A liminal is one who has transcends social categories, types and steriotypes; is no longer controlled by social systems and expectations; moves freely, lightly, delightfully, serendipitously in a different zone; is often a mystic, saint, artist, genius or eccentric. Examples: Mr. Blue, Heather King, Dorothy Day, Zorro, Saint John Paul, Caryl Houselander, Solanus Casey, and so many others.
Bergoglio is liminal: deeply pious and conservative with strong iconoclastic urges to disrupt what he sees as stale, sterile traditions; an enemy of liberation theology who went on to develope his own "people's theology of liberation"; the first Jesuit pope who was for a period banned from living with his fellow Jesuits because he couldn't get along with them; a sometime bouncer, janitor, chemist; a self-styled populist pope who has positioned himself globally as the antagonist of the emergent national populisms; a religious man who disparages forms of popular piety; a despiser of what he sees as clericalism who is himself clericalist in his proposal of a global political ideology; a consistent defender of the unborn who criticizes those who obsess about the issue; a despiser of status who has magisterially used media and the papacy to become a global rock star.
Cardinal George of happy memory commented on his election: "We chose him because he is his own man." This is exactly right: he is his own quirky, incoherent, unpredictable self. He is not a creature of the Curia or of the Right or of the Left or of anything; he is a complex bundle of contradictions, ambiguities and surprises.
Three liminal traits inform him. First, he is mystically grasped by the love of Jesus Christ. This shines through his sermons. It irradiates his life. It is very inspiring. Secondly, he is siezed by a love for the poor, marginalized and suffering. Here again he is inspiring. Thirdly, he is a dazzling combination of traditional Catholic piety and a progressive impulse to "make a mess." Here he becomes often confusing.
His fascinating, delightful and inspiring liminality serves him poorly as pope because of an accompanying negative trait: he is emotivist.
He acts and speaks from his heart, not from a clear intellect. His theology is incoherent, contradictory and random...it flows from his mood of the moment. On Tuesday he will tell the Mafia that they are going to hell; on Wednesday he will assure an agnostic that God would never let anyone go to hell. On Thursday he forbids the Germans to bless gay marriges; on Friday he represses the Latin mass. His theological legacy will be the five dubia that hang over his pontificate, unanswered.
Additionally, he is unrestrained, indiscrete and uncharitable in the expression of his feelings. We all know he despises Latin mass people and traditionalists as rigid, judgmental and negative. We all know he has contempt for clerics who are formal and distant from the people. We all know he disparages American political and cultural conservatives although it is unlikely he knows any (Couldn't he at least befriend George Weigel?).
Regarding the Culture War that has spread from the West to the entire globe he seems to have internalized the liberal contempt for "rigid orthodoxy" so he bends over backward to minimize and mute the gospel of chastity to endear himself with the Church's despisers. Thus his destruction of the John Paul Institute as well as his appointment of champions of the LGBTQ crusade! His appointments may be the worst element of his legacy.
Lastly, his emotional but intellectually challenged mode of operating has moved him to neglect his properly ecclesial ministry in order to propose a global political ideology around global warming, open borders and the end of capital punishment.
What we end up with: in Pope Francis an emotivist papal catastrophe!In Jorge Bergoglio a liminal personality who is free, generous, refreshing and inspiring!
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