“Pope Francis Made My Mom Stop Hating Catholicism”

There are, roughly speaking, two ways stories like this get interpreted in our polarized American Church.

1. I’m glad somebody found the grace of the Holy Spirit, working through Francis, to reconsider the Church and, if all goes well, become a disciple of Jesus Christ.

2. Francis is attracting dangerous riff raff with his cult of personality. The Church would be better off without him and this woman.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand the latter mentality. Put me down for number 1.