To many people, Pope Francis is a symbol of religion’s growing involvement with climate change and other environmental issues.

But to theologians such as the Rev. James J. Bacik, he represents a return to the fundamental principles that emerged for Catholics during the Second Vatican Council, the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church that took place from 1962 to 1965.

Strange as it sounds to look back more than 50 years for guidance to the future, Father Bacik said the Second Vatican Council — announced by Pope John XXIII on Jan. 25, 1959 — promoted the concept of getting Catholics more in sync with changing lifestyles and to engage more “in a dialogue with the modern world.”

“The church must always be reforming itself,” Father Bacik said of the council’s message, one which he supports. “The church must change and adapt to the modern world.”

That pace of adaptation, he said, is at the root of controversy surrounding Pope Francis and those who oppose him within the Catholic Church, most notably conservative American Cardinal Raymond Burke.

Father Bacik plans to address that issue at his next monthly lecture, titled “Pope Francis and His Critics.” It is from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday inside Lourdes University’s Franciscan Center. Cost is $10 in advance or $15 at the door. Go to sylvaniafranciscanvillage.org/Bacik.aspx.

It is one of two public lectures Father Bacik — one of northwest Ohio’s most distinguished faith leaders — is giving next week.

On Sunday, he will give the MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio’s inaugural Woody Trautman Lecture, the first in a new lecture series in recognition of the late Woody Trautman, the Multifaith Council founder. His legacy was steeped in a greater understanding of the world’s religions.

Father Bacik plans to speak on the challenges of interfaith spirituality during the modern era of globalization. That speech, which is free, is from 3 to 5 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Toledo, 3205 Glendale Ave.

While Cardinal Burke claims the Catholic Church has become “a ship without a rudder” under Pope Francis, Father Bacik argues the opposite is true.

He said Pope Francis is controversial simply because he is trying to navigate Catholics back to the forward-thinking vision of the Second Vatican Council.

Efforts to bring the church more in sync with modern lifestyles were stalled for years by conservative popes, such as Pope John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, who advocated a continuity of age-old church beliefs and customs.

Pope Francis clearly has embraced change and promotes the servant leadership style of Jesus, down to the symbolic gesture of washing feet, Father Bacik said.

The current Pope believes in a simple lifestyle, one in which he is willing to “walk with the people who are different, [those] who are marginalized in society,” he said.

The tension that exists on issues such as divorce and remarriage come down to how strongly Catholics should embrace the Second Vatican Council, Father Bacik said.

“It seems as though he lives the gospel. Vatican II was an attempt to get back to the fundamental teachings of the gospel. I think it’s that part Francis represents,” he said.

He said he’s glad to have lived during the respective times that Pope Francis and Pope John XXIII have been at the helm of the Catholic Church, calling them “two popes who have touched us in deep ways.”

Pope John XXIII’s 1959 plan to create the Second Vatican Council was a major worldwide announcement because there hadn't been an ecumenical council — an assembly of Roman Catholic religious leaders meant to settle doctrinal issues — in nearly 100 years.

Father Bacik said he is planning a second lecture about Pope Francis and his critics, one that will look at how the Catholic Church sees gender issues.

He said those who refuse to accept the science of climate change do so for political reasons.

But one of the Catholic Church’s most high-profile deniers, Cardinal George Pell of Australia, works for the Vatican as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. Father Bacik said he believes Pope Francis wanted a climate denier in his administration for a little perspective.

When Pope Francis gave President Trump a copy of his landmark encyclical, Laudato Si, it was apparently a last-ditch attempt to keep Mr. Trump from withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement signed by 195 countries in 2015, the world’s most comprehensive effort to address climate change. Mr. Trump withdrew the United States the following week.

For Pope Francis, though, Laudato Si is a message of peace, not a political statement, the theologian noted. It shows how the brunt of climate change falls disproportionately on the poor and inflicts more human suffering among the underprivileged.

“That’s a very contemporary point,” Father Bacik said. “There’s no bigger question now than saving the globe, saving the Earth.”

Ordained in 1962, Father Bacik was educated at the University of Oxford and, for years, was pastor of the Corpus Christi University Parish in Toledo.

Richard P. McBrien, a Notre Dame University theology professor, once called him “one of America’s finest, most insightful theologians, with a remarkable capacity for clear writing and effective teaching.”

For his Sunday speech at First Unitarian, Father Bacik said he will address challenges of interfaith spirituality by talking about how surprisingly difficult it can be for people to become open with their thoughts.

He said he draws some of his views from Vaclav Havel, a former Czech Republic president and playwright who was a leader of that country’s human rights movement.

“The world is globalized,” Father Bacik said. “But the danger is [if] we lose the uniqueness of individual cultures.”

He said he wonders if President Trump’s “America first” slogan might become a denial of responsibility for the rest of the world.

Father Bacik also said he has been impressed by a book called The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart. In it, author Bill Bishop explores how people gravitate to groups that share their cultural and political beliefs.

“We sort ourselves out into tribes, into smaller groupings,” Father Bacik said. “That’s really impeding us.”

Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.

First Published June 10, 2017, 4:00 a.m.