Posted on 12/05/2013 10:50:02 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Pope Francis (real name: Jorge Mario Bergoglio) has shaken up the Catholic church with some plain speaking about faith and about life in the 21st century. He has had an impact on other faiths, as well. Welcome to “pope envy.”
I first encountered the term in an essay by Jana Riess, a liberal Mormon writer. “I’ve delighted in seeing this beautiful revitalization of hope in the Catholic Church,” Riess wrote, “but I’ve also felt twinges of (an admittedly un-Christian) envy.”
Why wouldn’t a Mormon, or anyone for that matter, envy the un-self-conscious spiritual leadership of a prelate who warns nuns that there is more to the monastic life than just smiling for God, and who sneaks out of the Vatican, disguised as a parish priest, to minister to the homeless?
Furthermore, as Riess notes, Francis is very much out there in the real world. The Mormons’ “Prophet, Seer and Revelator,” 86-year-old Thomas Monson, chosen by seniority rather than by merit, “is unusual in his distance from the public, the media, and his own followers,” she writes. In Monson’s rare appearances, “almost nothing was unscripted. He does not do press conferences, and seldom fields unexpected questions.”
Comparisons are otiose, of course, but Pope Francis is anything but cloistered from the real world. At times, he seems to yak on about whatever comes to his mind, just as you and I do. He has said that he lives in a hotel rather than in the isolated papal apartments “for psychiatric reasons.”
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
Boston Globe BS.
they just like socialism.
There is an easy fix for those who are suffering from “Pope envy”. Something about the Rubicon...I took that step 55 years ago.
Well, if anybody wants him I have no objection to raffling him off. And then electing a new pope who isn’t a socialist humanist.
Me too. I have long been critical of your popes. This one is awesome.
Pope Francis is a good and kind man. I like him.
Good grief.
Really?! The guy is an idiot! Another moron with no clue about economic reality.
He’s a Pope, Jim, not an economist.
Best Pope in my 44 years as a Catholic. I don’t know the Pope when I was born, but I remember the Pope of 50 Days, JP II, B, and now Francis. I went to St. Francis Catholic grade school so this is even better. Great humble man. We should be more like him.
I'm still not sure where I come down on this Pope but "plain speaking" is the farthest from how I would describe him. After reading is statments and interviews more often than not I come away unsure of just what his point was.
I have read his Evangelii Gaudium and I’m still not sure about his prognosis of our postmodern world. I believe he has diagnosed the major problem (lust for money) but may have misdiagnosed the causes. Anyone can surely see the lust for money in business, politics, sports, art, entertainment, etc. The rich have only gotten richer under Obama.
What’s to envy??
Anyone can get up and spout the socialist gospel. For that matter, anyone can spout Christ’s true gospel.
But the two things to be looked at in any such dissertation are 1, Is it true, and 2, does he really believe it.
I think the answer is positive on point 2, but the jury is out on point 1. I’d have to hear more from him to make sure that I am understanding him rightly.
But anyway, what’s to envy. I don’t want a pope; I don’t need a point. I can read the Bible, and pray, for myself.
The term “self-congratulatory” comes to mind. Why do liberals always need some exalted figure to tell them what to think? Get a bible and read it for yourself.
NO, he does not.
I need no other Priest than Jesus, Himself!~
Then he needs to STFU about economic policies. And as popes go, he sucks. I especially loved that athiests can go to heaven if they are nice and basically good people. Forget about that whole pesky God and Jesus stuff, just be polite and its all good.
Catholic ping!
Come on in, folks. The water’s fine.
I like Pope Francis, but his predecessors, certainly the recent ones, were good men as well. I’ve found the Benedict-as-Rottweiler thing, in particular, to be greatly exaggerated.
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