Thursday, September 19, 2013

Holy Pope!

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus.

After reading excerpts from the interview with Pope Francis published today in America, the Jesuit journal, I am moved by the holiness of this man.

http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/europe/pope-bluntly-faults-churchs-focus-on-gays-and-abortion.html?hp&_r=0

Veni, sancte Spiritus.  Sustain him.  Give him a long life.  He's already 74 years old--long live the Pope.  May he reach 94.  

This pope has all the right answers on many questions.

When asked, "Who are you?" he replies, "I am a sinner."  We haven't heard those words from a pope in a long time.  

When asked last month whether he approved of homosexuality, he said, "Who am I to judge?"

Like Jesus, he bends to write on the ground and refuses to throw any stones (John 8).  

Today he added, "Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?  We must always consider the person."

I hear Jesus's voice speaking these words--answering a question with another question, opening the questioner to a wider perspective.

"God is in every person's life.  Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else--God is in this person's life.  You can, you must try to seek God in every human life."

His answer to "What should be the role of women in the church?" is wanting, but it is also humble:  "We must therefore investigate further...We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of the woman... The challenge today is this: to think about the specific place of women... [in] the authority of the church...."

Pope Francis is an essentialist: "...a woman has a different makeup than a man."  And why wouldn't he be? He says, "I am a son of the Church," and the Church has strictly separated its sons from its daughters for ten centuries and more.  

Nevertheless, he is willing to learn.  In six months he has opened up for discussion policies that have been long been protected as inviolable.  

Today he said that the church needs to spend less time fighting abortion, gay marriage, and contraception--more time serving the poor and marginalized.

The Roman Catholic Church is a train moving through a long dark tunnel, and today we have turned a corner.  We can now see a pinprick of light far ahead of us. 

For several years I've been predicting that Rome will bless the ordination of women by 2050, but today I'm thinking maybe I need to move up that date.






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