Monday, August 5, 2013

John Allen's article on the Pope Francis revolution and my "oh, noes"

This is a good piece in NCR by John Allen which Michael Liccione posted on his facebook page. I can't help posting some oh, noes moments.

In just four months, Francis has revived the international prestige of the papacy and its moral capital. The Italian edition of Vanity Fair recently declared him its "Man of the Year," including snippets of praise from unlikely quarters such as Elton John, who termed the pontiff "a miracle of humility in the era of vanity."

Elton John? Oh, noes!!

"He's very charming, but he's also very controlling, as all powerful people are," said Omar Bello, an Argentine Catholic journalist and author of a new book on the pope.

Very controlling? Oh, noes!!

His commission to study the economic and administrative structures, for instance, is made up of eight people, only one of whom is a priest -- Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, a Spaniard who serves as secretary of the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs, and who's a member of the Opus Dei-affiliated Priestly Society of Holy Cross. The other seven are laypeople drawn from the worlds of economics, law and business management.

Opus Dei?! Oh, noes!!

Third, Francis is giving rise to a new culture of accountability, moving toward a more Anglo-Saxon understanding that "accountability" means somebody can actually get fired.

Anglo-Saxon? You mean those white people who fire you? Oh, noes!!

With regard to Francis talking about poverty more than he does about abortion I'm really not to worried about that. Does Pope Francis inspire me to give more of my money to poor people by talking about it? Not really. Does he inspire me to be kinder and more patient to those around me by his patient actions toward his subordinates and the pompous asses in the media? Yes, he does greatly. But if some stingy liberals are inspired to be more generous to poor because of Pope Francis then good for them.

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