January 9, 2006VOL. 44, NO. 1Oakland, CA

Pope’s action sparks review of
Assisi Shrine and its patron saint

By Stacy Meichtry
Religion News Service

ASSISI, Italy -- He is a champion of animal rights to some and a hero of anti-globalism to others. There are even those who consider him heaven’s first vegetarian.

Whether any of these causes actually crossed the 13th century mind of St. Francis of Assisi is doubtful. Centuries later, however, the monk who supposedly preached to birds and received the stigmata has become the poster saint of political activism that leans distinctly to the left.

Although the saint’s legacy of bonhomie has long made him a standout in the Roman Catholic establishment, lately the contrast has become excessively glaring. With national elections approaching in predominantly Catholic Italy and a new papacy well under way in Rome, a push to tone down Francis’ public image is taking shape.

The contours of this makeover came into focus after Pope Benedict XVI issued a November decree tightening ecclesial control over the saint’s tomb.

In an apostolic letter known as a Motu Proprio, Benedict placed the Basilica of St. Francis, where the saint is buried, and the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which marks the site of his early sermons, under the authority of the local bishop, an unnamed Vatican cardinal and Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the head of the Italian bishops conference.

In doing so, Benedict revoked a decree by Paul VI that granted the Franciscan order control of the shrines.

Father Vincenzo Coli, the Franciscan “custodian” of the basilica, plays down the edict. The small communities of Franciscan friars that operate the shrines still have the Vatican’s support and will continue to host high-profile demonstrations that reflect the “spirit of St. Francis,” he said in an interview.

“Because of St. Francis’ physical presence,” said Father Coli, referring to the saint’s remains buried beneath the basilica, “dialogue takes place peacefully here. Everybody knows that.”

For decades, the basilica has served as a picturesque backdrop to militant anti-war protests that have recently targeted Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for contributing troops to the war in Iraq.

Berlusconi is running for re-election.
Interfaith meetings held outside the basilica, meanwhile, have made Assisi an unofficial capital of interreligious dialogue. Two attended by John Paul II in 1986 and 2002 attracted a sea of religious leaders, ranging from imams and Buddhist monks to native American dancers and African animists.

“The best way to relive the challenges of St. Francis is to update them,” Father Coli said.
But the interfaith meetings have drawn heavy criticism from some conservative voices in the Vatican, concerned that such events came dangerously close to blurring Catholic identity.

As the former head of Catholic orthodoxy, the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- now the new pope -- said the 1986 event “cannot be the model” for future dialogue.

Other critics have attacked the friars for having allowed Saddam Hussein’s nominally Christian deputy, Tariq Aziz, to enter the Assisi basilica and light a candle during the run-up to war in Iraq.

At the heart of the criticism, however, lies a fundamental disagreement over how the Franciscans have interpreted their founder’s legacy.

In a recent interview with the Turin daily La Stampa, Vittorio Messori, a papal biographer who has interviewed John Paul II and the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said Benedict “never forgave the Franciscan community” for “carnivalesque” activity at the 1986 meeting. Messori has alleged animal sacrifices took place, an accusation the friars deny.

His strongest criticism, however, was directed at the public’s perception of the saint. The Franciscans have turned their founder into a “romanticized little saint” and “a village idiot who goes around talking to wolves and birds and patting everyone on the back,” Messori said.

Messori also questioned Francis’ legacy of pacifism, noting that the “historical Francis, in fact, belongs to the church of the Crusades.”
“He went to convert the sultan, not to dialogue with him,” he said.

Although early biographies of Francis place him in the Crusades – a campaign mounted by popes to retake the Holy Land from Muslims -- Francis is portrayed by those biographers as a peacemaker, negotiating with Muslim clerics for safe passage rather than converting their faithful to Christianity.

According to Msgr. Robert Sarno, an official with the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, these depictions were typical of medieval hagiography, which aimed to provide the faithful with models of Christian life rather than establish accurate biographical records.

Successful biographies, like Tomaso da Celano’s 13th century account of Francis, typically emphasized indelible moments that could be expressed to an illiterate public though images in stained glass windows or frescoes.

Among the episodes that early Renaissance master Giotto frescoed to the basilica walls in Assisi, for example, is a scene depicting Francis as a young man. He stands stark naked after having shed his princely attire in a dramatic rejection of material possessions.

“The whole idea of him stripping himself naked and handing over his possessions makes people take notice and think,” Msgr. Sarno said.

But the imagery has also left Francis susceptible to broad interpretation.
Some liberal Catholics see Francis’ embrace of poverty and subsequent submission to papal authority as a critique of Roman Catholic hierarchy bogged down by a clerical aristocracy that is ostensibly blind to the economic struggles and political oppression of the faithful.

In his book “St. Francis: A Model of Human Liberation,” Brazilian theologian Leonard Boff describes Francis as a key mediator in the Church’s struggle to embrace the “radical fraternity” of the people while preaching the “utopia of the kingdom.”

“It was precisely these values that Francis lived,” Boff wrote, describing Francis as a “man of the Gospel, sincere, simple and authentic, but radical to the greatest degree, which always allowed him to be obedient to the church of tradition as well as to the church of the poor.”

That message bubbled to the surface of widespread debate that followed Benedict’s decision to restrain the Assisi friars.

Father Coli acknowledges that loose interpretations of Francis’ legacy may have drawn negative attention to the friars’ stewardship of the Assisi shrines.

“There have been mischaracterizations. This is true,” he said. “But clearly we are not responsible for them.”

In 2002, religious leaders from around the world gathered in Assisi, Italy, with John Paul II to pray for peace.

RNS PHOTO/Courtesy, Custodian of St. Francis Basilica in Assisi

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