Monday, April 21, 2025

Francis

I'm an outsider in many ways here: not Catholic, not involved in Catholic disputations in the USA, and absolutely not involved in disputations within the Vatican. Quite a few things may have had a very different appearance when viewed from there. For example, I did not understand the why's that went into restricting the Tridentine Mass. I'm told there were worries about divisions, perhaps more visible in Rome than to me.

What the standard media reports about religion is generally ignorant down to the bone, and I gather that I cannot simply just trust Catholic social media either. I regarded some reported pronouncements askance (ignoring the political ones), but figured there was something I wasn't getting--sometimes the truth of what was actually said. I wished Francis well when he started, and wish him well as he goes before us--may the Lord have mercy on him and on us all. I gather he did a lot of good work, and that doesn't usually make news.

I am thankful that, despite the unhappy truth of Maxim 483 below, I don't recall ever joking about him being Catholic.

3 comments:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Maxim 483: I thought of several people immediately and thought better of them. Arrogance and pride are deeply destructive. Vanity is a younger and less troublesome sibling to them.

james said...

Unfortunately it applies very well to me. I have trouble resisting a bon mot. Learning to keep my mouth shut is taking more years than it should.

Korora said...

"I have trouble resisting a bon mot."
Some of them have, however, been right on target:
"I further conclude that the monkey is at least as wise as Peter Singer, and rate their advice accordingly." And when a fire destroyed a collection of "art" that ranged from the merely tasteless to the out-and-out sociopathic, you properly called the accident a "disposal".