Comments on: Pope Francis on the “leprosy of the papacy,” the leaven of love, and the feminine Church https://notstrictlyspiritual.com/faith/pope-francis-on-the-leprosy-of-the-papacy/ Discovering the Divine in the Everyday. Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:56:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 By: Mary DeTurris Poust https://notstrictlyspiritual.com/faith/pope-francis-on-the-leprosy-of-the-papacy/#comment-4302 Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:56:31 +0000 https://notstrictlyspiritual.com/?p=3072#comment-4302 In reply to Frank.

It really is remarkable, isn’t it? And refreshing. Can’t wait to see where things go from here.

]]> By: Frank https://notstrictlyspiritual.com/faith/pope-francis-on-the-leprosy-of-the-papacy/#comment-4301 Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:51:20 +0000 https://notstrictlyspiritual.com/?p=3072#comment-4301 Jaw-dropping.

I keep thinking, with a kind of desperate hope, that maybe Pope Francis really is saying what I think he might be saying … but I tell myself he can’t possibly mean THAT … and then he says something else that seems to affirm my initial, quite radical, hopes.

When I read more conservative Catholics who’re trying to come to terms with this pope, the message is generally that he has a new style, a different tone, but is saying substantively exactly the same things as his predecessors. But if Pope Francis keeps this up, pretty soon they’ll have to admit that no, it’s not the same — there’s something really new here. And it’s something that goes straight back to the gospel.

But it’s not a repudiation of anything authentic in Catholicism. It’s simply a fresh return to the source of what it means to be Catholic — and a strong reminder that as a people we’ve been drifting away from that source.

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