Fr. Richard Rohr published an article on Huffington Post, sharing his hopes for the new face of papacy.
Here are a few excerpts.
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As a Franciscan, I was, of course, elated that one of the the first decisions of the new pope was to take a name that has not been taken by a pope before — “Francisco” — which in itself says an awful lot. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) is surely the most wonderful example of a joyful “para-church” approach to church reform. He was never a company man. “Don’t fight it directly,” Francis modeled for us, “just do it very differently yourself.”
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For Cardinal Bergoglio to identify himself so clearly with a reformer of Christian lifestyle, instead of a doctrinal apologist, is extremely telling and very hopeful. To quote Pope Paul VI, “The world will no longer believe teachers unless they are first of all witnesses.” The simple details of his apartment, his use of mass transit, his visits to wash the feet of AIDS patients, his passion for the poor, cooking his own food, all tell us that this man is about lifestyle Christianity more than perpetual doctrinal food fights, which bear so little real fruit anyway.
Let’s look at his non-verbals in the first hours of his papacy, which experts believe are much more truthful than language, anyway. Continue reading “Richard Rohr on Pope Francis”