{"id":8737,"date":"2014-01-29T11:45:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T16:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=8737"},"modified":"2014-01-29T11:45:52","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T16:45:52","slug":"rolling-stone-misses-the-source-of-franciss-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/01\/rolling-stone-misses-the-source-of-franciss-joy.html","title":{"rendered":"Rolling Stone Misses the Source of Francis’s Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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

The Rolling Stone<\/em> cover story<\/a> on Pope Francis is frustrating. \u00a0A big, researched feature piece should be better fact checked than to repeat misconceptions about the Pope\u2019s \u201cnear absolute\u201d power and to imply that the Pope is\u00a0frequently<\/em> infallible or, worse, all knowing. \u00a0The author is a bit distant from Pope Francis himself, mostly using him as a cudgel to beat Pope Benedict, Cardinal Dolan, Opus Dei, and others.<\/p>\n

The profile makes Francis, and his alleged antagonists both bigger and smaller than life. \u00a0They become archetypes, instead of people. \u00a0Benedict is described as \u201ca staunch traditionalist who looked like he should be wearing a striped shirt with knife-fingered gloves and menacing teenagers in their nightmares.\u201d \u00a0Benedict certainly wasn\u2019t as smiley, but there is palpable joy (albeit bookish \u2014 wait, why would that ever be tempered with \u2018albeit?) in his three-volume reflection on the life of Christ (The Infancy Narratives<\/a><\/em>, From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration<\/em><\/a>, Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n

The author of the profile seems a more ready foil to Pope Francis\u2019s personal, generous approach. \u00a0 In his interviews, Pope Francis talks about himself as a sinner, and his introspection seems to fuel his sympathy for and joy in others. \u00a0If Pope Francis had written this feature, I imagine it would have been a lot longer, with frequent digressions, a fascination with each subject, and an effort to appreciate the good they sought, even if correction was needed. \u00a0But, ultimately, the mismatch between the subject of the piece and its tone left me feeling jangled.<\/p>\n

Though I did really like this excerpt:<\/p>\n

Eventually, he moves to greet the crowd. Benedict, a dour academic, kept this portion of the general audience to a minimum. But Francis, like Bill Clinton, thrives on personal contact, and he spends the better part of an hour greeting believers. Next to the dais, a rowdy hometown team of Italians, a couple of whom spoke loudly on their cellphones throughout the pope\u2019s sermon, have their cameras out like paparazzi.\u00a0\u201cPapa Francesco! Papa Francesco!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0they shout, shrilly and incessantly, trying to get the Holy Father of the Catholic Church to gaze in their direction. The most shameless hold up children.\u00a0\u201cPapa Francesco!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0they cry.\u00a0\u201cI bambini! I bambini!\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because\u00a0of course<\/em> the crowd knows that Pope Francis can be easily summoned by babies. \u00a0Even better if you\u2019re feeding them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of the\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/em> profile, I heartily recommend today\u2019s post on Dominicana<\/em> by Br. Innocent Smith. \u00a0The media have been fascinated by Pope Francis\u2019s tendency to carry his own briefcase, but Br. Innocent reflects on the contents of the valise<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A week later, when asked by a journalist what was in the now famous briefcase,\u00a0Pope Francis responded<\/a>\u00a0with characteristic good humor:<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the key for the atom bomb! Well! I was carrying it because that\u2019s what I\u2019ve always done. When I travel, I carry it. And inside, what was there? There was a razor, a breviary, an appointment book, a book to read, I brought one about Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, to whom I have a devotion. I have always taken a bag with me when travelling\u2014it\u2019s normal. But we must be normal\u2026I don\u2019t know\u2026what you say is a bit strange for me, that the photograph went all over the world. But we must get used to being normal. The normality of life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2026The attention of the public may have been caught by the briefcase, but I am more intrigued by the breviary. As a cleric and religious, Pope Francis is obliged to recite the Divine Office (also known as the Liturgy of the Hours), a form of Catholic prayer that is contained in a book frequently referred to as a \u201cbreviary.\u201d The breviary is a collection of psalms, prayers, scriptural readings, and writings of the Fathers and saints of the Church. These different elements are arranged to be sung or read at different times throughout the day in a cycle that parallels the different seasons and feasts observed in the Mass. The recitation of the breviary immerses the reader into the Bible and the spiritual tradition of the Church, allowing the reader to be nourished not only by the readings and prayers of the Mass but also by a whole constellation of psalms and prayers that extend the praise and thanksgiving of the Mass throughout the whole day.<\/p>\n

For Pope Francis, reciting the breviary, like carrying a briefcase, is something normal\u2014after all, he\u2019s been doing it for more than fifty years! In addition to its being part of the normality of life, the Pope\u00a0has indicated<\/a>\u00a0that praying the Divine Office is something he enjoys: \u201cI pray the breviary every morning. I like to pray with the psalms.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is what I like best about Pope Francis. \u00a0He makes joy and charity look\u00a0normal<\/em>, until the most surprising thing is that we ever came to believe this spirit wasn\u2019t our natural inheritance. \u00a0But he isn\u2019t just a good man for generic reasons; he connects back his kindness and hope to his faith, and to the rich spiritual traditions of the church. \u00a0And, once again, makes this look as natural as turning at a cry of \u201cI bambini!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

This is part of why I asked you for advice about how to talk about my religion when someone asks me a question that is, to them, unrelated<\/a>. \u00a0There\u2019s a lovely honesty in Pope Francis\u2019s approach, where his faith spills out of him as immediately as his joy. \u00a0There are plenty of jokes about his tendency to sound unfiltered when he gives interviews, but this openness seems to be the fruit of being so true internally that he \u201ccannot then be false to any man.\u201d \u00a0As someone who\u2019s a good deal more distant and guarded, I\u2019d like to have the ability to share my happiness at Pope Francis\u2019s level of person-to-person communion, but I think I more closely resemble the\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/em> writer.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rolling Stone cover story on Pope Francis is frustrating. \u00a0A big, researched feature piece should be better fact checked than to repeat misconceptions about the Pope\u2019s \u201cnear absolute\u201d power and to imply that the Pope is\u00a0frequently infallible or, worse, all knowing. \u00a0The author is a bit distant from Pope Francis himself, mostly using him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":8739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parsing-catholicism"],"yoast_head":"\nRolling Stone Misses the Source of Francis's Joy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Rolling Stone cover story on Pope Francis is frustrating. \u00a0A big, researched feature piece should be better fact checked than to repeat 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