Pope Francis: Heaven 'a Party!'

“The Lord never says that the Kingdom of God is a show,” said Pope Francis Thursday. “It’s a party! But it is different. And a party is beautiful, of course. A big party. And Heaven will be a party.”

In his homily during Mass at the chapel in his Saint Martha residence, Francis contrasted the idea of show or spectacle—where people go to see and be seen—with the idea of a feast or party, where people rejoice together.

As an example of a spectacle, Francis proposed a wedding, where “people often come for a fashion show, to be seen, out vanity, rather than to receive a sacrament.”

Heaven, and the kingdom of God, are different. It is not this sort of show; it’s a true feast, and it begins now, the Pope suggested.

“The Kingdom of God is not far from us,” the Pope stated. “It’s close! This is one of its features: It’s close to us every day.”

“The Kingdom of God is humble, like a seed” Francis said. “It is humble but becomes great, by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Our job, the Pope said, “is to let it grow in us, without boasting. Let the Spirit come, change our souls and brings us forward in silence, in peace, in quiet, in closeness to God,” he said.

“When you think of the perseverance of so many Christians,” Francis went on, “who are taking care of their families—men and women—caring for their children, for their grandparents and they reach the end of the month with only half a euro, but they pray… there is the Kingdom of God, hidden in the holiness of everyday life.”

Francis concluded by asking “the Lord for the grace to take care of the kingdom of God that is within us, with prayer, worship and the service of charity.”

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Taken from: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/11/14/Heaven-Will-Be-a-Party-Says-Pope-Francis

Jesus Christ came to restore man to God’s grace

 

Counterrevolutionary Considerations

Saint Benedict Center’s conference will take place very soon (October 11-12). As I prepare my own comments on this year’s theme, I thought I would give both a plug for, nd a sneak preview of, what our attendees will be hearing in a little over a month.
 

Our theme is “Catholic and Counterrevolutionary.” For my purposes, I will define “counterrevolutionary” as “of or pertaining to the restoration of a pre-revolutionary state of affairs.” In our thought here at Saint Benedict Center, a“revolution” and things “revolutionary” are necessarily bad. The French and Russian Revolutions are the notable historical examples that clearly illustrate the badness thereof, but revolution, as a spiritual ideal, predates these: It is seen in the ideals of Freemasonry, in the Enlightenment, in Protestantism, in the Renaissance rejection of Medieval Christian Civilization — indeed, in the very Fall of Man itself, and in that earlier Fall of Lucifer and his rebel angels.

If we agree with Saul Alinsky that the first radical — another name for a revolutionary — was Lucifer, it is not because, as Alinsky does, we think that revolution is a good thing. (Here is the dedication on the opening page of Rules for Radicals: “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history… the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”)

If Lucifer is the first revolutionary, Jesus Christ is the first counterrevolutionary. I say “first,” not in order of chronology, but in that higher order of metaphysical primacy, according to which Saint Paul refers to Jesus Christ as “the firstborn of every creature” (Col. 1:15), “the firstborn from the dead”(Col. 1:18), and “the firstborn amongst many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). Jesus Christ came to restore the pre-revolutionary state of affairs. That is, He came to restore man to God’s grace and to reverse the worst effects of the Fall without altering some of its other effects.

Before Original Sin, Adam enjoyed infused knowledge in his intellect, loving obedience in his will, spontaneous virtue in his emotions, and no sickness or death in the body; after the fall, he is punished with ignorance in the intellect, malice in the will, concupiscence in the emotions, and suffering and death in the body.

God Himself had to grant the remedies. These are principally two: The Divine Law and grace. These heal ignorance and malice, but do not remove concupiscence; nor do they do away with death. Our way back to God must therefore, include the suffering consequent upon resisting temptation and being resigned in the face of death. We must — to use the Ignatian phrase — agere contra, act against our sinful inclinations. That hurts.

The French ultramontane thinker, Joseph de Maistre, said: “The Counter-Revolution will not be a reverse revolution, but the reverse of the Revolution.”Revolution corrodes order, whereas the Counterrevolution restores it. The revolutionary tears down, while the counterrevolutionary builds up. The revolutionary is a bully, a murderer; he hurls Molotov cocktails and terrorizes noncombatants. Counterrevolutionaries may not descend to such methods. Our task is harder, but while it appears that the progress of history is against us, we know that the Lord of History is for us.“If God be for us, who is against us?” (Rom. 8:31). History is full of unexpected good turns that make those words of Jesus echo in our ears: “Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

Today’s Catholic counterrevolutionary does not simply seek to reestablish the pre-Revolutionary status quo — if by that status quo, we mean some social order predating France’s Revolution. No, today’s Catholic counterrevolutionary must seek to establish society according to God’s will. In so doing, he seeks to do his part to cooperate with the Trinity in answering these two petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

We would be mistaken if we became mere antiquarians or enthusiasts of an earlier age seeking the literal reestablishment, for instance, of the order of the Middle Ages, of the late patristic age, or of Spain as it was in the Counter-Reformation. Many individuals and families seeking intelligently and diligently to do God’s will may produce a society (however small) that vaguely resembles one of those, but it is the doing of God’s will that matters.

We see here a direct correlation toward what is counterrevolutionary and what is holy: God’s will is one with Himself; God’s willis God. When we conform our will to God’s, we unite ourselves to God. Now, union with God is the essence of sanctity. Those seeking to do God’s will in society are also seeking for sanctity. If they are not doing so for themselves as individuals and their families as small social units, then they are going about things the wrong way.

The Catholic counterrevolutionary has for his weapons the theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. The counterrevolutionary also realizes the value of the Cross. Seeing suffering in the supernatural light of Faith, Hope, and Charity, he realizes that the Cross is our way to salvation. The revolutionary aims to make a painless world, a utopia, and ends up causing everyone tremendous pain. He speaks of a bloodless struggle and ends up spilling gallons of blood.

(An aside: Did you ever notice how the vast majority of futuristic films are dystopian in nature? My theory is that somehow, the Hollywood liberal progressive realizes deep down inside that his favorite ideas are actually horribly destructive.)

The counterrevolutionary is no utopian, and realizes that suffering is necessary for his aims, but he embraces that suffering himself, in union with that first Counterrevolutionary.

The revolutionaries and their revolutions will cause us suffering. In God’s admirable economy, this very suffering is one of the causes of our own sanctification, and therefore one of the greatest weapons against the revolutionaries and their revolutions. This is why Christ remedied the worst effects of the fall without altering them all. Salvation is now possible through the Cross. These words of a great spiritual writer could be directed to today’s would-be Catholic counterrevolutionary:“To be able to say Thy Will be done immediately and calmly in the midst of suffering — that is the perfection at which we must aim.” (They Speak by Silences by A Carthusian, p. 41.)

If we profit from the suffering our revolutionaries inflict on us, we fulfill the words of the psalmist: “They prepared a snare for my feet; and they bowed down my soul. They dug a pit before my face, and they are fallen into it” (Ps. 56:7).

If readers would like to hear more “counterrevolutionary considerations,” attendance at our conference is encouraged!

 

In the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M.



About Honouring the Saints

 

The AMAIC has joyfully run with the recent remarkable series of canonisations/beatifications of modern era popes, for it is properly Catholic to honour Our Lady (hyperdulia) and the Saints (dulia). To God alone, however, belongs true worship (latria).

Catholics need to get this right into proper perspective. That is why we have followed up this little section with Pope Francis’s invitation (on next page) to ‘rediscover a sense of the sacred’. “The Eucharistic celebration”, he says, “is something else. In the celebration we enter into the mystery of God, into that street that we cannot control: only He is the unique One, the glory, the power... He is everything”. God is infinitely more interesting than any given saint.

An observer, watching some Catholics in church piously doing the rounds of the saints and the Stations, whilst totally ignoring the Blessed Sacrament as they cross right in front of It, might perhaps be excused for thinking that Catholics really do "worship" Mary and the saints.

Rediscover a 'sense of the sacred'

....
 

(Vatican Radio) .... The first Reading of the day speaks about the “theophany” of God in the time of Solomon the king. The Lord came down like a cloud upon the temple, which was filled with the glory of God. The Lord, the Pope said, speaks to His people in many ways: through the prophets, the priests, the Sacred Scriptures. But with the theophanies, He speaks in another way, “different from the Word: it is another presence, closer, without mediation, near. It is His presence.” This, he explained, happens in the liturgical celebration. The liturgical celebration is not a social act, a good social act; it is not a gathering of the faithful to pray together. It is something else. In the liturgy, God is present,” but it is a closer presence. In the Mass, in fact, “the presence of the Lord is real, truly real.”

“When we celebrate the Mass, we don’t accomplish a representation of the Last Supper: no, it is not a representation. It is something else: it is the Last Supper itself. It is to really live once more the Passion and the redeeming Death of the Lord. It is a theophany: the Lord is made present on the altar to be offered to the Father for the salvation of the world. We hear or we say, ‘But, I can’t now, I have to go to Mass, I have to go to hear Mass.’ The Mass is not ‘heard’, it is participated in, and it is a participation in this theophany, in this mystery of the presence of the Lord among us.”

Nativity scenes, the Way of the Cross... these are representations. The Mass, on the other hand, “is a real commemoration, that is, it is a theophany: God approaches and is with us, and we participate in the mystery of the Redemption.” ....

“The liturgy is to really enter into the mystery of God, to allow ourselves to be brought to the mystery and to be in the mystery. For example, I am sure that all of you have come here to enter into the mystery; however, someone might say: ‘Ah, I have to go to Mass at Santa Marta, because on the sight-seeing tour of Rome, each morning there is a chance to visit the Pope at Santa Marta: it’s a tourist stop, right?’ All of you here, we are gathered her to enter into the mystery: this is the liturgy. It is God’s time, it is God’s space, it is the cloud of God that surrounds all of us.”

... So, the Pope concluded, “to celebrate the liturgy is to have this availability to enter into the mystery of God,” to enter into His space, His time, to entrust ourselves to this mystery:

“We would do well today to ask the Lord to give to each of us this ‘sense of the sacred,’ this sense that makes us understand that it is one thing to pray at home, to pray in Church, to pray the Rosary, to pray so many beautiful prayers, to make the Way of the Cross, so many beautiful things, to read the Bible... The Eucharistic celebration is something else. In the celebration we enter into the mystery of God, into that street that we cannot control: only He is the unique One, the glory, the power... He is everything. Let us ask for this grace: that the Lord would teach us to enter into the mystery of God.” ....

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Taken from: http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2014/02/10/pope_francis_rediscover_a_sense_of_the_sacred

Sainthood now a certainty for Pope Paul VI says Vatican



Art Villasanta (Friday, May 16 2014)

 

Pope Paul VI … will be beatified October 19 after Pope Francis … officially confirmed a miracle attributed to the former, the Vatican says. The miracle attributed to Pope Paul VI involved a mother in California who prayed to the Pope for a successful pregnancy after doctors discovered serious threats to the life of the unborn infant in 2001. The mother refused an abortion and prayed for Paul VI's intercession after doctors told her of the rupture of the fetal bladder and absence of amniotic liquid. The baby was born a month prematurely and is now a healthy adolescent. The Vatican did not reveal details about the miracle, which has to be certified by doctors as having no medical explanation.

One miracle is required by the Catholic Church for beatification. A second miracle is traditionally required for canonization or sainthood.  Beatification is the last formal step before sainthood.

Pope Paul VI was viewed as a reformist who fostered improved ecumenical relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church and Protestants. During his pontificate from 1963 to 1978, Paul VI made historic progress in improving the Catholic Church's relationship with other Christians.

He continued the work of his predecessor, St. John XIII, who called the Second Vatican Council … that allowed the mass to be said in local languages instead of in Latin, among other reforms.

….

 

Taken from: http://www.ecumenicalnews.com/article/sainthood-now-a-certainty-for-pope-paul-vi

Holy Spirit's gift of understanding enlightens minds, Pope says

                       

 

Vatican City, Apr 30, 2014 / 11:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis explained that the Holy Spirit’s gift of understanding allows Christians to obtain “intimacy with God” and helps them understand things “as God understands them.”

“When the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts and enlightens our minds, he makes us grow day by day in the understanding of what the Lord has said and accomplished,” the Pope said at the Wednesday General Audience April 30.

“One can read the Gospel and understand something, but if we read the Gospel with this gift of the Holy Spirit, we can understand the depths of God’s words.”

The Pope said Christians must pray together: “Give us, Lord, the gift of understanding.”

 

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter's Square before the Wednesday general audience on October 2, 2013. Credit: Elise Harris/CNA.

Catholic theology traditionally recognizes seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. Pope Francis began a catechesis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in his April 9 Wednesday audience, when he discussed wisdom.

On April 30, he explained that the Holy Spirit’s gift of understanding differs from human understanding, the “intellectual prowess” that varies from person to person.

“What a beautiful gift the Lord has given us. It is the gift with which the Holy Spirit introduces us into intimacy with God and makes us sharers in the plan of love which he has for us,” he said.

The Pope noted that Jesus told his disciples he would send the Holy Spirit to help them understand everything he had taught them.

This kind of understanding is a “grace” which “awakens in a Christian the ability to go beyond the outward appearance of reality and to probe the depths of the thoughts of God and his plan of salvation.”

This gift does not mean that a Christian can “comprehend all things” and have “full knowledge of the designs of God,” Pope Francis clarified. Rather, it helps the Christian to “read inwardly” and “understand things as God understands them.”

While human understanding and prudence are good, Jesus Christ desired to send the Holy Spirit so that everyone might understand “with the mind of God,” he explained.

Pope Francis said the Gospel story of the disciples who encountered the risen Jesus Christ on the road to Emmaus shows the “depth and power” of the Holy Spirit’s gift of understanding.

Believing Jesus to be dead, the disciples’ eyes were “veiled with sadness and despair” and could not recognize him.

“When, however, the Lord explains the Scriptures to them so that they might understand that he had to suffer and die in order then to rise again, their minds are opened and hope is rekindled in their hearts,” the Pope said.

He said the Holy Spirit “opens our minds” and “opens us to understand better the things of God, human things, situations, all things.”

Pope Francis encouraged Christians to pray for the gift to understand things as God understands them and to understand “above all, the Word of God in the Gospel.”

The Pope then greeted English-speaking pilgrims at the audience, invoking upon them and their families “the joy and peace of the Risen Lord.”

He also voiced his special thoughts for young people, the sick, and newlyweds, encouraging them to look to the example of St. Catherine of Siena whose feast day was Tuesday.

“Dear young people, may you learn from her to live with an upright conscience of one who does not give in to human compromise,” he said. “Dear sick, may you be inspired by her example of strength in moments of greater suffering. And may you, dear newlyweds, imitate the firmness of faith of those who trust in God.”
 

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Taken from: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/holy-spirits-gift-of-understanding-enlightens-minds-pope-says/

The Institution of the Eucharist in Scripture

http://www.ewtn.com.au/faith/teachings/euchc2.htm  ....  from a talk by Scott Hahn The Catholic Church claims that Christ is really present in the Eucharist, that the sacrifice of calvary is repeated at every Mass, and that he gives Himself to us in Holy Communion as food unto eternal life. With this in mind, let's look at Scripture. Luke 22, verse 15, our Lord says, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you." So we are assured that the Last Supper in the Upper Room was a Passover meal. In Mark 14, verses 22 through 26, we hear the words of institution, "And as they were eating He took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them and said, 'Take, this is my body.' And He took a cup and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them and they drank all of it and He said to them, 'This is my blood of the New Covenant which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.'" You could also say it this way: that if the Passover isn't finished until Calvary, I would suggest that Calvary is really begun in the Upper Room with the Eucharist. When does Jesus' sacrifice really begin? Well, He insists on the fact that His life is not being taken away from Him. He is laying it down. Now in the trial, in the passion, it's being taken away; but in the Upper Room, prior to all of that, Jesus lays it down. He says, "This is my body. This cup is the blood of the New Covenant." What happens when you differentiate and separate body and blood? You signify death. When your body and your blood are separated, death begins. That's obvious, I think. So Jesus is symbolically and actually beginning the sacrifice. St. Augustine has said that Our Lord held himself in his own hands and commenced the sacrifice of the New Covenant Passover as He was transforming the old. Calvary really began in the Old Testament Passover being celebrated in the Upper Room, when the Eucharist was instituted and the Passover Eucharist of the New Covenant really isn't over until Calvary, when He says, "It is finished." No wonder St. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 5, "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us." Therefore, what? Therefore we don't have any more sacrificial offerings or ceremonies or feasts and so on to celebrate because all those ceremonies are outdated and done with? No. He says, "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed; therefore, let us keep the feast." And he goes on to talk about how we take out the leaven of insincerity and we have this unleavened bread. What's he talking about? Christ, our Passover has been sacrificed; therefore, we've got to achieve the whole goal of that sacrifice, the second half is communion where we eat the lamb. Now you can't eat a lamb cookie in Egypt. If you didn't like lamb, you couldn't have your wife make lamb bread, little biscuits in the shape of a lamb and say, "God, you understand, we just can't stand the stuff." No, you do that, your firstborn would die. You had to eat the lamb. Jesus Christ has said to us, "My flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life." Let's turn to John 6 and see the context in which he says that. John 6, verse 4 tells us, "Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand." So everything that transpires within John 6 is within the context of the Passover. Jesus is talking to them now. At the time of the Passover, after multiplying these loaves, ending up filling twelve baskets with the fragments from the five barley loaves, He uses that as his point of departure for one of the most important sermons that He ever preaches and also one of the most disastrous from a human perspective. He goes on talking about this bread and He goes on talking about Moses in context with that bread. For instance, in verse 32, "Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said to him, 'Lord, give us this bread always.'" Welfare state! "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall not thirst.'" And He goes on talking about this some more. The Jews would then murmur at him in verse 41 because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." They're thinking, "What is He talking about? This guy is Joseph's son. How does He say, 'I've come down from heaven?'" They only look at it from a human perspective. They don't see that He's the divine Son of God. Verse 47, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven.'" How often did they eat the manna? Every day. How often do we receive the Bread of Life? Every day. This is not a once for all sacrifice, like many anti-Catholics allege in the sense that Christ is sacrificed and now there's nothing more to be done. Jesus Christ is sacrificed as priest and as victim, as lamb and as firstborn son and as the Bread of Life, he gives himself to us as well as the unleavened bread of the Passover meal, which commenced, of course, the whole feast of unleavened bread the week after the Passover celebration. Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life, the unleavened bread of God which came down from heaven which the Israelites received every day, the manna of the New Covenant. Christ through the Holy Spirit makes himself available as the Lamb of God to be consumed continuously. That's the whole point of the Resurrection, incidentally. The Holy Spirit raises up that body and glorifies it so supernaturally that body and blood which is glorified may be internationally distributed through the elders and priests of the Church so that all of God's children can be bound back to the Father in the New Covenant sacrifice of Christ. He didn't die again. He's not bleeding and he's not suffering. He's reigning in glory and giving us his own flesh and blood. Where do you get that? From the Old Testament -- the manna, the Passover, the sacrifice as it's described on Calvary as it's initiated in the Upper Room and as he states right here in verse 51. "If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." Jews stop, wait a second. Hold the phone. "John, what do you mean 'my flesh?'" Verse 52, "The Jews then disputed among themselves saying, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'" Cannibalism, paganism, barbarism, sin in the highest degree. So did Jesus say to them, "I didn't mean it, guys. I was just kind of, you know, using hyperbole or metaphor." No. He actually intensifies the scandal. He actually raises the obstacle even higher. "He said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood,' which Leviticus condemns, the drinking of blood, 'unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.'" He said that four times in four different ways. In verse 60, "Many of His disciples when they heard it said, 'This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?'" That is an understatement. "Jesus, however, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it" (the disciples, the followers, the spiritual proteges, not just the crowd now, the disciples themselves are taking offense at this and murmuring and grumbling), "said to them, 'Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the son of man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.'" What words? That you've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood, those words. In 63 we discover why Christ's flesh and blood will be so powerful and animating for supernatural life. Verse 66, "After this, many of His disciples drew back...." We get the impression that the vast majority of them said, "This is just too much." "...and no longer went about with him. And Jesus turned to the twelve;" he didn't apologize. He didn't say, "Now that we're down to twelve, I'll tell you what I really meant." He didn't say that at all. In fact he is perfectly willing for this obstacle to remain scandalous even to the twelve. "Do you also wish to go away?" But "Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go?'" Almost implying we would leave if there was somebody else that we could trust more than you because what you said is rather baffling. But he says, "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God." So we have reason to believe that this sacrifice of the New Covenant Passover begun in the Upper Room and consummated on Calvary and ultimately as 1st Corinthians 5 suggests continued and celebrated as a climactic communion on the altars of the Church around the world when we receive the Eucharist in Communion. All of this is right from the Bible but you've got to know your Bible. You've got to know John. You've got to know Matthew, Mark and Luke. You've got to know Exodus. You've got to know the Psalms. You've got to know Corinthians and you also have to know Revelation. Abridged from Scott Hahn's audio and video tape presentation, "Eucharist: Holy Meal" as it appears in the "Catholic Adult Education on Video Program" with Scott and Kimberly Hahn. Full text available in our library. Both the individual audio and video cassettes and the entire 20 cassette library, complete with study guides, are available from: St. Joseph Communications PO Box 720 West Covina, CA 91793 818-331-3549 Electronic text (c) Copyright EWTN 1996. All rights reserved.

“Like Mary, the mother of Christ, Pope Francis continually points to Christ".

With new pictures and stories going viral every week, our 76-year-old Holy Father is dominating the conversation on the Internet. But is the Gospel message getting across?

12.11.2013
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Brantly Millegan

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Jeffrey Bruno

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We already know he’s the most influential world leader on Twitter, but a new report shows Pope Francis’ reach on the digital continent goes far beyond that. According to Global Language Monitor’s 14th annual global survey of the English language, “Pope Francis” is the most discussed name on the 1.83 billion person English-language portion of the Internet.

And “name” here is understood fairly broadly, encompassing not only people but also organizations, programs, and even laws. The next five most discussed names are “Obamacare”, “NSA”, “Ed Snowden”, “Kate Middleton”, and “IRS” - and Pope Francis bests them all.

Among the most commonly used words in the English-language portion of the Internet, “@Pontifex” (Pope Francis’ English username on Twitter) comes in at fourth, beating out terms like “drones”, “surveillance”, “deficit”, and “twerking”, and losing out only to “404”, “fail”, and “hashtag”.

Seemingly without even trying, and in spite of a Vatican media team that at times has been known for its comical inadequacies, Pope Francis simply can’t stay out of the news. With new pictures, statements, and stories going viral every week, it’s fully confirmed: Pope Francis is a mega-celebrity of the highest order.

He’s also a mega-celebrity of a different kind of order. While others are famous for lying, twerking, or their supposed good looks, Pope Francis seems to be uber-famous for the best of reasons. He’s the supreme leader of a 1.2 billion member religion, yet he goes out of his way to embrace a man with a disfigured face. He personally calls up an unwed mother and offers to baptize her child. When the world seems to be on the brink of war, he organizes and leads a world day of prayer for peace - and it works.

But should we be surprised?


“Jesus Christ’s Representative”

“It's not at all surprising that Pope Francis is the most talked about name on the Internet,” says Tim Drake, New Evangelization Coordinator with the Holdingford Area Catholic Community in the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota. “He is, after all, Jesus Christ's representative, and the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and its more than one billion worldwide members.”

Drake compares Pope Francis to Jesus. “Some have said that Pope Francis is shaking things up, and this is why he's drawing so much attention. Again, Christ was an unconventional figure. He shook up the establishment of His time, and out of love embraced the lost, the forgotten, the broken, and those who needed healing. Pope Francis, as demonstrated through the many press reports and photos that show him reaching out to those in prison, the handicapped, the ill, and the disfigured, appears to be doing the same. He's not drawing the attention for himself, but to demonstrate Christ's love. Thus, he's being talked about for good reasons.”

“Like Mary, the mother of Christ, Pope Francis continually points to Christ. Therefore, any attention he is getting only serves to give attention to Christ. That is a great thing. Our world needs Christ more than ever.”

Fr. Roger Landry, an expert on the teachings of Pope Bl. John Paul II, also sees Jesus behind Pope Francis’ fame. “I think the fundamental reason has less to do with Pope Francis the man and much more with what, or better Whom, he represents. People are searching for God, hungering for signs of his presence, his mercy, his love, his goodness in the world. Pope Francis lives, acts, speaks and embraces in a way that not only doesn't contradict people's expectations for God but are fully consistent with them. The interest in him is fundamentally positive.”

Andrew Seeley, professor at Thomas Aquinas College and the Executive Director of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, thinks Pope Francis’ method of pastoring is similar to Jesus’. “From my vantage point, it looks as though Pope Francis wants to shepherd his flock as Our Lord did, not simply as Chief Teacher, but more intimately, through sharing his heart and soul with us.

“As hearing about Our Lord caused many to ask about Him, ‘Who is this man?’, so much of what hear about Pope Francis causes people to wonder about him. Many were content to judge Our Lord based on the reports about Him, but for some, like Nicodemus, the reports led them to seek Him out, to get to know Him more intimately. The interest that reports about Pope Francis has generated are having a similar effect. The social media possibilities today allow for us to get know Francis more intimately than ever. We should take advantage of them and not be content with what is simply reported to us. What we will find, I believe, is a heart aflame with the love for us inspired by Our Lord and His Church.”


“A Great Help for the New Evangelization”

Church historian Fr. C. John McCloskey sees Francis’ popularity as contributing to the work begun by his predecessors. “It is a sign that the world is indeed attracted to the Church and it's new leader. They are at least listening and watching. This is a great help for the New Evangelization that our last three popes have pushed during their pontificates.”

Ronald J. Rychlak, Butler Snow Lecturer and Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, thinks Pope Francis is bringing to light long-standing Church teaching that wasn’t always well-known. “Pope Francis captures the fascination of the public because he has brought some emphasis to aspects of the Catholic faith that are often overlooked by the popular media.The teachings are no different, and Francis is quite orthodox when it comes to traditional Catholic social positions. With a new face and a new voice, however, people are finally seeing and hearing a message that has always been there. That is a very good thing, both for those who are hearing this message for the first time and for those who have a deep understanding of the Catholic faith.”

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan, Director of the Office of the Marian Apostolate Diocese of Sioux Falls, thinks Francis’ message of love is drawing spiritual seekers. "In a rather short time, Pope Francis has caught the attention of millions of persons. His gestures and words have encouraged many to look again at the Gospel of Christ and His Church. The Holy Spirit chose Pope Francis, as He did his Predecessors, to proclaim the message of Jesus. It is not surprising that we 'searchers,' in the midst of these perilous times, find in Pope Francis a much appreciated reassurance that God deeply loves us and cares for us."

Lawrence DiPaolo, Jr., Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Sacred Scripture at the University of St. Thomas, points out that Pope Francis isn’t simply in the news, but is in the news for positive reasons. “It is not surprising to me in the least that Pope Francis is the most talked about name on the internet. What is particularly noteworthy in the coverage is that it is almost without exception universally positive.”

“Whether it is Pope Francis embracing a child with cerebral palsy at St. Peter's Basilica, kissing a disfigured man or laughing as a child sits in his chair, the images show a very human Pontiff. Anytime a Pope becomes popular owing to his humility, charity and love for the people of God, that is indeed a good thing for the Church.”


“The Real Litmus Test”

Not everyone is convinced Pope Francis is famous for the right reasons, though. Fr. George Rutler is worried some his fame comes from an expectation among liberals he will fundamentally change the Church. “Many uninformed people are using Pope Francis as a sort of Rorschach inkblot test. What they see in him says more about themselves than about him.”

“His recent excommunication of an heretical Australian priest, and recent appointments of solid bishops are indications of his grasp of true reform. Those who have cast the Pope in the image of their own desires, will soon complain that he has not lived up to their expectations: rather like Blessed Pius IX and, in our own day, Blessed John Paul II.”

Writing for The Catholic Thing, Randall Smith, Professor of Theology at the University of St Thomas in Houston, says he likes Pope Francis but is worried his personality might be eclipsing his message in the media. “[A]lthough personally I enjoy Pope Francis, I also have a concern. Not because he says goofy things or does press conferences he probably shouldn’t. [...] No, what concerns me about Pope Francis’s current situation is a concern I think he would share if he became aware of the problem. My concern is that, increasingly, Francis is becoming the message. And if I understand Francis correctly, I think he would find that, not only odd, but practically intolerable.”

“Pope Francis isn’t exactly what most people would call ‘media savvy.’ The problem for a man of humility who has no real concern for the media is that he may not understand the degree to which his own personality and style has come to dominate the message. He has become ‘the story.’ It was similar for Pope John Paul II in his early days. But then he wrote Redemptor Hominis and Familiaris Consortio and defended Humanae Vitae with his ‘the theology of the body,’ and things started to change.”

Fr. Landry is tentative about whether Pope Francis’ celebrity is will turn out to be good for the Church. “In and of itself, his celebrity is a great opportunity, but whether it turns out to be a good or bad thing depends on whether people get beyond his celebrity status to ponder his words and example.”

“Many of those who are fascinated by Pope Francis readily say that the reason they ‘love’ him is because they don't think he judges them or is as interested as they believe most leaders of the Church are in getting them and the world to convert on those subjects where popular opinion and Church teaching aren't aligned.”

Fr. Landry thinks this confusion comes from a misreading of Francis. “But even a superficial following of Pope Francis reveals that the fundamental theme of his papacy is mercy. To talk about mercy implies the need for mercy. Pope Francis has called himself a sinner on whom the Lord has looked with mercy.”

“The real litmus test of whether his celebrity turns out to be a good or a bad thing for the Church is whether all of us will recognize that we, too, are sinners under the merciful glance of the Lord and called to come to receive his forgiveness and share it with others. It's not enough for people to like Pope Francis. It's far more important that people follow his Christian example. The Pope is interested not in winning popularity contests, but in saving people in the great field hospital of the Church.”


The following Aleteia Experts contribute to this article:

Lawrence DiPaolo, Jr. is Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Sacred Scripture at the University of St. Thomas.

Tim Drake is the New Evangelization Coordinator with the Holdingford Area Catholic Community in the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota. He is an award-winning journalist, the author of six books on religion and culture, and a former radio host.

Fr. Roger Landry speaks widely on the thought of Pope John Paul II, Theology of the Body, apologetics, and on contemporary issues in the Church.

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan is Director of the Office of the Marian Apostolate Diocese of Sioux Falls, the Vicar for Consecrated Life, and the Canonical Adviser to the Most Reverend Paul J. Swain, D.D., the Bishop of Sioux Falls.

Fr. C. John McCloskey is a Church historian and Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington DC. His personal website is www.frmccloskey.com.

Fr. George Rutler is pastor of the Church of St. Michael and administrator of the Church of the Holy Innocents, both in Manhattan. He has made documentary films in the United States and England, contributes to numerous scholarly and popular journals and has published 16 books.

Ronald J. Rychlak is the Butler Snow Lecturer and Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Andrew T. Seeley is a professor at Thomas Aquinas College and the Executive Director of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. He co-authored 'Declaration Statesmanship: A Course in American Government'.

Randall Smith is holds the Scanlan Chair in Theology at the University of St Thomas in Houston.

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Taken from: http://www.aleteia.org/en/religion/article/pope-francis-internet-mega-celebrity-13734001