Pope Francis: neither a liberal nor a conservative…

Pope Francis is a beguiling, confusing pontiff. Some in the media imagine him to be Fr Liberal, parachuting into the slums to feed the hungry and chastise the rich. Others regard him as positively medieval – all that crazy talk about demons and exorcisms (“The power of Christ compels you!”). He’s a New World man doing the oldest job in the Old World; an Argentine with Italian blood who doesn’t like Latin. He writes very little yet talks incessantly. He is, one Left-wing journalist reassures the obsessive critics of the Church, still a Catholic. That’s a relief, because traditionalists tell me that we’ve elected a Buddhist. Read more…