Pope Francis Enters His Third Year of Scolding Introverts

National Review ^ | 03/13/2015 | Nicholas Frankovich

[Legatus]

I want the Church to go out into the streets,” Pope Francis told a cheering crowd gathered for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in July 2013, four months after he was elected pope. “¡Hagan lío!” he exhorted them, in the spirit of creative destruction: Make a mess! Take care, he added, not to become “closed in on” yourselves. On other occasions, he has urged priests to leave “the stale air of closed rooms” and has characterized traditional Catholics as “self-absorbed.” An extrovert, Francis attaches a positive moral value to extroversion — and, as if it followed by some logical necessity, a negative moral value to extroversion’s complement, introversion.

“Pope Francis has said that he does not want a church that is introverted,” Monsignor M. Francis Mannion, describing the pope’s “achievements,” explained bluntly last July in an article for the Catholic News Agency. Two weeks later in the Los Angeles Times, an admiring Amy Hubbard included in her list of lessons that we should take from Francis: “Do not be an introvert. That’s just putrid.”

“This is no century for introverts,” Kathleen Parker remarked on the occasion of Francis’s elevation to the papacy two years ago today. In our age, yes, “introversion — along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness — is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology,” as Susan Cain writes in Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. To “disappointment” and “pathology” we should add, if we follow Pope Francis on this question, “character flaw” and “moral failing.”

[Legatus]

A priest friend forwarded this to my wife this morning, it makes for an interesting read.

[denydenydeny]

Sadly, nothing is more of a threat to the Church than a bad Pope.

[grimalkin]

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux wanted to “go forth” in the obvious way, by traveling to far-off lands where she could bring the good news to people who had never heard it. Her health prevented her, as did her religious superiors, but no problem: From her convent, she joined the work of the missionaries by praying for them. She did so at first as a Carmelite nun and does so now in her capacity as their patroness. To the naïve observer, intercessory prayer appears to be a form of talking to oneself. Those who know better recognize that no act is more profoundly social, or other-directed.

[Salvation]

This article is about evangelization. We must continue to contact and invite people to take a look at the Catholic Church.

Christ is with us always; we need not be afraid.

[Salvation]

Excellent point.

[Legatus]

I think Frankovich is asking whether there’s room for a Thérèse of Lisieux in Pope Francis’ vision for the Church.

[9thLife]

The Pope cannot be so easily dismissed simply because he is an offense to so many. This, we all know, is usually the mark of a Saint.

[grimalkin]

I would hope so. It’s very much needed.

[Steelfish]

I think we have a huge cultural gulf between a highly disciplined German scholarly mind, a theological Einstein in Benedict XVI, and a former top ranked curia member, and a pastoral mindset of Francis from Latin America free from the constraints of rigorous intellectualism but instead given to loquaciousness and off the cuff remarks. There are benefits and drawbacks in both approaches.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“This article is about evangelization. We must continue to contact and invite people to take a look at the Catholic Church”

Meant with all sincerity...

You must contact people and invite them to Christ - the Only Source of salvation and eternal life.

[Salvation]

You must contact people and invite them to Christ - the Only Source of salvation and eternal life by taking a look at the Catholic Church.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“the Only Source of salvation and eternal life by taking a look at the Catholic Church.”

And yet that isn’t found in the pages of Scripture anywhere.

Are you more concerned about the souls of people being saved from hell and having eternal life, or more concerned about them joining your Catholic denomination with the hope that they will be saved from the wrath to come?

[Legatus]

Well that derailment didn’t take long...

[Ann Archy]

He’s an offense to TRADIOTIONAL CATHOLICS!! The LEFTISTS LOVE HIM!!

[ReaganGeneration2]

Yet hopefully the power of quiet prayer, by those who have that gift, is not disrespected by this Pope.

[ebb tide]

The Pope cannot be so easily dismissed simply because he is an offense to so many.

Don't kid yourself.

Pope Francis’ Image Positive in Much of World

[piusv]

It can be the mark of a saint. It can also be the mark of the Devil. Unless you don’t find the Devil offensive.

[Jeff Chandler]

Martha and Mary both have their parts.

[piusv]

Well that derailment didn’t take long...

LOL. If we would only ignore them.....

[Verginius Rufus]

I don’t think St. Paul shared this attitude—see I Corinthians 12. (Frankovich cites a verse from that chapter towards the end of his essay.)