First off, I'm Catholic. Which should make this title obvious, but it isn't. We should love the Pope as Catholics because he is the shepherd that Christ has given us for this earthly journey for a season. It's a huge mercy to us. Frankly, very little I've found has tested my faith like the interregnum. I relate to the pope naturally as a son to a father. That's exactly what he is, and how we should think of him.
I have my own personal reasons for feeling more deeply about that than others might. But you need to understand me: I cannot even fathom praying reluctantly, or through gritted teeth, for the Holy Father. The very idea of it sounds absurd.
We've all become too political, and dare I say, American, about the Church. Some "traditionalists" seem to dissect the Holy Father's words as if it were a State of the Union, and he's Barack Obama. Well, it isn't, and he isn't. We owe the Holy Father a great deal more deference, in fact. "Progressives" do go on that this or that will change, or should. Nothing new there.
If Pope Francis is like any of the good holy priests I've known, he expects Catholics to know and believe their catechisms. We may unleash our Frown-Beams of Concern over how naive this may be in any one case, but doesn't that show us our own great need for conversion? He might be acquainted with sin and sinners, but he doesn't treat that as normative or good. Nor should he.
Tell me, alleged "traditionalists," why do you treat a man with 50-odd years of experience in pastoral ministry like a catechumen? He has a role to play in the New Evangelization, but he's not going to fill yours, too.
We shouldn't even call it that, though. It should be called "The New Catechesis," for that is actually the true task, most times. It's easier to draw lines and complain about the Other than to admit we have failed to preach the gospel to our own.
I have my own personal reasons for feeling more deeply about that than others might. But you need to understand me: I cannot even fathom praying reluctantly, or through gritted teeth, for the Holy Father. The very idea of it sounds absurd.
We've all become too political, and dare I say, American, about the Church. Some "traditionalists" seem to dissect the Holy Father's words as if it were a State of the Union, and he's Barack Obama. Well, it isn't, and he isn't. We owe the Holy Father a great deal more deference, in fact. "Progressives" do go on that this or that will change, or should. Nothing new there.
If Pope Francis is like any of the good holy priests I've known, he expects Catholics to know and believe their catechisms. We may unleash our Frown-Beams of Concern over how naive this may be in any one case, but doesn't that show us our own great need for conversion? He might be acquainted with sin and sinners, but he doesn't treat that as normative or good. Nor should he.
Tell me, alleged "traditionalists," why do you treat a man with 50-odd years of experience in pastoral ministry like a catechumen? He has a role to play in the New Evangelization, but he's not going to fill yours, too.
We shouldn't even call it that, though. It should be called "The New Catechesis," for that is actually the true task, most times. It's easier to draw lines and complain about the Other than to admit we have failed to preach the gospel to our own.
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