{"id":653173,"date":"2014-08-06T18:31:16","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T18:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/?p=653173"},"modified":"2014-08-06T18:31:16","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T18:31:16","slug":"10-reasons-i-love-pope-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/10-reasons-i-love-pope-francis\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Reasons I Love Pope Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m not Catholic, I\u2019m barely protestant these days, and I don\u2019t really ever plan on being confirmed\/ordained, or highly involved with\u00a0any form of institutionalized religion, ever again. Although if I would ever reconsider it would be because of\u00a0Pope Francis, a.k.a. \u201cThe Most Down to Earth Pope<\/del> Leader\u00a0Ever!<\/em>\u201d The status quo of the Pope has usually been one of, as Stuart Heritage says<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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\u2019s influence and clutching obscene levels of bling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Needless to say this is not Pope Francis. He has breathed a sense of hope back into my search for a benevolent world.<\/p>\n

The Great White Hope!<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/em>yet love Pope Francis [although admittedly a lot less]. \u00a0Why so? Because what\u00a0Pope Francis is doing and the life in which he is living and modeling is unprecedented<\/em> for regular people, let alone the\u00a0Pope<\/span><\/em><\/strong>! I mean think about it when was the last time you washed a strangers feet? Still not convinced, here\u2019s 10 more reasons:<\/p>\n

1. <\/span>He\u2019s shown the Church how to love LGBT community, while not changing his theology. He\u2019s put love over the law. He was even on the cover of this magazine, and named \u201cPerson of the Year\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Former Popes have lived lavish lives, and currently many archbishops still do<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u2026 but most recent former Popes stayed here:<\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/a><\/p>\n

But Francis chooses to sleep here \u201cin a small suite in the Vatican guesthouse<\/span>,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>reports CNN<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/a><\/p>\n

3.<\/span> He rode the bus before he was a pope.\u00a0According to the HuffPost, \u201cHe rides a bus to work, and gave up his chauffeured limousine\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/a><\/p>\n

The world went crazy when Jay-Z chose to ride\u00a0the subway once\u00a0<\/em>to a concert of his in Brooklyn \u2013 which was an admitted publicity stunt, in which camera\u2019s surrounded and documented him doing \u2013 so the fact that a then archbishop would\u00a0regularly<\/em> ride the bus\/tram\u2026 just no words.<\/p>\n

4.<\/span> When he became Pope, he still<\/em> rode the bus\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/a>
Guy sitting directly behind him is thinking, \u201cwtf?\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5.<\/span> Recently he gave\u00a0up the infamous Mercedes Benz Pope Mobile that encased former Popes with bullet proof glass. Despite the risk he tells a Barcelona Newspaper,\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s true that anything could happen, but let\u2019s face it, at my age I don\u2019t have much to lose\u2026\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/a>
Former \u201cpope mobiles\u201d have gone for 350,000 euro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

6.<\/span> His former twitter, though later revealed to be fake [obviously], said this:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m the new pope, children will love me more than the Santa Claus.\u201d \u2013\u00a0@JMBergoglio<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I choose to still believe this is real, if kids can believe in Santa Claus then I can believe the Pope tweeted this ;)<\/p>\n

7.<\/span> Before he was put on media blast it was said that \u201cHe wears an ordinary priest\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

8.<\/span> He recently reinstated an 81 year old priest who was suspended \u201cfrom priestly duties for his involvement in Nicaragua\u2019s revolutionary government in the 1970s<\/span><\/a>,<\/span><\/span>\u201d Huffington Post reports that the 81-year old priest wrote the Vatican asking for reinstatement so that he could experience mass one last\u00a0time before he passes. During the Nicaraguan revolution\u00a0Pope Francis is said to have been taking in refugees and caring for the displaced.<\/p>\n

9.<\/span> Francis is the People\u2019s Pope<\/strong>. Well before he received the \u201cKeys to the \u2018Kingdom'\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s said that\u00a0\u201cFrancis is a former janitor, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician and literature teacher.<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u201d With pastors and archbishops living in luxury consumed by lives of privilege its Francis acting so \u201cnormalized\u201d that makes him so like-able and easy to feel as if he \u201cgets\u201d us. \u00a0\u00a0Simon Usborne at Britain\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>The Independent<\/em><\/a>, calls Pope Francis the\u00a0\u201cleast popey Pope in papal history.<\/strong>\u201d I concur.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Plus, what pastor, priest, archbishop, or religious leader have you taken a selfie with lately?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, this isn\u2019t the\u00a0only\u00a0<\/em>selfie, here\u2019s<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0a handful more<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

10.<\/span>\u00a0Lastly, because of things like this:<\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/p>\n

Bonus. Also, I don\u2019t want to fail to mention<\/span><\/span>\u00a0He excommunicated the mafia<\/a>, finally.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, he has flaws, of course he has and will fall short, and I do want to be careful in\u00a0not<\/strong><\/em> putting him on too high of a pedestal, after all he is only human. But that\u2019s why we like him, he\u2019s 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<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not Catholic, I\u2019m barely protestant these days, and I don\u2019t really ever plan on being confirmed\/ordained, or highly involved with\u00a0any form of institutionalized religion, ever again. Although if I would ever reconsider it would be because of\u00a0Pope Francis, a.k.a. \u201cThe Most Down to Earth Pope Leader\u00a0Ever!\u201d The status quo of the Pope has usually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2493,"featured_media":653198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,78,69],"tags":[229],"class_list":["post-653173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzzfeed","category-church","category-justice","category-lgbtq","tag-pope-francis"],"yoast_head":"\n10 Reasons I Love Pope Francis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pope Francis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/10-reasons-i-love-pope-francis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Reasons I Love Pope Francis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pope Francis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/10-reasons-i-love-pope-francis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Andy Gill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-06T18:31:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Gill\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Gill\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/10-reasons-i-love-pope-francis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/10-reasons-i-love-pope-francis\/\",\"name\":\"10 Reasons I Love Pope Francis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-06T18:31:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-06T18:31:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#\/schema\/person\/4db132075291b01585ac509973439e59\"},\"description\":\"Pope Francis\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/10-reasons-i-love-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/10-reasons-i-love-pope-francis\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/10-reasons-i-love-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"10 Reasons I Love Pope Francis\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/\",\"name\":\"Andy Gill\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#\/schema\/person\/4db132075291b01585ac509973439e59\",\"name\":\"Andy Gill\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd242f2de7cb0eb5e7189ccb783e0b63?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd242f2de7cb0eb5e7189ccb783e0b63?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andy Gill\"},\"description\":\"Andy Gill has studied theology for two years in Princeton and graduating from Eastern University stepped into pastoral ministry in southern California. 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