Sadly, Pope Francis is very anti-intellectual. But what people are actually looking for is not just emotion, but a rational foundation for their lives.
Nobody has been talking about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin for about 7 centuries now, so he’s fighting a straw man. But on the other hand, everybody wants to know the question they asked of Jesus, “how should I live?” Theology clarifies the purpose of your life and helps establish the conditions that would be most helpful in getting towards that goal.
I fear the Pope is in the “it’s nice to be nice” category. In Spanish, the phrase “pensamiento debil” (literally, weak thought) sums up Vatican II theology, and it’s unfortunate that this Pope, at a time when we have probably never had more need of a clear and profound theological/philosophical approach to the questions of human existence, just blows the whole thing off.
Or perhaps this is just his latest snipe at orthodox Catholicism and its adherents, those pesky "Specialists of the Logos!" who refuse to quietly acquiesce to the Kasperian revolutionary agenda and its "serene theology".
I’m kind of lukewarm about most of the stuff he says. You know, it the kind of stuff I would spit out. Just blah. Just can’t get very excited about him.