10 Reasons I Love Pope Francis

I’m not Catholic, I’m barely protestant these days, and I don’t really ever plan on being confirmed/ordained, or highly involved with any form of institutionalized religion, ever again. Although if I would ever reconsider it would be because of Pope Francis, a.k.a. “The Most Down to Earth Pope Leader Ever!” The status quo of the Pope has usually been one of, as Stuart Heritage says:

A gimlet-eyed dictatorial convinced of his own towering superiority over everyone else. To issue several unrealistic demands to follow the word of the Bible to the letter, ideally while simultaneously covering up all manner of dark secrets about the church’s influence and clutching obscene levels of bling.

Needless to say this is not Pope Francis. He has breathed a sense of hope back into my search for a benevolent world.

The Great White Hope!

Even if these things come out to be marketing schemes in an effort to repair a broken reputation Christendom has been lugging around for centuries, I will still yet love Pope Francis [although admittedly a lot less].  Why so? Because what Pope Francis is doing and the life in which he is living and modeling is unprecedented for regular people, let alone the Pope! I mean think about it when was the last time you washed a strangers feet? Still not convinced, here’s 10 more reasons:

1. He’s shown the Church how to love LGBT community, while not changing his theology. He’s put love over the law. He was even on the cover of this magazine, and named “Person of the Year”

2. Former Popes have lived lavish lives, and currently many archbishops still do… but most recent former Popes stayed here:

But Francis chooses to sleep here “in a small suite in the Vatican guesthouse,” reports CNN

3. He rode the bus before he was a pope. According to the HuffPost, “He rides a bus to work, and gave up his chauffeured limousine…”

The world went crazy when Jay-Z chose to ride the subway once to a concert of his in Brooklyn – which was an admitted publicity stunt, in which camera’s surrounded and documented him doing – so the fact that a then archbishop would regularly ride the bus/tram… just no words.

4. When he became Pope, he still rode the bus…

5. Recently he gave up the infamous Mercedes Benz Pope Mobile that encased former Popes with bullet proof glass. Despite the risk he tells a Barcelona Newspaper, “It’s true that anything could happen, but let’s face it, at my age I don’t have much to lose…” 

6. His former twitter, though later revealed to be fake [obviously], said this:

“If I’m the new pope, children will love me more than the Santa Claus.” – @JMBergoglio

I choose to still believe this is real, if kids can believe in Santa Claus then I can believe the Pope tweeted this ;)

7. Before he was put on media blast it was said that “He wears an ordinary priest’s robe and lives with an older priest in a simple apartment where he cooks his own meals, rather than live at the luxurious residence he was entitled to as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.”

8. He recently reinstated an 81 year old priest who was suspended “from priestly duties for his involvement in Nicaragua’s revolutionary government in the 1970s,” Huffington Post reports that the 81-year old priest wrote the Vatican asking for reinstatement so that he could experience mass one last time before he passes. During the Nicaraguan revolution Pope Francis is said to have been taking in refugees and caring for the displaced.

9. Francis is the People’s Pope. Well before he received the “Keys to the ‘Kingdom'” it’s said that “Francis is a former janitor, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician and literature teacher.” With pastors and archbishops living in luxury consumed by lives of privilege its Francis acting so “normalized” that makes him so like-able and easy to feel as if he “gets” us.   Simon Usborne at Britain’s The Independent, calls Pope Francis the “least popey Pope in papal history.” I concur. 

Plus, what pastor, priest, archbishop, or religious leader have you taken a selfie with lately?

Also, this isn’t the only selfie, here’s a handful more.

10. Lastly, because of things like this:

Bonus. Also, I don’t want to fail to mention He excommunicated the mafia, finally.  

Of course, he has flaws, of course he has and will fall short, and I do want to be careful in not putting him on too high of a pedestal, after all he is only human. But that’s why we like him, he’s human and he acts like a human, all the while acknowledging the humanity of others. More interestingly I think he models what it would look like for us all to live like Christ.