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Pope Francis has left the country. Commentators will spend a lot of energy talking about what his visit to the US meant, what changes might happen, and what’s next. The pope returns to the Vatican to prepare for a synod of bishops on the family that is expected to be a significant event that will
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No “Home Alone Francis” on this one. Real quick: Maybe I can expound later, but there are two key theological points that undergird the angst around Pope Francis and his social teachings. Look for them deep in the arguments you hear pro and con about whatever he says in the US this week: Theological anthropology
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In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis outlines several daunting challenges of modern life: pollution, climate change, water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, decline of human life, breakdown of society, global inequality. That’s a lot. Dig a little on just one of these, like this one, is enough to leave you thinking we are, well, in bad shape.
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One of my favorite parts of Evangelii Gaudium is Francis’ study of peace and unity. As we celebrate Pope Saint John XXIII, whose best-known encyclical is Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), and whose best-known anything was convening the Second Vatican Council, which paved the way for any number of steps toward Christian and interreligious
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If you want to name a central theme to Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium, you could do worse than this. After all, the name of the apostolic exhortation is Latin for “Joy of the Gospel.” So. But since it’s Lent when I’m writing this, let me point out both sides. Francis focuses on the Joy aspect
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I only counted ten times that Pope Francis asks the readers to do something in apostolic exhortation. How hard could they be? 1) “I invite all Christians…to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day.”
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The next few posts are especially for people who aren’t big into Christianity in general or Catholicism in particular. Even if you have never been to a church service of any type, there’s a fair chance you’ve seen the Charlie Brown Christmas special and heard Linus explain Christmas to Charlie Brown, which I paraphrased in
Reading Francis 