meaningful dialogue with the world.” That sort of open-handed approach toward nonbelievers and others has been characteristic of this pope since the first days after he took office in March, as he greeted the media and made a special point of respecting the consciences of non-Catholics and those who have no religious belief. http://www.religionnews.com/2013/09/12/analysis-pope-francis-outreach-atheists-controversial-seems/

Here is an example of media coverage about Pope Francis’ efforts: Pope Francis Loves Atheists

According to an article in the National Catholic Reporter, Francis makes three points in the letter that have all been said before, including by popes, but rarely with such clarity or in this kind of venue:

  • God has never abandoned the covenant with the Jewish people, and the church “can never be grateful enough” to the Jews for preserving their faith despite the horrors of history, especially the Shoah, the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.
  • God’s mercy “does not have limits” and therefore it reaches nonbelievers, too, for whom sin would not be the lack of faith in God, but rather, failure to obey one’s conscience.
  • Truth is not “variable or subjective,” but Francis says he avoids calling it “absolute” — truth possesses us, he said, not the other way around, and it’s always expressed according to someone’s “history and culture, the situation in which they live, etc.”

Pope Francis wrote that he believes dialogue between the church and non-believers is important for two reasons. The first is the historical breach between the church and the culture inspired by the Enlightenment. “The time has come, and Vatican II inaugurated this season, for an open dialogue, without preconceptions, which reopens the doors for a serious and fruitful encounter,” Francis writes. Second, Francis says, from the point of view of the believer, dialogue with others is not a “secondary accessory” but rather something “intimate and indispensable.” (http://ncronline.org/blogs/francis-chronicles/latest-sensation-francis-writes-nonbeliever-urge-dialogue)

It clearly seems like this letter issued to Atheists is only the beginning of bringing reform to the thinking of believers as well as non-believers. He is being very proactive in his outreach efforts through his consistent communication and actions with the media. I think that there will start to be an impact in the dialogue with the Vatican Church and other walks of faith as long as he continuously sticks to his beliefs even if others don’t agree with him. Continuously be clear when addressing the media and never leave them with unanswered questions.