Francis and the Church

Francis and the Church Francis of Assisi was Catholic through and through. He was born into a Catholic family, baptized shortly after birth and given the Christian name of John. As an adolescent, he received some education in a church school from priests, and virtually everyone who surrounded him was Catholic, albeit with different levels of spiritual maturity and understanding. He experienced his conversion as a young adult – not that he changed religions – rather he began to live out his Catholic faith in a much more profound and sincere way. However, Francis’s relationship to the Church was unique and he himself, despite his belief in the Church, did not want to become a priest or monk, which were essentially the Religious options for a man of his time. Instead, he began a unique spiritual movement within the official canonical structure of the Catholic Church. Francis says that he did not become a priest because he felt unworthy. However, if one reads between the lines, one might conclude that he did not feel called to enter into one of the pre-existing Orders available within the Church. Had he become a canon or priest, he would have entered into a hierarchical, clerical tradition obedient to the watchful bishop with time-tested ways and expectations of how things were done. Or if he became a monk, the other mainstream Religious option, he would have entered into an even more structured way of life. Francis, familiar with the comfortable living among many monks, clerics and bishops, avoided the traditional Religious options and chose his own way because he wanted to be free to live the Gospel as he understood it. The old ways of doing things did not fit his ideals of the Vita Evangelica, or Gospel Life of total poverty. Francis, ever the penitent, sought to live poverty just as Jesus commanded in Matthew: “Take nothing with you for the journey…” Additionally, Francis desired his