Pope Francis–Is Sick and Tired of the Culture War Too

This is the time when with the start of a new semester, my blogging often comes to a crawling halt–I will continue to try and write something, even if it’s brief…and I hope that next time I am writing, I’ll be writing from a different “location” so my not-so-unique perspective as a progressive Latina Pentecostal/charismatic/born and raised Catholic/but finds herself at home in charismatic churches–and really likes Episcopal churches–will have a broader audience among my progressive brethren…

For now….

Pope Francis’ interview with America, http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview is so life affirming, so refreshing, so inspiring…I am thrilled with this new Pope! Not all of the decisions the Church makes will please me, but the new tone, the recognition that the obsession conservative Catholics, (throw in evangelicals and Pentecostals in there too), have with lgbt issues and abortion is driving people away. Pope Francis seems tired of the shrillness. I for one am tired of the callousness played out daily in places where mercy and grace are paraded with so much false concern–where people are regularly ostracized and cast out like those biblical lepers–and you know who sits with those folks–J.C.

So Pope Francis wants a big tent? He’s open to and an advocate of liberation theology? He too is tired of the tired culture war rhetoric? Like my very Catholic mom always tells me–“Mija, it’s okay, you do what you have to, (of my testing the Pentecostal waters), but remember the Church is always here for you–and it will call you back one day.”