Catholic and Enjoying It!
Some people are flipping out about this, I can’t imagine why. I suppose it must have something to do with their conception of the dignity of the papal office. But given that both Jesus and Peter were jailbirds themselves and given that Jesus had rather kindly things to say about care for prisoners like “Come into the kingdom my Father has prepared for, for I was in prison and you visited me” I don’t get the problem.
I think one of the basic blunders Catholics can make is exalting aesthetics over the fruits of the spirit. Aesthetics have their place but it is firmly second place to the fruits of the Spirit. Paul never says that the fruits of the Spirit are decorum, propriety, correctness, mozettas, tiaras, perfect genuflections, Holy Thursday Masses at St. John Lateran, not washing women’s feet, or being perpetually outraged about these things. He says they are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control: something the Holy Father manifests in spades.
Why can’t people just be happy?
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