Before taking over in Manila in 2011, Tagle served as bishop of the smaller Philippine diocese of Imus in Cavite, where he was famous for not owning a car, preferring to either walk or to hop on one of the cheap minibuses known as a “jeepneys” working-class Filipinos use. He was also renowned for inviting beggars in the square outside his cathedral to eat with him.
Theologically and politically, Tagle is a moderate. He’s open to allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to return to communion on a case-by-case basis, and he also resisted calls to take a more pugnacious line during a recent national debate in the Philippines over a controversial “Reproductive Health” law featuring public support for contraception.
Nobody at Tagle’s level is without critics, and he’s drawn fire on multiple fronts.
Some question Tagle’s theological pedigree, noting that he was a member of the editorial board for a controversial progressive history of the Second Vatican Council criticized by Pope Benedict XVI. Last month Tagle blasted what he called the “harsh words” the Church sometimes has used for gays, unwed mothers and divorced and remarried Catholics. That remark drew blowback from pro-life Catholic groups.
Whatever one makes of Tagle, because of his young age, 57, as well as the multiple leadership posts he holds, he will be a force in Catholicism for a long time.
That point, by the way, is valid whether or not the “Asian Francis” ever gets a serious look as the next pope.
(John L. Allen Jr., associate editor of The Boston Globe, specializes in coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church. He is a senior Vatican analyst for CNN, and was a correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter for 16 years. He was among the so-called VAMP or Vatican-accredited media people who accompanied Pope Francis in his pastoral visit to Sri Lanka and the Philippines early this year.
Allen has written nine books on the Vatican and Catholic affairs, and also is a popular speaker on Catholicism both in the United States and internationally.
The London Tablet has called John “the most authoritative writer on Vatican affairs in the English language,” and renowned papal biographer George Weigel has called him “the best Anglophone Vatican reporter ever.” When Allen was called upon to put the first question to Pope Benedict XVI aboard the papal plane en route to the United States in April 2008, the Vatican spokesman said to the pope: “Holy Father, this man needs no introduction.”
That’s not just a Vatican judgment. Veteran religion writer Kenneth Woodward of Newsweek described Allen as “the journalist other reporters—and not a few cardinals—look to for the inside story on how all the pope’s men direct the world’s largest church.” John’s weekly column, “All Things Catholic,” is widely read as a source of insight on the global Church.
Among Allen’s books are Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church, and two about Pope Benedict XVI. The first was written before Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became pope; the other came after Benedict’s election to the papacy and was the first biography of the Pope in English.
His articles have appeared in The New York Times, CNN, NPR, The Tablet, Jesus, Second Opinion, The Nation, the Miami Herald, Die Furche, and the Irish Examiner.
The Manila Times reprinted this piece with Allen’s expressed permission.)