Pope shakes the status quo, but not all are happy

VATICAN CITY - The Francis Revolution is underway. Not all are pleased.

Four months into his papacy, Francis has called on young Catholics in the trenches to take up spiritual arms to shake up a church that is losing faithful and, for some, relevance. He has said women must have a greater role - not as priests, but a place in the church that recognizes that Mary is more important than any of the apostles. And he has turned the Vatican upside down by merely uttering the word gay and saying: So what?

In between, he has charmed millions of faithful and the mainstream news media, drawing the second-largest crowd ever to a papal Mass.

"He is restoring credibility to Catholicism," church historian Alberto Melloni said.

Such enthusiasm isn't shared across the board.

Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, had given support to traditionalist Catholics attached to the old Latin Mass and opposed to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. That group greeted Francis' election with concern - and now is watching its worst fears come true.

His decision to forbid priests of a religious order from celebrating the old Latin Mass without explicit authorization seemed to be abrogating one of the key initiatives of Benedict's papacy, a decree allowing broader use of the pre-Vatican II Latin liturgy for all who want it. The Vatican denied Francis was contradicting Benedict, but these traditional Catholics see in Francis' words and deeds a threat.

"Be smart. There will be time in the future for people to sort what Vatican II means and what it doesn't mean," the Rev. John Zuhlsdorf warned his traditionalist readers in a recent blog post. "But mark my words: If you gripe about Vatican II right now, in this present environment, you could lose what you have attained."

In a recent interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said right-wing Catholics "generally have not been really happy about his election, from what I've been able to read and to understand."

"He'll have to care for them, too," said Chaput, who was in Rio de Janeiro leading a delegation of roughly 40 pilgrims from his archdiocese.

To be sure, Francis has not changed anything about church teaching. Nothing he has said or done is contrary to doctrine; everything he has said and done champions the Christian concepts of loving the sinner but not the sin and having a church that is compassionate, welcoming, and merciful.

But tone and priorities can themselves constitute change.

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano used the word gay for perhaps the first time in its 150-year history Wednesday, in an article marveling at Francis' changes.

Francis also made headlines with his call for the church to develop a new theology of women's role, saying it's not enough to have altar girls or a woman heading a Vatican department given the critical role that women have in helping the church grow.

 From the moment he touched down in Brazil, it was clear change was afoot. No "Popemobile," just a simple Fiat sedan - one that got swarmed by fans when it got lost and stuck in traffic. Rather than recoil, Francis rolled down his window. Given that popes until recently were carried around on a chair to keep them above the fray, that gesture alone was revolutionary.

"The people I've talked to were horrified by what happened," Chaput told the National Catholic Reporter. "They talked about their families back home calling them, being very concerned about the safety of the pope."