{"id":1751,"date":"2013-10-06T10:12:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-06T10:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/10\/ross-douthat-on-pope-francis.html"},"modified":"2013-10-06T10:12:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-06T10:12:00","slug":"ross-douthat-on-pope-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/10\/ross-douthat-on-pope-francis.html","title":{"rendered":"Ross Douthat on Pope Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

Across the Catholic blogosphere, holy wars are raging. \u00a0It\u2019s all about Pope Francis. \u00a0Is he a radical liberal or subversive revolutionary? \u00a0Is he awesome? \u00a0Is he trying to right some wrongs in the recent Church governance and reach out to a world no longer bound by Western European sensitivities? \u00a0At this point, it\u2019s hard to say.<\/p>\n

As is typical in the Blogosphere, it can get nasty. \u00a0Name calling, copious doses of Raca and Fool, insults, self righteousness. \u00a0And entering into the battlefield comes Mr. Douthat with his customary level headedness<\/a>. \u00a0His take? \u00a0What the Pope is trying to do is understandable. He\u2019s trying to reach out to the masses in a way that circumnavigates some of the obstacles that, rightly or wrongly, the Church is blamed for erecting. \u00a0He sees Francis as trying to break the trend of the modern Faith, where one is stuck either holding firm against the winds of change, or just tossing the Faith out the window and embracing the latest, hippest. \u00a0The third group, those in the middle who gradually lose their zeal and desire to care, are also targets \u2013 perhaps the <\/i>targets.<\/p>\n

In fact, Douthat names the challenge. \u00a0Pope Francis is trying what has failed in every major Western faith that has attempted it: that is to find that happy middle between post-Christian revolution and traditional orthodoxy. \u00a0It\u2019s true. \u00a0And those Catholics who are hailing Francis for putting aside the Culture Wars, are sometimes the same who have mocked Evangelical leaders who have done it in the past. \u00a0After all, Francis isn\u2019t the first leader in recent years to make that statement, that we have to move beyond the Gay, Abortion, Culture issues and get to the Heart of Jesus. \u00a0It\u2019s just that in those churches where the strategy has been attempted, many have concluded something was lost. \u00a0Whether the infamous \u2018Seeker Sensitive Churches\u2019, or Rick Warren, or Joel Osteen \u2013 let\u2019s face it, most Catholics don\u2019t look to those as stellar examples of firm doctrinal moorings. <\/p>\n

And yet that is precisely what Francis is trying to do. \u00a0In many ways, he is being the \u201cSeeker Sensitive Pope\u201d. \u00a0He\u2019s trying to figure out what people don\u2019t like about the Church, and overcome it. \u00a0He\u2019s trying to reach that vast middle ground and grow it. \u00a0My prayers are that he becomes the first leader of a Biblical Faith to succeed where so many others have failed. \u00a0Where the Church has failed.<\/p>\n

Douthat reminds us that the more traditional Catholics are not just blowing air out their butts when they express concern. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t too long ago that many extremes in the Church, in light of Vatican II, had pushed it to becoming a mockery that everyone used to dismiss the Church in the modern world, including not a few Catholics:<\/p>\n

[Conservative Catholics\u2019] anxiety is not that the new pope is about to radically change church teaching, since part of being a conservative Catholic is believing that such a change can\u2019t happen. Rather, they fear that the center he\u2019s trying to seize will crumble beneath him, because the chasm between the culture and orthodox faith is simply too immense.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/span>And they worry as well that we have seen something like his strategy attempted before, when the church\u2019s 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\u2019s \u201cMe Decade\u201d manifestations \u2014 producing tacky liturgy, ugly churches, Jonathan Livingston Seagull theology and ultimately empty pews.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s about the best take I\u2019ve seen. \u00a0That and Charlotte Allen\u2019s that I linked tot he other day<\/a>. \u00a0What the Pope is trying to do is fine. \u00a0Whether he succeeds, or creates a problem that has sucked many another Western Faith into the drains remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across the Catholic blogosphere, holy wars are raging. \u00a0It\u2019s all about Pope Francis. \u00a0Is he a radical liberal or subversive revolutionary? \u00a0Is he awesome? \u00a0Is he trying to right some wrongs in the recent Church governance and reach out to a world no longer bound by Western European sensitivities? \u00a0At this point, it\u2019s hard to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRoss Douthat on Pope Francis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Across the Catholic blogosphere, holy wars are raging.  It's all about Pope Francis.  Is he a radical liberal or subversive revolutionary?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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