Monday, October 7, 2013

NY TIMES: THE PROMISE AND THE PERIL OF POPE FRANCIS

Many have wondered just where Pope Francis is going. One day he is condemning abortion, the next day he tells us not to obsess over it. This New York Times op-ed provides one of the clearer views. Here's a few excerpts:

John Allen Jr., one of the keenest observers of the Vatican, has called Francis a “pope for the Catholic middle,” positioned somewhere between the church’s rigorists and the progressives who pine to Episcopalianize the faith.
And they worry as well that we have seen something like his strategy attempted before, when the church’s 1970s-era emphasis on social justice, liturgical improvisation and casual-cool style had disappointing results: not a rich engagement with modern culture but a surrender to that culture’s “Me Decade” manifestations — producing tacky liturgy, ugly churches, Jonathan Livingston Seagull theology and ultimately empty pews.

Read the full piece here.

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