Priest, author to speak about Francis' papacy

By Tanya Connor
 The Catholic Free Press

March 13 marks the 10th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis. A Worcester diocesan priest who contributed to a new book about the pope will speak that evening about Francis’ papacy.
Father Thiago Ibiapina, associate pastor of Annunciation Parish in Gardner, will speak at 6:30 p.m. at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church at 135 Nichols St.
Father Ibiapina will base his talk on a chapter he wrote in a Portuguese-language book called The Francis Project: Evangelization, Ecology, Economy, Ecumenism and Education. The 468-page book was published in December in Brazil, he said.
Father Ibiapina, a Brazilian native, said his chapter’s title is The Human Being and Theology Under the Care of Francis. He said he plans to highlight some observations from his chapter and include general perspectives about the pope.  
He thinks many people in the United States do not like Pope Francis, probably “because they don’t understand him.”
“I think people think what he does and what he says is heresy,” Father Ibiapina said, because he does not take the same approach as Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II.
Pope Franics “comes from a different culture. … He brings to the northern hemisphere a different approach to the Church,” he said.  
As a Jesuit, Pope Francis is comfortable with reasoning, questioning and challenging, which is often part of the academic life of a Jesuit.
Father Ibiapina explained, for example, that Pope Francis thinks it is important to get different people’s input, so he has called for listening sessions. Some people don’t like that approach.
A synopsis of the new book about Pope Francis says that celebrating 10 years of his pontificate, and remembering his election, helps us to remember that his way of thinking is outlined in his first images and speeches as pope. The book’s reflections are a way to help people put the pope’s approach into practice.
When elected, Pope Francis presented himself as “Bishop of Rome,” the “first among equals,” and asked the people to bless him before he blessed them, the synopsis says. He has adopted collegiality.
Two dozen university theology professors in Brazil wrote chapters for the book, Father Ibiapina said. 
People may wonder why this priest, ordained for the Worcester Diocese last June, was included with seasoned theologians writing about the pope’s way of thinking. 
“They’re much older than me,” Father Ibiapina said. “I’m 29 years old.” He said he experiences a “mixture of not feeling worthy” but also realizing, “I have something to offer.” 
Stigmatine Father José Aguiar, who compiled the book with Father Dayvid da Silva, apparently also thought the young man had something to offer.
Father Aguiar is a theology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and parochial vicar at a parish in the Diocese of Santo André.
Father Ibiapina said he never met Father Aguiar but took two online classes about Edith Stein with him after coming to the United States to prepare for the priesthood in the Worcester Diocese. He said Father Aguiar “knows my writing.” The two worked together on an article about Edith Stein that was published in a philosophical/theological magazine.
Father Aguiar also knew about his knowledge of Edith Stein and his admiration for Pope Francis, and, in April 2021, invited him to write for the new book. Father Ibiapina said his chapter in this book, which is geared to people educated in theology, is about what Pope Francis thinks about the nature of the human person. He cited a part of the book about the pope seeing the human person as being at the center of God’s creation.  
Father Ibiapina wrote a book about Edith Stein’s thoughts about this same topic. In Brazil, he was part of a three-year study group about Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), a German Jew and philosopher who became a Christian, entered the Carmelites, and died in Auschwitz in 1942. His book, called, Spirit: An Analysis of the Human Person according to Edith Stein, was published in Portuguese in 2017 in Rio de Janeiro.    
Among his other writings are articles and poems and chapters for other books and a preface for a book about Pope Francis, he said. That book, by Father Geovane Saraiva, who baptized Father Ibiapina, is Francisco o futuro do mundo, (Francis, the future of the world). 
“I don’t have a physical copy,” of the latest book, Father Ibiapina said; he hopes to go to Brazil this year and bring copies back. Someday, he hopes to translate his chapter into English, he said, but noted, “I have to find the time in parish life.” 
Part of his “parish life” is giving talks that parishioners and other interested people can attend, including the one on the anniversary of the pope’s election.