More pro-active Vatican communications might be able to do something about all this, but when the Holy See is constantly in the mode of, "No, what the pope really meant was . . . ," the game has already been largely forfeited. George Weigel More Quotes by George Weigel More Quotes From George Weigel [Jesus Christ to Pope Francis] is the Lord with whom he speaks for hours every day in prayer. The Risen One who reached out, touched his life, and called him into mission. George Weigel speak prayer jesus The papacy is an impossible job. So the best thing Catholics can do for the pope is to pray for him. George Weigel catholic impossible jobs Then [Catholics] owe [pope] the loyalty that is expressed in speaking the truth to him - and that puts a premium on knowing whether what you're happy about, on unhappy about, has a basis in fact, or is merely a reflection of the "narrative. George Weigel loyalty knowing reflection I'd also hope that my liberal friends, who find in this pope a critic of what they're pleased to call "culture-warrior" Catholics, will read carefully, and ponder even more carefully, what Pope Francis had to say about the "ideological colonization" implicit in Western decadence when he was giving robust pro-life, pro-family talks in the Philippines. George Weigel warrior pro-life giving The Church offers the medicine of the divine mercy so that healed souls can grasp the truth that will liberate them in the fullest meaning of human freedom. George Weigel medicine church soul What I hope my liberal friends (and I have more than a few) take from this pontificate is that mercy and truth are never separable in Catholic pastoral life. George Weigel catholic mercy The world needs a pastor, whether it knows it or not. George Weigel pastor world needs [Pope] Francis communicates the pastoral embrace of the Church, the breadth and inclusiveness of Catholicism symbolized by the Bernini colonnade around St. Peter's Square, in a powerful way. George Weigel powerful squares past We're used to institutional-maintenance Catholicism, in which the institution ticks along by its own inertia and people are "born" into the Church. Francis knows that is over and done with: "Kept" Catholicism, whether "kept" by legal establishment or by cultural habit, has no future. George Weigel maintenance church people The only future is intentional Catholicism, evangelical Catholicism. George Weigel catholicism evangelical That's what the liveliest parts of the world Church today - ranging from the booming Church in Africa to FOCUS missionaries on American campuses - are living: a Catholicism that has discovered that it doesn't have a mission, it is a mission. George Weigel church-today focus world The people who are behind the curve of the Catholic future are the institutional-maintenance types. George Weigel curves catholic people The Germans now seem the primary example of this [institutional-maintenance type] - which is another reason to scratch the head at their seeming determination to force the whole Church to adopt the Catholic Lite approach that has, in a bizarre inversion, emptied German churches of congregants while vastly expanding the German Church's bureaucracies. George Weigel catholic church determination The pope [Francis] knows that the marriage culture is in crisis throughout the world, and so is the family. George Weigel pope culture world [Pope Francis] comes to that conviction [of family crisis] as a pastor, not as Brad Wilcox or Charles Murray. So he wants to challenge the Church to find pastoral responses to that crisis that meet real human needs. George Weigel church real challenges "You don't believe what you read in the papers about anything else; why do you believe it about the pope?" That's where I'd start. George Weigel pope paper believe These [conservative] people, if they're Americans, look back on the last 35 years of our ecclesial experience and take heart from that. The dramatic reform of seminaries continues. The priests and bishops who take their pastoral model from John Paul II will continue to do so, perhaps learning a lesson or two from Francis along the way - and they'll be the overwhelming majority of the Church's ordained ministers ten, twenty, thirty years from now. George Weigel heart two years The dynamically orthodox orders of religious women will continue to grow, and the dying orders, which long ago opted for the lightest of Catholic Lite, will continue to die. George Weigel long-ago religious order Younger theologians will continue to pursue and understand truth rather than deconstructing it, as a lot of their elders seemed to want to do. George Weigel pursue theologian want Vital parishes built on the Bible and the sacraments, committed to evangelizing their neighborhoods, will continue to flourish. The poor will be served, the sick healed, and the dying comforted. None of that is going to change, and I'd wager that it's going to get better. George Weigel get-better sick dying
