Urbi et Orbi: The Lubacian Past and the Certeauian Future of Pope Francis’s Prophetic Ecclesiology

Pope Francis’s ecclesiological vision is best understood as a prophetic ecclesiology of dreaming for the church as well as for the city and the world—urbi et orbi. To explore the future of Francis’s vision, this paper argues that his ecclesiology is ad intra dependent on Henri de Lubac and his sense of the past, and at the same time ad extra oriented to the future by way of Michel de Certeau. Out of these (and certainly other) influences, Francis envisions a future consisting of sharing dreams. In this exchange, the guidance of the Good Spirit becomes manifest. Of note, this paper deliberately focuses on de Certeau, not to downplay Francis’s Argentine sources in la teología del pueblo, but to bring to the foreground his commitment to the plurality of voices who are called to dream, and to facilitate a more thoroughgoing North American reception of Francis’s entire project.