How I Know We Have the Right Pope

Catholicism is always both and.   Neither the left nor the right is fully happy with this choice and worries, worries because the Pope might be not only in agreement with their side.  Guess what, while most people think they'd be pleased as punch to have Jesus meet us, we'd probably have to first swallow a lot of humble pie and recognize it is us that need to run out to meet Him.  

His humility is another sign that we have a Holy Spirit driven shepherd.  We have had the charism of Pope John Paul the II, or the Great, who smiled and welcomed everyone. We have had the quieter charism of Pope Benedict the XVIth, who provided us with the theology and bones of our Catholic Church tradition.  Now we have a quiet man who lives it using both his left and hands, teaching us with his one lung, to breathe deeply the presence of God and that will impell us to go out using both hands, to live it.  

God bless Pope Francis.  It does not matter if it is Saint Francis of Assisi or Saint Francis Xaivier, they are all on the same team, that of the All Saints.  He, like all the popes before him, is called to look at the Church, at the Body, and help straighten the limbs that are crooked and teach the whole of it to reach out and heal the world. 

He started by asking all of us to pray for him, and offering us an opportunity for an indulgence. So he has started by trying to help all of us get to Heaven faster.  That's a pretty awesome beginning, to offer us a fast track to our real home.   There may be two weeks left until Holy Week, but it already feels like Easter dawn.