{"id":2008,"date":"2013-03-16T10:53:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-16T10:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/03\/on-pope-francis-i.html"},"modified":"2013-03-16T10:53:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-16T10:53:00","slug":"on-pope-francis-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/03\/on-pope-francis-i.html","title":{"rendered":"On Pope Francis I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Been so busy, haven\u2019t really had much time to post my thoughts on our new Pope. \u00a0We started our journey into the Church back in the waning days of Pope John Paul II\u2019s time. \u00a0In fact, the week I scheduled a luncheon meeting with a priest I knew in our\u00a0ecumenical\u00a0ministry\u00a0association to talk about becoming Catholic was the very week that PJPII passed away. \u00a0Pope Benedict XVI was already settled in when we officially were brought\u00a0into the Church on Easter, 2006.<\/p>\n

So as a Catholic, Pope Benedict is the only Pope I\u2019ve known. \u00a0I have my opinions about him. \u00a0Not harsh ones. \u00a0I think he was a decent enough fellow who tried his best. \u00a0MHO was that he was a book guy, an academic, a fellow better suited to sitting in a small room with a window and a stack of books, making sure things were in order from behind the scenes. <\/p>\n

True, he suffered from the Earle Bruce\u00a0syndrome\u00a0 \u00a0Earle Bruce? \u00a0He was the football coach who replaced Woody Hayes at Ohio State back in the late 70s. \u00a0Hayes was one of the iconic figures in the history of college sports. \u00a0Charismatic, a violent temper, over the top theatrics, a keen mind and passion for the academic\u00a0well-being\u00a0of his students at a time when that wasn\u2019t\u00a0necessarily\u00a0vogue, and a flare\u00a0for the\u00a0controversial\u00a0 made him much loved and much hated, but well known. \u00a0He also won games. <\/p>\n

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When he was fired for punching a player, Earle Bruce took over. \u00a0Bruce was not Hayes. \u00a0Quieter, a bit stocky in appearance, he\u00a0replaced\u00a0Haye\u2019s trademark OSU baseball cap and short\u00a0sleeves\u00a0with a fedora and suit. \u00a0He was a good coach. \u00a0In fact, he could have been great. \u00a0And \u00a0yet, he wasn\u2019t Hayes. \u00a0He just wasn\u2019t Hayes. \u00a0And that did him in. \u00a0By 1987, he was gone. Just like George HW Bush wasn\u2019t Reagan. \u00a0Benedict just wasn\u2019t John Paul II.<\/p>\n

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He seemed, at times, again IMHO, to be in over his head. \u00a0He really wanted to convey\u00a0beautiful\u00a0truths, but seemed unable to do so without something\u00a0going\u00a0haywire. \u00a0Scandals began to emerge, and the world became increasingly impatient with the apparent lack of\u00a0decisive\u00a0steps to remedy the years of abuse and scandal that have defined the modern Church. \u00a0Internally there appeared to be issues. \u00a0And in the end, well, he just wasn\u2019t John Paul II, Superstar. <\/p>\n

When he made the historical decision to resign his post, to be honest, I wasn\u2019t that surprised. \u00a0Things were not getting any better, that\u2019s for sure. \u00a0If there were signs of hope in some cases, in others there were clearly indicators that the wheels needed some grease.<\/p>\n

And so now we have Francis I. \u00a0The reason I spent most of this post about Francis I talking instead about Benedict XVI, or John Paul II, or Woody Hayes and Earle Bruce, is because I don\u2019t know that much about our new Pope. \u00a0Heck, I don\u2019t know anything at all. \u00a0I think \u2013 think mind you \u2013 that I\u2019ve heard some stories that referenced him in recent years. \u00a0It seems to ring a bell that he stood against the push for gay marriage in Argentina. \u00a0But that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

So I don\u2019t really have that much to say. \u00a0I\u2019m not going to damn or defend the man. \u00a0I\u2019m not going to stake my ground now, and then spend the next however many years doing back flips and gymnastics to make sure that no matter what he does or says, and no matter what I\u2019ve praised or defended, it all must line up. \u00a0I\u2019m not going scream that he\u2019s either a pock mark on the Church or the most super-de-duper Pope we\u2019ve ever had. \u00a0I\u2019m going to wait. <\/p>\n

Since he comes from a place not in the comfortable West, not in a culture where ethical debates are often as academic as they are urgent, I\u2019m betting there will be some different spins on some old assumptions. \u00a0Since he\u2019s from a real \u2018gun-in-the-face\u2019 background, I\u2019m wagering that some Catholics may be hard put to keep where they\u2019ve been and where we\u2019ll go. \u00a0But I could be wrong. We\u2019ll just have to see. \u00a0I will give him kudos for picking St. Francis, my own patron saint who was instrumental for my own Catholic conversion. \u00a0Again, I\u2019m not about to say \u2018I know nothing of this new Pope, but anyone who says thus or this is stupid or evil or doesn\u2019t know about Jesus.\u2019 \u00a0For now, I\u2019m content with sitting back and letting things unfold.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Been so busy, haven\u2019t really had much time to post my thoughts on our new Pope. \u00a0We started our journey into the Church back in the waning days of Pope John Paul II\u2019s time. \u00a0In fact, the week I scheduled a luncheon meeting with a priest I knew in our\u00a0ecumenical\u00a0ministry\u00a0association to talk about becoming Catholic […]<\/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-2008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Pope Francis I<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Been so busy, haven't really had much time to post my thoughts on our new Pope.  We started our journey into the Church back in the waning days of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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