No Pope!

The pope is coming to the United States and some folks hoped his trip would include a stop in our neighborhood. I commented on the effort in a prior post.

It is interesting to see the current bishop express disappointment. This guy is is what I've come to tag in my head as, "Benedictine" or, "Team Benedict". To me, that means prioritizing liturgical enforcement, inflexible judgment and politics over empathy and compassion. He plays the media game fairly well but I think he's probably happy Papa F isn't passing through. Off the top of my head...

• Press release against someone coming to speak at a college on a topic where everyone with sense should agree.
• Churches financially participating in WISDOM forbidden.
• And why is it, exactly, that Father Guy Blair is no longer in town, Bishop? I didn't personally know him but remember his passionate advocacy on behalf of the homeless very well. I was on the receiving end of it often enough.

And that's just what I know about as someone who does not pay attention to he local diocese. I can't help but wonder if Francis would've spanked Ricken on the way through...