Pope Francis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
A review in the 20 December 2014 issue of the Economist<\/em> calls attention to an interesting book by Austen Ivereigh entitled The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope<\/em>. \u00a0I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ll ever get around to reading it \u2014 it weighs in at 445 pages \u2014 but I wish I could.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ivereigh lived in Pope Francis\u2019s native Argentina as a doctoral student in the 1990s, focusing on religion and politics, and he describes the environment out of which Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio emerged to become the first pope from the New World.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He observes that Pope Francis has delighted liberals and secularists with his denunciations of the free market and his expressions of understanding for homosexuals, abortion, and assisted suicide, though\u00a0without actually changing the Catholic Church\u2019s stance on such things. \u00a0Francis\u00a0still insists, for example, on the sanctity of life at both its beginning and its end, and, as the Economist<\/em> puts it, he \u201copposes adoption by same-sex couples because, to his Catholic mind, it seems like a project of middle-class secularists to deny children the right to have conventional parents.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ivereigh notes influences on the Pope\u00a0from Marxism and perhaps even Leninism \u2014 I\u2019m not alone in regarding his attacks on the free market as at least somewhat wrongheaded \u2014 but I\u2019m sympathetic to what the Economist\u2019s<\/em> reviewer identifies as \u201ca common theme in the life of Pope Francis\u201d as he\u2019s portrayed in the book: \u00a0\u201csuspicion of any earthly ideology (from Marxism to liberal capitalism) which seems to have an answer for every question.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m told that John Adams once defined \u201cideology\u201d as \u201cthe science of idiocy.\u201d \u00a0And I\u2019m reminded of an old\u00a0comment by the English conservative political theorist Michael Oakeshott (d. 1990) about \u201crationalism in politics,\u201d which he denigrated as \u201cthe pursuit of perfection as the crow flies.\u201d \u00a0Such pursuit has killed scores of millions of people.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pope\u2019s counterproposal,\u201d says the Economist<\/em>\u2018s reviewer, \u201cis a kind of Christian humanism, which insists that no problem affecting mankind can find a solution without considering the practical consequences for ordinary people, and without discerning the will of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m comfortable with that, as I am with the review\u2019s conclusion:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Francis \u201chas acknowledged the integrity of people, including atheists and Marxists, whose beliefs differ from his own; and the respect is often mutual.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hope for the day when the disputes surrounding Mormonism<\/a> will reach that same level of charity . . . \u00a0and maturity.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 A review in the 20 December 2014 issue of the Economist calls attention to an interesting book by Austen Ivereigh entitled The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope. \u00a0I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ll ever get around to reading it \u2014 it weighs in at 445 pages \u2014 but I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
"Chronicle of a papacy foretold"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" A review in the 20 December 2014 issue of the Economist calls attention to an interesting book by Austen Ivereigh entitled The Great\" \/>\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\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Chronicle of a papacy foretold"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" A review in the 20 December 2014 issue of the Economist calls attention to an interesting book by Austen Ivereigh entitled The Great\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-19T04:21:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/01\/220px-Pope_Francis_Korea_Haemi_Castle_19_cropped.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"Chronicle of a papacy foretold\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-19T04:21:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-19T04:21:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" A review in the 20 December 2014 issue of the Economist calls attention to an interesting book by Austen Ivereigh entitled The Great\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Chronicle of a papacy foretold”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Chronicle of a papacy foretold\"","description":" A review in the 20 December 2014 issue of the Economist calls attention to an interesting book by Austen Ivereigh entitled The Great","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Chronicle of a papacy foretold\"","og_description":" A review in the 20 December 2014 issue of the Economist calls attention to an interesting book by Austen Ivereigh entitled The Great","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2015-01-19T04:21:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/01\/220px-Pope_Francis_Korea_Haemi_Castle_19_cropped.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html","name":"\"Chronicle of a papacy foretold\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-01-19T04:21:21+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-19T04:21:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":" A review in the 20 December 2014 issue of the Economist calls attention to an interesting book by Austen Ivereigh entitled The Great","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/chronicle-of-a-papacy-foretold.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Chronicle of a papacy foretold”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Papa](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/01\/220px-Pope_Francis_Korea_Haemi_Castle_19_cropped.jpg\")
<\/a>