In recent weeks, Pope Francis made a seemingly minor and little-noticed decision that will have an impact on millions of Christians around the world. Some background is necessary to understand the shift and what he intended by it.
In his 1998 document “Pastor Bonus,” Saint Pope John Paul II re-organized the Curia to serve the needs of the Church of the day, then roughly 30 years out from the close of the Second Vatican Council. In numbers 150 and 151 of that text, he bestowed on the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples the responsibility to form and spiritually nourish both exiles, migrants, nomads, traveling circus workers, seafarers, aerial transport operators and all “those who travel.” This latter group is usually interpreted to mean tourists and those who undertake journeys for reasons of “piety or study or entertainment.” When Pope Francis created the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, those competencies of the aforementioned Pontifical Council were transferred to it.
What Francis has now decided in the wake of last March’s revisions to the Curia published in the text “Praedicate Evangelium” is to separate these categories of people. While Czech-Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, the current prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will continue his work coordinating spiritual care for migrants, exiles and the others outlined above, those who choose to travel voluntarily for religious, educational or entertainment reasons will now fall under the responsibility of the Dicastery for Evangelization’s section focused on Fundamental Questions of Evangelization in the World.
The Dicastery for Evangelization is presided over directly by the pope himself, and arose out of a merger of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (which had previously commonly been referred to as Propaganda Fide) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, established by Pope Benedict XVI.
As someone who has walked the immigration path alongside my wife (our daughter is technically eligible for four passports), I know well the difference in how the United States views and treats tourists over and against potential migrants. But modern developments in transportation, technology and economic systems have necessitated changes in the way we approach the genuine spiritual needs of people moving within or between countries for a wide variety of reasons. We all know, for instance, that the impact of the recent hurricane will, of course, drastically affect nearly every element of life in centers of tourism in Florida and South Carolina. The Church, which shares in the “joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties” (GS, 1) of the whole human race must respond in kind to the needs that arise from such tragedies.
In addition, the territorial model of an ethnic enclave parish structure is quite obviously breaking down as people vacation or telecommute for extended periods in various places, as well as demonstrate a willingness to trek to a communal liturgy where they find common sensibilities in terms of everything from music to preaching to civic engagement. I remember once being at Mass on the Las Vegas Strip and being struck by the announcement that the collection could include chips from any of the local casinos, as most people in the church praying together were of course “just passing through.” Our age is defined in many ways by such personal and social mobility.
In 1969, Pope Paul VI approved and promulgated a General Directory for Pastoral Ministry to Tourism. Among its most striking claims is the following: “Moreover, considering the continuing expansion of tourism, its international dimensions, its intense dynamism, the profound transformations it provokes and the serious questions it poses, the Church is prompted ‘not to stand still in traditional postures but to seek out new pastoral forms.’”
In these recent changes, which add in some ways to his ongoing prioritization of the mission of evangelization as representing the heart of the Gospel in a pilgrim Church, above doctrinal or liturgical debates, Pope Francis has sought to respond to the signs of our times in the 2020s to develop more of these “new pastoral forms” to address contemporary tourists and visitors in an increasingly mobile and interconnected world.
Originally from Collingswood, Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., teaches at Loyola University, Chicago.
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