MICHAEL SEAN
WINTERS
In the December 3rd’s online edition of the NCR, Michael Sean Winters, when you read between the lines, is apoplectic about the reversals by Pope Leo of Pope Francis. But, Winters is trying in vain to say that Pope Leo is perfectly in tune with Pope Francis. But reading between the lines, you can see how much high anxiety Pope Leo is causing Winters and the NCR crowd as they are slowly but surely realizing we have pope who loves papal trappings and cuff links, tradition, continuity and orthodoxy and loves Canon Law as the new pope is a canonist!
Here are the money bytes from Winters’ commentary filled with dread and anxiety. You can read the full anxious commentary HERE:
Pope Leo XIV's first foreign trip evidenced profound echoes of his predecessor, Pope Francis. Still, we are also starting to see points of difference emerge as well.
Unlike Francis, Leo declined to pray while visiting the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul. (With extremely high anxiety) I feared that traditionalists who criticized Francis would seize on this point, as they did with Leo's wearing the scarlet mozzetta when he appeared on the loggia of St. Peter's after his election, seeing it a sign of secret traditionalist sympathies…
…One (of the many things Leo said, however, did sound different from what Francis might have said. At the prayer meeting with the local Catholic bishops, clergy, religious and pastoral workers, Leo said:
Nicaea affirms the divinity of Jesus and his equality with the Father. In Jesus, we find the true face of God and his definitive word about humanity and history. ... But there is also another challenge, which we might call a "new Arianism," present in today's culture and sometimes even among believers. This occurs when Jesus is admired on a merely human level, perhaps even with religious respect, yet not truly regarded as the living and true God among us. His divinity, his lordship over history, is overshadowed, and he is reduced to a great historical figure, a wise teacher, or a prophet who fought for justice — but nothing more. Nicaea reminds us that Jesus Christ is not a figure of the past; he is the Son of God present among us, guiding history toward the future promised by God…
… the warning about a "new Arianism," a new heresy, doesn't sound like Francis…Francis seemed more concerned to get people moving. Leo does, too, but he also calls our attention to the need for guardrails…
…We saw something similar in Leo's address to the canonists who had come to Rome last month for a course titled: "Ten years after the reform of the canonical matrimonial process. Ecclesiological, juridical and pastoral dimensions." …
…Leo praised the reforms of the annulment process Francis had enacted. But he also warned that "human judgment on the nullity of marriage cannot however be manipulated by false mercy." I am not sure Francis ever warned about "false mercy." And whereas Francis was ever quick to warn against being overly legalistic, Leo, the canonist, cited the title of the course to see the legal, or juridical, aspect of the annulment process as inextricably intertwined with the pastoral and ecclesiological. "This relationship [of the ecclesiological, juridical and pastoral] is often forgotten, since it tends to conceive of theology, law and pastoral care as separate compartments," Leo said. "Indeed, it is quite common for them to be implicitly contrasted with one another, as if the more theological or pastoral approach were less legal, and vice versa, as if the more legal approach were to the detriment of the other two profiles. The harmony that emerges when the three dimensions are considered as parts of the same reality is thus obscured." Again, the guardrail is pointed out…
…But Leo is a different person. He never had the experience of exile that Francis did. Leo, unlike Francis, was trained as a canonist. And, perhaps most importantly, Leo is an Augustinian not a Jesuit. After 11 years of Ignatian insights, which were a (mixed) blessing, Leo now brings (stunningly fabulous) Augustinian insights into almost every talk.
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