A critique of Pope Francis’ widely acclaimed encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, by one of the most senior priests in the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, has caused widespread concern among Catholics in Scotland.

Monsignor Patrick Burke, who is Vicar General of the archdiocese, wrote an article on Fratelli Tutti in the January/February issue of the magazine of the Faith Movement (www.faith.org.uk/magazine). In it he argues that the ‘subjective frame of reference’ used by the pope in his encyclical means that his reflections are ‘more his own individual views than an act of magisterial teaching’. The Tablet responded with an online article in which papal biographer Austen Ivereigh and theologian Massimo Faggioli challenged Mgr Burke’s analysis. Faggioli argued that his critique ignores the role that the parable of the Good Samaritan plays in the encyclical, which is to provide its theological foundation.

Writing in America magazine in 2019, theology professor Victor Codina SJ discusses the theological background to opposition to Pope Francis within the church. Those who oppose Francis on theological grounds, he suggests, do so from the conviction that his lack of theological professionalism - in contrast to that of Popes John Paul II and Benedict - explains what they consider to be his inaccuracies and even doctrinal errors. Codina points out that Francis studied and taught pastoral theology as Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ in Buenos Aires, but now his pronouncements belong to the pastoral seat of the bishop of Rome. The problem is not that he is not a theologian, but rather that his theology is pastoral. What really bothers his detractors, Codina suggests, is that it stems from reality: the reality of injustice, poverty and the destruction of nature, and the reality of ecclesial clericalism.

In terms of socio-political criticism, Codina points out that Pope Francis’ messages are in continuity with prophetic biblical teaching and the social teaching of the church. What hurts some people, he suggests, is their prophetic clarity: the Pope says no to an economy of exclusion and inequality, no to an economy that kills, no to an unjust social and economic system that locks us into unjust social structures.

Opposition to Pope Francis, Codina argues, is in reality opposition to the Second Vatican Council. Francis speaks of the church as an inverted pyramid, as polyhedral, and above all as synodal, which means as we travel the same path together we should listen to one another, as priests, people and pope. Pope Francis belongs to a long line of prophets who have wanted to reform the church, from his namesake Francis of Assisi to Angelo Roncalli.