Emphasizing forgiveness over judgment, and acceptance over orthodoxy,
the 266th pope is decidedly different from his predecessors
Pope Francis is a big-tent
evangelist for the world’s largest Christian denomination, reaching out
to the world in the blunt language of the street.
Eager
to focus less on divisive social issues such as abortion, Francis
describes his church as “a field hospital after a battle.”
“It
is useless,” he told an interviewer, “to ask a seriously injured person
if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You
have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”
That approach has huge implications for the millions of Catholics who feel that the church long ago turned its back on them.
When
a reporter asked about the status of gay priests, Francis did not
hesitate. “I have yet to find anyone who has a business card that says
he is gay,” he said. “If someone is gay who searches for the Lord and
has goodwill, who am I to judge?”
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