✣ Highlights from the week online
Mercy and truth A particular paragraph from Amoris Laetitia struck George Weigel at First Things: “To show understanding in the face of exceptional situations never implies dimming the light of the fuller ideal, or proposing less than what Jesus offers to human beings. Today, more important than the pastoral care of failures is the pastoral effort to strengthen marriages and thus to prevent their breakdown.” According to Weigel, Francis established the synod because he knows that “marriage and family is in deep trouble”. He said that reading the Pope’s exhortation reminded him of an earlier conversation he had with the Holy Father: “I said that I wanted to present his vision of the Church accurately. So was I right in saying that he stressed God’s mercy so that, through an experience of that mercy, people would come to know God’s truth? He assured me I was.” Meanwhile, Robert Mickens of the National Catholic Reporter asked who would bring forward Francis’s vision. Mickens claimed that “the vast majority of the world’s bishops, younger clergy (under the age of 45 or so) and seminarians ... find themselves greatly conflicted by Francis and all that he is doing to shake up and renew the Church” and many have “rigid personalities obsessed with the ‘clarity’ of doctrine”. He concluded that it was hard to see how some seminaries were “preparing future priests to have the ‘smell of the sheep’ or helping them embrace Pope Francis’s dream of ‘a poor Church for the poor’.” The Pope in New York In an interview with religionandpolitics.org Cardinal Timothy Dolan offered some gems about Pope Francis’s visit to New York. One of the things he remembered most, he said, was how surprised Francis was by the number of people who like him. “When we entered Central Park, he said, ‘Oh my Lord, look at all these people.’ It’s almost like he couldn’t believe that they would have been there for him.” Cardinal Dolan said Pope Francis was also honest about asking questions when he did not understand something – for instance, whether Brooklyn was part of New York or not. “Then, we were in the car once and he said, ‘Oh my Lord, what is that monument there?’ And I said, ‘Holy Father, that’s an apartment building.’ He wasn’t used to these huge buildings.” Cardinal Dolan also reflected on the challenges of his role, saying he had “the same challenge that the apostles had about 30 seconds after they received the Holy Spirit at the first Pentecost. “How are we going to effectively, convincingly, colourfully, credibly, cogently, graciously present the person, the message, and the invitation of Jesus Christ?” he said.
