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Pope for the people galvanizes millennials

Pope for the people galvanizes millennials

Francis has excoriated global capitalism as ‘dung of the devil’

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Though Pope Francis hasn’t gone as far as changing church doctrine, his more lenient stances on issues like abortion, gay marriage and climate change have struck a chord that resonate with younger Catholics.

There is a different voice being heard from the Vatican the past couple years.

Although Pope Francis hasn’t gone as far as changing church doctrine, his more lenient stances on issues like abortion, gay marriage and climate change have struck a chord that resonate with younger Catholics.

Shortly after he became Pope, Francis told Vatican reporters, “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

This spring, he released a paper on climate change, in which he supported a partnership between science and religion to stem the tide of climate change.

Then, earlier this month, he granted priests around the world the right to forgive the “sin of abortion” during the “year of mercy,” which is set to begin in December.

But his main theme since becoming the 266th pope in March of 2013 has been poverty and the distribution of wealth.

The Holy Father, who comes to Philadelphia next weekend, has alternately referred to our world financial order as “structurally perverse,” a “new colonialism” and the “dung of the devil.”

In its place, he has promoted a universal message of mercy, compassion and social justice.

And that especially resonates with millennial Catholics, who can feel snubbed by an institution that doesn’t speak their language, said Stephen Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies in Washington, D.C.

“Being Catholic when I was younger, it wasn’t something I had chosen,” said 20-year-old Pernilla Lauren Mpasi, who came back to the faith on her own as a sophomore at the University of Delaware the same year that Pope Francis assumed leadership of the church.

Pope for the people galvanizes MillennialsBuy Photo

Perinea Mpasi in St. Thomas More Oratory at the University of Delaware Wednesday. (Photo: DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

She didn’t make her decision because of him, but she likes that he’s easy to relate to, Mpasi said, sitting under stained glass windows in the campus mission, a low brick building marked by a cross two-stories tall and a flock of bikes leaning on a rack in the yard.

Sitting next to her was 19-year-old environmental studies student Andrea Miller, who, like Mpasi, grew up going to Catholic school and grew apart from her religion until she went to college and found the campus mission.

They each wear a little wooden cross, glistening with lacquer, every day.

“If I could put my faith into one little object, it would be this,” Mpasi said, lifting it from her chest and swinging her legs out from under her chair. That’s because it represents the first thing she did for her own faith – going on a retreat with the campus mission and choosing her religion. The crosses are given at the end of the retreat.

Pope Francis is taking a different approach, Miller said – he’s “challenging barriers.”

For issues like gay marriage, Miller said, it’s important to have discussions about it.

“At the end of the day, not everyone is Christian,” Mpasi said, so you can’t expect everyone to follow Christian values.

For Tyler Lee, 21, the Pope’s statement about gay people “felt very affirmative,” he said, running his fingernail under the laminate of the seating chart at the bar where he works on Main Street in Newark.

On an afternoon shift last week, Lee explained that he was raised Catholic and started questioning his sexuality in high school. It felt odd that the church would be opposed to him.

“I like to read a lot,” said Lee, who often scrunches up his nose to shift his glasses higher on his face. “I started reading about other faiths,” he said.

But, it ended up feeling like he was picking which one was right, then, it “felt like I couldn’t really be sure of anything,” he said.

Pope for the people galvanizes MillennialsBuy Photo

Catherine Rooney's server Tyler Lee was raised as a Catholic, but no longer attends church. He feels that Pope Francis' views on climate change, poverty and gay marriage have been steps in the right direction for the church. (Photo: DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

Lee came out when he was a senior, to a supportive family, and now considers himself an agnostic.

Pope Francis hasn’t exactly offered a ringing endorsement, but, until now, Lee said, the church had, at best, ignored the issue. It’s good to have a Pope who will open a conversation.

“When someone levels with you, in your gut, even if you don’t want to hear it, you know it’s right. Kids have a keen ability to recognize the truth when they get the truth,” said Father Tom Flowers of St. Jude in Lewes. “I think that has an awful lot to do with the tremendous attraction with the last three popes and young people.”

“Research shows that the spirituality of millennials is grounded in service,” Schneck said. “One of the problems they have is that institutionalized religion tends to have barriers and boundaries, judgmental lines of who’s in and who’s out.”

The legacy of Pope Francis, by contrast, is one of “openness,” according to Schneck. “It’s certainly more fun being a Catholic right at the moment.”

Along with his penchant for taking selfies, Pope Francis has endeared himself to millennials by encouraging them to “make a ruckus” in the name of solidarity and hope. Roughly 16 percent of millennials self-identify as Catholic, 22 percent in Delaware, according to Pew research.

Named after St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century monk devoted to the poor, Pope Francis is expected to bring his social justice platform to Philadelphia during his visit timed with the World Meeting of Families. But before arriving in the City of Brotherly Love, the first Latin-American pope will make an unprecedented address to Congress Thursday.

“Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor,” the pope declared in his apostolic exhortation released in 2013.

His focus on the poor is something Wilmington Bishop Francis Malooly particularly admires.

“Pope Francis is consumed by his love of the poor and the marginalized,” Malooly wrote in a commentary about five things he likes about the pope. “Almost all of his words and actions challenge us to reach out to the poor in our midst.”

The message resonates across the faith community.

“He has gained the respect of a lot of people, not only in the Catholic Church, but in many other churches, including ours,” said Carolyn Gillette, pastor of Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington.

Gillette, whose church hosts homeless families, said the pope’s priorities of repairing the environment and empowering the poor remind her of famous verse, “For God so loved the world,” from the Gospel of John.

“It’s all the people, not just the rich,” Gillette said. “But the world is not just the people. It’s plants and animals, trees, all of creation.”

Pope for the people galvanizes MillennialsBuy Photo

Andrea Miller in St. Thomas More Oratory at the University of Delaware Wednesday. (Photo: DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

For Miller, the environmental studies major, appreciating the natural world is “one of the ways I love celebrating my religion.”

Named “Man of the Year” by MTV’s college channel (singer Lorde was his anointed counterpart), Pope Francis witnessed corrupt politics and oppressive regimes in his Argentina homeland. He is known for sidestepping security to distribute bread to the poor and striking up conversations with the homeless.

The pontiff also prefers the Vatican guesthouse to the Apostolic Palace, and has instructed clergy to sell their newer cars and give the profits to the downtrodden. For everyday Catholics, he urges them to touch the hands of the poor, instead of simply tossing coins in cups.

By living what he preaches, Pope Francis makes it seem doable for everyone to help those in need in their own small way, Mpasi said.

There’s something “radically ancient” about professing a culture of inclusion, but the pontiff’s message seizes on modern frustrations with concentrated wealth and power, says Christopher Hall, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

The pope’s “visit to the U.S. has garnered unprecedented excitement from young people, non-catholics and Catholics on the margins,” said Hall, 26, who also writes about faith and politics for Time magazine.

Pope Francis inspired Hall to leave politics for his current job promoting the social justice mission of the Catholic Church in American life.

The pope serves a “pastoral role, not political,” Hall explained. “It’s a message that cuts beyond the left-right dichotomy.”

“A poor Church, for the poor”

As executive director of Catholic Charities in Wilmington, Richelle Vible is on the front line of serving the community’s needy, an estimated 120,000 annually.

Over its 185-year history, organization leaders have watched the spotlight shine, flicker and fade on their efforts, particularly during and after the 2008 financial crisis. During the last two years, individual donations from $5 to $5,000, have increased to the social services agency but she can’t say why.

“I hope it’s not going to be a blip,” Vible said of the renewed attention on anti-poverty programs. “It is helpful for someone with the pope’s stature to remind all of us we have people in need.”

Reimagining a global economy guided by morality is not a novel concept to the Catholic Church. Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, blamed the global financial meltdown on society’s profit-at-all-cost obsession.

As early as 1891, Pope Leo XIII called for economic justice for workers with his encyclical “Rerum Novarum” or “On Condition of Labor.”

But Pope Francis’ critique of trickle-down economics is just one piece of a more progressive agenda, including condemnations of global warming and welcoming statements on gay marriage and the role of women in the church.

Last week, he called on Europe’s more than 120,000 Catholic parishes and religious communities to each take in a refugee family from Syria and other war-torn countries. Speaking in St. Peter’s Square, the pope noted that the Vatican would receive two families.

“Most people are surprised that it has taken the church so long to say these things,” said Webster, adding that members of his generation have latched on to the pope’s message of tolerance.

Not everyone agrees.

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh labeled Pope Francis’ economic ideas as “pure Marxism.” Billionaire Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone, a devout Catholic, has expressed discomfort with the pope’s comments about an “exclusionary” culture of prosperity. He and others are concerned that the pontiff could alienate some wealthy church donors.

Pope Francis isn’t against the rich; he’s against institutionalized inequality, said Webster, who compared the Pope’s free-wheeling delivery to that of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Buy Photo

Paul Webster, principal of Nativity Preparatory School in Wilmington, interacts with students during a spiritual "house" exercise. (Photo: SUCHAT PEDERSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

In a country where people speed through Thanksgiving to punch each other for HDTVs, the 266th pope exposes the American ethos of capitalism and ruthless individualism as a moral minefield.

“He questions why poverty even happens, why we accept it,” Webster said.

The pope’s message of uplifting hundreds of millions around the world, who suffer from extreme oppression, also helps distance the Catholic Church from damaging child-molestation scandals and a Vatican perceived by some as stuck in a time warp. He insists on restoring the image of a “poor Church, for the poor.”

So far, the down-to-earth pope has gained near-worldwide adulation. His final sermon at World Youth Day in 2013 attracted a reported 3 million people to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“If there’s one message for people in my generation, it’s that things need to change,” said Webster.

“The way he chooses to carry out that message and profess it is extremely refreshing.”

Saranac Hale Spencer contributed to this story.Contact Margie Fishman at 324-2882 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

ONGOING COVERAGE THIS WEEK

Monday

Pope Francis’ Philadelphia visit will bring a mixed blessing to businesses around Wilmington’s Riverfront and public transit hub.

Tuesday

Full coverage of Monday’s Holy Hour prayer services taking place at Delaware parishes in preparation for Pope Francis’ visit.

Wednesday

A look at the importance of the visit to Philadelphia by Pope Francis on local people in the Jesuit order.

Thursday

Catholics in the area talk about the changing definition of “family” and conflicts with the church over gay marriage and divorce.

Friday

Many people cannot make the trek to Philly to see the pope, but they plan to take part in events in Delaware honoring the pontiff.

Saturday

Pope Francis’ visit is very important to Delaware’s Latino community, and not just because the pontiff comes from Argentina.

Sunday

Full coverage of the pope’s arrival, a Mass at Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, and a visit to the Festival of Families.

Sept. 28

Coverage of the pope’s visit to Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and the Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1KnFmAA

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Pope for the people galvanizes millennials
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Francis has excoriated global capitalism as ‘dung of the devil’

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03

Though Pope Francis hasn’t gone as far as changing church doctrine, his more lenient stances on issues like abortion, gay marriage and climate change have struck a chord that resonate with younger Catholics.

There is a different voice being heard from the Vatican the past couple years.

Although Pope Francis hasn’t gone as far as changing church doctrine, his more lenient stances on issues like abortion, gay marriage and climate change have struck a chord that resonate with younger Catholics.

Shortly after he became Pope, Francis told Vatican reporters, “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

This spring, he released a paper on climate change, in which he supported a partnership between science and religion to stem the tide of climate change.

Then, earlier this month, he granted priests around the world the right to forgive the “sin of abortion” during the “year of mercy,” which is set to begin in December.

But his main theme since becoming the 266th pope in March of 2013 has been poverty and the distribution of wealth.

The Holy Father, who comes to Philadelphia next weekend, has alternately referred to our world financial order as “structurally perverse,” a “new colonialism” and the “dung of the devil.”

In its place, he has promoted a universal message of mercy, compassion and social justice.

And that especially resonates with millennial Catholics, who can feel snubbed by an institution that doesn’t speak their language, said Stephen Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies in Washington, D.C.

“Being Catholic when I was younger, it wasn’t something I had chosen,” said 20-year-old Pernilla Lauren Mpasi, who came back to the faith on her own as a sophomore at the University of Delaware the same year that Pope Francis assumed leadership of the church.

PopePovertyBuy Photo

Perinea Mpasi in St. Thomas More Oratory at the University of Delaware Wednesday. (Photo: DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

She didn’t make her decision because of him, but she likes that he’s easy to relate to, Mpasi said, sitting under stained glass windows in the campus mission, a low brick building marked by a cross two-stories tall and a flock of bikes leaning on a rack in the yard.

Sitting next to her was 19-year-old environmental studies student Andrea Miller, who, like Mpasi, grew up going to Catholic school and grew apart from her religion until she went to college and found the campus mission.

They each wear a little wooden cross, glistening with lacquer, every day.

“If I could put my faith into one little object, it would be this,” Mpasi said, lifting it from her chest and swinging her legs out from under her chair. That’s because it represents the first thing she did for her own faith – going on a retreat with the campus mission and choosing her religion. The crosses are given at the end of the retreat.

Pope Francis is taking a different approach, Miller said – he’s “challenging barriers.”

For issues like gay marriage, Miller said, it’s important to have discussions about it.

“At the end of the day, not everyone is Christian,” Mpasi said, so you can’t expect everyone to follow Christian values.

For Tyler Lee, 21, the Pope’s statement about gay people “felt very affirmative,” he said, running his fingernail under the laminate of the seating chart at the bar where he works on Main Street in Newark.

On an afternoon shift last week, Lee explained that he was raised Catholic and started questioning his sexuality in high school. It felt odd that the church would be opposed to him.

“I like to read a lot,” said Lee, who often scrunches up his nose to shift his glasses higher on his face. “I started reading about other faiths,” he said.

But, it ended up feeling like he was picking which one was right, then, it “felt like I couldn’t really be sure of anything,” he said.

Pope for the people galvanizes MillennialsBuy Photo

Catherine Rooney's server Tyler Lee was raised as a Catholic, but no longer attends church. He feels that Pope Francis' views on climate change, poverty and gay marriage have been steps in the right direction for the church. (Photo: DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

Lee came out when he was a senior, to a supportive family, and now considers himself an agnostic.

Pope Francis hasn’t exactly offered a ringing endorsement, but, until now, Lee said, the church had, at best, ignored the issue. It’s good to have a Pope who will open a conversation.

“When someone levels with you, in your gut, even if you don’t want to hear it, you know it’s right. Kids have a keen ability to recognize the truth when they get the truth,” said Father Tom Flowers of St. Jude in Lewes. “I think that has an awful lot to do with the tremendous attraction with the last three popes and young people.”

“Research shows that the spirituality of millennials is grounded in service,” Schneck said. “One of the problems they have is that institutionalized religion tends to have barriers and boundaries, judgmental lines of who’s in and who’s out.”

The legacy of Pope Francis, by contrast, is one of “openness,” according to Schneck. “It’s certainly more fun being a Catholic right at the moment.”

Along with his penchant for taking selfies, Pope Francis has endeared himself to millennials by encouraging them to “make a ruckus” in the name of solidarity and hope. Roughly 16 percent of millennials self-identify as Catholic, 22 percent in Delaware, according to Pew research.

Named after St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century monk devoted to the poor, Pope Francis is expected to bring his social justice platform to Philadelphia during his visit timed with the World Meeting of Families. But before arriving in the City of Brotherly Love, the first Latin-American pope will make an unprecedented address to Congress Thursday.

“Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor,” the pope declared in his apostolic exhortation released in 2013.

His focus on the poor is something Wilmington Bishop Francis Malooly particularly admires.

“Pope Francis is consumed by his love of the poor and the marginalized,” Malooly wrote in a commentary about five things he likes about the pope. “Almost all of his words and actions challenge us to reach out to the poor in our midst.”

The message resonates across the faith community.

“He has gained the respect of a lot of people, not only in the Catholic Church, but in many other churches, including ours,” said Carolyn Gillette, pastor of Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington.

Gillette, whose church hosts homeless families, said the pope’s priorities of repairing the environment and empowering the poor remind her of famous verse, “For God so loved the world,” from the Gospel of John.

“It’s all the people, not just the rich,” Gillette said. “But the world is not just the people. It’s plants and animals, trees, all of creation.”

Buy Photo

Andrea Miller in St. Thomas More Oratory at the University of Delaware Wednesday. (Photo: DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

For Miller, the environmental studies major, appreciating the natural world is “one of the ways I love celebrating my religion.”

Named “Man of the Year” by MTV’s college channel (singer Lorde was his anointed counterpart), Pope Francis witnessed corrupt politics and oppressive regimes in his Argentina homeland. He is known for sidestepping security to distribute bread to the poor and striking up conversations with the homeless.

The pontiff also prefers the Vatican guesthouse to the Apostolic Palace, and has instructed clergy to sell their newer cars and give the profits to the downtrodden. For everyday Catholics, he urges them to touch the hands of the poor, instead of simply tossing coins in cups.

By living what he preaches, Pope Francis makes it seem doable for everyone to help those in need in their own small way, Mpasi said.

There’s something “radically ancient” about professing a culture of inclusion, but the pontiff’s message seizes on modern frustrations with concentrated wealth and power, says Christopher Hall, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

The pope’s “visit to the U.S. has garnered unprecedented excitement from young people, non-catholics and Catholics on the margins,” said Hall, 26, who also writes about faith and politics for Time magazine.

Pope Francis inspired Hall to leave politics for his current job promoting the social justice mission of the Catholic Church in American life.

The pope serves a “pastoral role, not political,” Hall explained. “It’s a message that cuts beyond the left-right dichotomy.”

“A poor Church, for the poor”

As executive director of Catholic Charities in Wilmington, Richelle Vible is on the front line of serving the community’s needy, an estimated 120,000 annually.

Over its 185-year history, organization leaders have watched the spotlight shine, flicker and fade on their efforts, particularly during and after the 2008 financial crisis. During the last two years, individual donations from $5 to $5,000, have increased to the social services agency but she can’t say why.

“I hope it’s not going to be a blip,” Vible said of the renewed attention on anti-poverty programs. “It is helpful for someone with the pope’s stature to remind all of us we have people in need.”

Reimagining a global economy guided by morality is not a novel concept to the Catholic Church. Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, blamed the global financial meltdown on society’s profit-at-all-cost obsession.

As early as 1891, Pope Leo XIII called for economic justice for workers with his encyclical “Rerum Novarum” or “On Condition of Labor.”

But Pope Francis’ critique of trickle-down economics is just one piece of a more progressive agenda, including condemnations of global warming and welcoming statements on gay marriage and the role of women in the church.

Last week, he called on Europe’s more than 120,000 Catholic parishes and religious communities to each take in a refugee family from Syria and other war-torn countries. Speaking in St. Peter’s Square, the pope noted that the Vatican would receive two families.

“Most people are surprised that it has taken the church so long to say these things,” said Webster, adding that members of his generation have latched on to the pope’s message of tolerance.

Not everyone agrees.

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh labeled Pope Francis’ economic ideas as “pure Marxism.” Billionaire Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone, a devout Catholic, has expressed discomfort with the pope’s comments about an “exclusionary” culture of prosperity. He and others are concerned that the pontiff could alienate some wealthy church donors.

Pope Francis isn’t against the rich; he’s against institutionalized inequality, said Webster, who compared the Pope’s free-wheeling delivery to that of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

PopePovertyBuy Photo

Paul Webster, principal of Nativity Preparatory School in Wilmington, interacts with students during a spiritual "house" exercise. (Photo: SUCHAT PEDERSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

In a country where people speed through Thanksgiving to punch each other for HDTVs, the 266th pope exposes the American ethos of capitalism and ruthless individualism as a moral minefield.

“He questions why poverty even happens, why we accept it,” Webster said.

The pope’s message of uplifting hundreds of millions around the world, who suffer from extreme oppression, also helps distance the Catholic Church from damaging child-molestation scandals and a Vatican perceived by some as stuck in a time warp. He insists on restoring the image of a “poor Church, for the poor.”

So far, the down-to-earth pope has gained near-worldwide adulation. His final sermon at World Youth Day in 2013 attracted a reported 3 million people to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“If there’s one message for people in my generation, it’s that things need to change,” said Webster.

“The way he chooses to carry out that message and profess it is extremely refreshing.”

Saranac Hale Spencer contributed to this story.Contact Margie Fishman at 324-2882 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

ONGOING COVERAGE THIS WEEK

Monday

Pope Francis’ Philadelphia visit will bring a mixed blessing to businesses around Wilmington’s Riverfront and public transit hub.

Tuesday

Full coverage of Monday’s Holy Hour prayer services taking place at Delaware parishes in preparation for Pope Francis’ visit.

Wednesday

A look at the importance of the visit to Philadelphia by Pope Francis on local people in the Jesuit order.

Thursday

Catholics in the area talk about the changing definition of “family” and conflicts with the church over gay marriage and divorce.

Friday

Many people cannot make the trek to Philly to see the pope, but they plan to take part in events in Delaware honoring the pontiff.

Saturday

Pope Francis’ visit is very important to Delaware’s Latino community, and not just because the pontiff comes from Argentina.

Sunday

Full coverage of the pope’s arrival, a Mass at Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, and a visit to the Festival of Families.

Sept. 28

Coverage of the pope’s visit to Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and the Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1KnFmAA

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