Category: Uncategorized
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NOT FRANCIS: What I learned about leadership from Monday’s Gospel
I apologize to all three of this blog’s followers for writing a post that, ostensibly, is unrelated to Pope Francis and his apostolic exhortation. But I had more to say than would fit in a Facebook post and needed a place to store it. Monday’s gospel was Mark 10:17-27, known as the story of the…
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Can’t spell Diversity without C-I-T-Y. Oh, wait.
Some of the themes in Pope Francis’ exhortation are pretty obvious, but others are more subtle. Here’s one of the latter: diversity as a good thing in the Church. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like many Catholics (and many religious believers of any stripe) aren’t so hot on diversity. There’s a tendency, if…
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Encyclical coming? Uh-oh.
Word on the street (word on the via Della Conciliazione?) is that Pope Francis is working on an encyclical about the environment. I was hoping to leisurely walk through these themes from the apostolic exhortation. Guess I better get on the stick! Incidentally, the pope says stuff that’s valuable every day, and I don’t take…
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The Joy of the Gospel and abortion
A major theme of The Joy of the Gospel is the call to focus on God’s love and forgiveness rather than dwelling only on where we see people falling short. In other interviews and writings, and even in the Joy of the Gospel, Francis bemoans the fact that the Church is more often known for…
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Quick note on structure of the apostolic exhortation
I’m going to focus these posts on what I think are the major themes of The Joy of the Gospel, and many of those cut across the document, but it still might be helpful to know how it’s organized. This is a wide-ranging work; I’ve read my share of papal encyclicals, which tend to be…
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What’s this about?
This blog is not for experts. I am not an expert. I’m just a guy who has been following the new pope, Francis. Yes, I studied Catholic social thought in graduate school 20 years ago. No, I don’t think that makes me an expert. I’ve noticed a lot of people — die-hard Catholics, casual Catholics,…
Reading Francis 