Our Emotionalist Pontiff

Pope Francis exhorts us "to make a mess of things." Well he certainly did so last week. He chose to meet the Patriarch in repressive, communist Cuba...a very problematic decision! He is out to befriend this state but it might be a big mistake. Then he cavalierly supports the use of contraceptives to avoid the virus...a misguided remark for sure. Then he condemns as "unchristian" those who favor a wall at the border...a simplistic, ill-considered remark. Then he contradicts established Catholic thought by condemning the killing of innocent and guilty as morally equivalent...just war? police action? self-defense? Clearly what we have here is a man who does not think clearly, analytically, deeply about a question. He responds out of primal emotion. He does not like walls, or rich people, or a hard line towards communism or a rigorist sexual ethic. Ross Douthat, in Sunday's Times, compared Trump and Francis as two populists who are channeling deep, powerful, and primal emotions. That is exactly right! Neither offer a coherent thought or vision. It is all feeling. Francis is on a crusade against the death penalty which is virtually extinct in the Western World (haven't had one in NJ in over 50 years...NOT AN ISSUE!) He preaches against climate change which is a infinitely complex, dense topic requiring tons of scientific study. He has populist appeal because he appeals, like Trump, to regressive infantile feels of frustration and rage...at the institutions, the rules, the perceived inequality and irrationality. I find it best to more or less ignore him. I am comforted by three realities. The Chair of Peter, which we celebrated yesterday, indicates that the Papacy is an objectivity, a thing, a definite substance, independent of the one who sits in it. This Pope cannot destroy or even irrepairably harm the office. Secondly, despite his spontaneous and thoughtless comments, he is not really out to change doctrine or practice. He is venting emotions. For example, in the recent synods on the family he clearly engineered a loosening of practice but when the cardinals pushed back he himself deferred. In that he is a humble son of the Church and not about to impose his peculiar views. Lastly, of course, we trust that the Holy Spirit is with us and with him...in a mysterious, puzzling way. My own fear is that he will fill the episcopate and cardinalate with men in his own image. That will be bad. But I can't worry; I can only trust in the Holy Spirit and pray.