Comfort Zone

Pope Francis uses the term, Comfort Zone, in his first papal exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the Gospel, chapter 1, no. 20). Before he was pope, he spoke about this in one of the pre-conclave informative sessions labeled “congregations” attended by voting and non-voting cardinals.

When speaking to his fellow cardinals of a serious problem in his proposed missionary thrust he referred to the comfort zone as a difficulty preventing the Church from answering the urgent call of the peripheries. Then he sees the consequence and said, “la Iglesia enferma” (the Church gets sick!).

…the sickness of the particular churches and its leaders and members is to remain in their comfort zones, that is, a lifestyle so far away from the peripheries where the teeming millions of the poor wallow in abject poverty.

According to Cardinal Ortega this speech spoken spontaneously in Spanish convinced the cardinals who they would elect as pope. He further said that before the election process he had asked Cardinal Bergoglio for a summary. The future pope gave it to him in three sentences. We find these major ideas in Evangelii Gaudium.

What intrigues me here is the unavoidable conclusion: the sickness of the particular churches and its leaders and members is to remain in their comfort zones, that is, a lifestyle so far away from the peripheries where the teeming millions of the poor wallow in abject poverty. In other words, if the Church institutions—dioceses, parishes, religious and lay associations and movements as well as individual church leaders—do not have this missionary thrust as a priority, they/we are really sick. As I already mentioned previously in this space Pope Francis’ words and behavior pricked my conscience because now I am not quite out of my comfort zone yet!