What a Diocesan priest wants in the next pontiff

To the editor:

Alone, in my fading lounge chair, I am wondering about the future of my rickety institutional church. To amplify my feelings of depression accompanying the sudden death of Pope Francis, is the bittersweet celebration of my class’s 50th anniversary celebration of our college seminary’s graduation in Cathedral College in Douglaston, Queens.

Of course, it will be good to see many of the fellows, six of whom will be bringing their wives and six have died since we graduated from the modern progressive college-seminary. This formation program emphasized openness to the world. One-quarter will make it to the prayer and social, which we hear is a good average for college reunions.

But so much has changed with the internet, cell phones and yes - the sad scandals involving priests and children that have left six of eight dioceses bankrupt in New York State. Our college seminary is closed now and has become a retirement center for male clergy.

What has not changed is the wild hope that the legacy of Vatican II will really continue. Words like synodality, women’s ordination and LGTBQ+ were very distant whispers in the cafeteria and in the hallways outside philosophy seminars “back in the day.” These are not completely faded memories—but still carry real, untapped raw energy.

What Pope Francis, a fully Jesuitical educator pope presented with both a grin and a passionate glare for justice, was that the last word on change has not yet been pronounced. However, I am now left much older and hardened by the world that I have seen for the last half century. We all are.

What I long for in the new pope is someone who understands how difficult it is to be a person of public faith. Someone who does not run to the rhetoric around religious functions but can simply state:

 “I too feel lonely and am not able to explain all the issues in the church today. I too feel frustrated with real limits of gender roles as we try to witness to the Good News in the 21st century. I too know what it means to struggle in my prayer life—especially as racism, sexism and the abuse of power still marks much of our lives in society and Church.”

And yes, I deeply pray that the Pontiff be as friendly and as encouraging that he can be to make the Church community become alive again—and refreshed and refreshing.

If the winds of renewal were happening in 1975, why can it not happen again – like now.

Rev. James Coy Francis Sheehan, Jr.

Chaplain at Bronx Community College and Hostos

Archdiocese of New York