T he elevation of Pope Francis has now had some time to sink in, and the more I think of it, the more revolutionary it seems. However, the revolution involved is not one to which Catholics of the centre should readily be opposed. It does not leave behind some devastating crater, as modern revolutions after 1792 did, and it cannot, as yet, have been said to represent an intentionally radical change in Western Christendom. It seems to me, rather, to have been a corrective to some of the excesses which were being hung rhetorically and philosophically around the Church for over a century now. In that regard, this curious situation of two Popes in Rome, which is very disconcerting for a Catholic, may turn out to do some good. The first impact of the change, it seems to me, must be on the relationship between the two halves of the Great Schism. It was the ultramontane movement, which elevated the papacy above all in the nineteenth century, which caused Catholics to forg...
This is a collection of personal and largely unedited observations covering the years from 2006 to now; I assert my copyright but am fine with links and footnotes. Some posts are obviously much more researched than others, and any errors are wholly mine except where I have innocently disseminated or linked to other bloggers or commentators.