Sociologist Francisco Borba Ribero Nito, a religious expert, detailed in the Special Edition of WW, broadcast on Sunday (27), a strategy adopted by Pope Francis in 12 years as a leader of the Catholic Church: sympathy for the dimension and correction of another.
Ribeiro Neto explains that Francis uses a distinctive logic of the church: “For those neighbors, correction. For those distant and mercy.” This approach resulted in a strange situation, as people felt out of the church welcoming, while the closest experience of the charge.
The lost son as a metaphor
The sociologist draws parallel between the position of the Pope and the same son. In this measurement, the distant son receives the unconditional love of his father, while the person who remained close to the participation of this joy. This dynamic, according to Ribero Nito, is located in the heart of the Francisco approach.
However, the papal strategy was not free of controversy. The expert notes that Francis’s interest in human and existential positions that have not been traditionally welcomed by the Church generates discomfort in the most conservative sectors. These groups – according to Ribeiro Neto – believed that the contemporary problem is that there is no accuracy within the institution.
The sociologist avoids the classification of the discussion as a simple division between progressive and conservatives. Instead, it suggests an analysis based on the confrontation between “chance” – the belief that all problems are solved with hardness – and “welcoming”, represented in the most sympathetic Pope Francis approach.
