THE MORE I LEARN OF POPE FRANCIS THE MORE I LIKE!

Is this Pope Bergoglio, not in style but in the actions of his papacy? Time will tell! MY COMMENT: Perhaps Pope Bergoglio is embarassed by the "worldliness" of the papacy of another era in fashion, but not embarassed by its authority exercised in a stealth-like manner. Some however, and this would include me, would say this is not a sign of worldliness, though some would interpret it as such, but of "kingdomliness! And don't we all want to go to the Kingdom of Heaven after our exile in the poverty of this world no matter how materially rich we might have been?

Few Surprises. [Pope] Francis Is Just That Way

by Sandro Magister of the Blog, "Chiesa" which you can read the entire post by pressing HERE.

Here are some excerpts from Magister's article with my comments at the end:

A Jesuit Pope who can't sing (no surprises here, singing and Jesuit would be an oxymoron.)

Therefore he does not sing simply because he does not have sufficient breath to do so, as can also be intuited from how he speaks, with short breaths and in a subdued voice. In any case he has confessed: “I am completely tone deaf.”

A POPE WHO SPEAKS ONLY IN ITALIAN Actually he speaks Spanish better than Italian and reads Latin like it is Spanish, so he's not a linguist like the previous two popes.

“I must say that I used to speak them but do not speak them, because of lack of practice. I used to speak French fairly well, and I got along in German. What has always caused the most problems for me has been English, especially the phonetics.”

A POPE WHO WANTS TO DO EVERYTHING HIMSELF

This is quite telling a bit sad, for even the elder Pope Emeritus tried desperately to connect to technology and the world:

He had a desk, “small but very well organized.” And his schedule was also organized: five hours of sleep at night, lights out at 11 pm, out of bed at 4 am “with no need for an alarm clock,” after lunch “a forty-minute nap.” He knows how to cook. He likes to listen to music and read, especially the classics of literature. He gets the news from the newspaper. He has never used the internet, not even for e-mail.

A POPE WHO DOES NOT WANT TO BE CALLED "POPE"

"When a pope or a teacher must say 'I am in charge here,' or 'I am the superior here,' it is because he has already lost authority and is seeking to attribute it to himself with words. Saying that one has the staff of command implies that one no longer has it. Having the staff of command does not mean giving orders and imposing, but serving.”

Masgister writes: That is, it seems that Bergoglio does not want to proclaim but to exercise his supreme power as successor of Peter.

A POPE WHO DECIDES EVERYTHING HIMSELF

"I confess that in general, through the fault of my temperament, the first solution that comes to my mind is the wrong one. Because of this I have learned to distrust my first reaction. Once I am more tranquil, after I have passed through the crucible of solitude, I draw near to that which I must do. But no one can save me from the solitude of decisions. One can ask for advice but, in the end, one must decide alone.”

A POPE WHO DODGES ISSUES OF CONFLICT

Bergoglio criticizes those homilies “which should be 'kerygmatic' but end up speaking about everything that has a connection with sex. This can be done, this cannot be done. This is wrong, this is not. And so we end up forgetting the treasure of Jesus alive, the treasure of the Holy Spirit present in our hearts, the treasure of a project of Christian life that has many implications that go much further than mere sexual questions. We overlook a very rich catechesis, with the mysteries of the faith, the creed, and we end up concentrating on whether or not to participate in a demonstration against a draft law in favor of the use of condoms.”

And again:

"I am sincerely convinced that, at the present time, the fundamental choice that the Church must make is not that of diminishing or taking away precepts, of making this or that easier, but of going into the street in search of the people, of knowing persons by name. And not only because going to proclaim the Gospel is its mission, but because if it does not do so it harms itself. It is obvious that if one goes into the street it can also happen that one has an accident, but I prefer a thousand times over an accident-ridden Church to a sick Church."

MY COMMENTS: There are some BOMBSHELLS in Bergoglio's thinking for both the leftist in the Church who want the version of the pseudo Church pronounced by the "The MAGISTERIUM and Church of the MEDIA" and the rightist Traditionalists who want the "Magisterium and Church of Pope Pius XI!" Neither will be completely pleased with Pope Bergoglio and neither will be completely happy either.

I wrote a comment at the Pray Tell Blog where many who post there have a great phobia of the "monarchical" aspects of Holy Mother Church and her magisterium. Immediately many there felt that this pope will be more collegial since the very first act of his papacy was to omit the "mozetta" a garb of monarchy in their minds and then ask the people filled Saint Peter's Square to bless him before he blessed them.

I wrote: "Sometimes authority figures shed the image of authority in order to be most authoritative." As it concerns Pope Francis he may be shedding the trappings of monarchy to become the most monarchical pope in recent history.

With whom did Pope Francis consult when he chose to eschew the traditions of Pope Benedict as it regards his papal garb?

With whom did Pope Francis consult when he chose to wash the feet of women and Muslims on Holy Thursday, omit the Offertory Procession at his Mass of Inauguration and forgo using the miter to preach his homilies?

Who did he consult when he chose to live in the Vatican motel rather than the papal palace? To ride in a Volkswagon rather than a Mercedes?

And finally most disheartening to the deconstructionists of the Catholic Church is the following which Pope Francis declared at his Wednesday audience:

"Unfortunately, there have often been attempts to obscure faith in the Resurrection of Jesus, and doubts have crept in even among believers themselves. A watered down faith, as we would say, not a strong faith. This is because of superficiality, sometimes because of indifference, occupied by a thousand things considered more important than the faith, or because of a purely horizontal vision of life."