More Thoughts on Pope Francis

Since Monday, I've been thinking about Pope Francis, and there are better minds than mine who can explain his importance and where he fits historically.  I've particularly enjoyed a conversation with that appeared in The New York Times, and I've made it a gift article which you can access here.  David French, David Gibson, and Leah Libresco Sargeant do a great job of explaining what the Pope can do (not as much as many of us think) and what the Pope means in our current age.

I've been thinking about Pope Francis as the pope who prioritized the poor and the dispossessed.  That's one big reason why he mattered to me.  Of course I wish he had done more to move women into positions of leadership, but that was likely not reasonable of me to expect/wish.  The pope can't issue orders and force change in the way that we think.  The Pope can call a council and changes can come out of that.  But the Pope can't declare that women are now priests--as I understand it, that's outside of the Pope's power, which as David Gibson says, "The pope has supreme authority in the Catholic Church, and it’s supremely limited. There are certain things that the pope can’t do and he won’t do."

I find it fascinating that we live in such a secular age, and yet, the passing of the pope can make so many of us sad.  In some ways, that's the power that a pope has, that a president or prime minister is unlikely to ever have.

Francis provided a powerful model of how to live a faithful life, and his faithful priorities were often similar to mine.  I will miss him greatly.

April 24 update:  I also loved a conversation in The New York Times between Ross Douthat and Father James Martin, a gift article which you can access here.