RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geek on the Hill
I'm anxious to read more about him. Two interesting points so far:
1. He is not part of the Curia (the Vatican inner circle). I think that may be a good thing, especially given that many believe that the Curia needs reform.
2. He's a Jesuit.
When I was growing up, my dad gave me school choice: Notre Dame High School (Priests and brother of the Congregation of the Holy Cross) or Loyola Academy (The Jesuits). At that time, the Jesuits were known as the sandal clad, pony tail wearing liberal order of priests. Today, the same, with a few less pony tails.
Fast forward a lot of years, and I had to tell a friend, Father Bill, a Holy Cross priest, that my daughter was not going to the University of Notre Dame (run by the Congregation of the Holy Cross), but was attending the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, which is run by the Jesuits. (Stick with me here - confusing, I know.)
Bill, who is a pretty funny guy, said "That's OK. Just don't let her convert." OK, I guess you had to be there.
But back to Pope Francis. I understand that he has been known to challenge some the more liberal wing of the Jesuit order. I'm anxious to learn more about that.
He's no friend to liberal theology, that's for sure. But he has no tolerance for a church that doesn't serve the needs of people, either.
For example, he has publicly compared the church to the Pharisees Jesus scolded in the New Testament for putting doctrinal squabbles over social justice; he has accused church leaders of hypocrisy for "forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes;" and he strongly denounced many of the priests of Buenos Aires as hypocrites for refusing to baptize the children of unwed mothers.
His remarks in the later instance were particularly blunt:
Pope Francis said:"In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don't baptize the children of single mothers because they weren't conceived in the sanctity of marriage... These are today's hypocrites. Those who clericalize the Church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to parish so that it's baptized!"
I suspect that many secular journalists will be scratching their heads trying to figure out how someone so theologically conservative can also be so thoroughly invested in social justice. The two probably seem mutually exclusive to many reporters. That's another reason I think Bergoglio was a good choice. He puts a kinder face on the church's teachings by articulating the teachings of its Founder in his own life.
-Rich