Pope Francis

Many people have written many words about Pope Francis, so I will limit myself to a few. I think it's good that he's preaching a message of humility and that that message is being heard. Whenever a Christian person or the Church as a whole thinks she needs to be doing better, the answer is to read the Gospels again and try to follow them more closely.

Immediately before the conclave, I signed up to adoptacardinal.org to be randomly assigned a cardinal to pray for. I was fortunate enough to be assigned me own archbishop, Cardinal O'Malley. What are the chances! (1 in 115) Or may it wasn't fortune, but the website checking my IP.

When I heard that there was white smoke, I found a quiet room where I could watch the coverage on CBS online. I had never heard of Cardinal Bergoglio, so I went and read his Wikipedia page (which, within a few seconds of the announcement, was already at Pope Francis with a redirect from his baptismal name).

I wasn't so concerned about trying to judge the background of the new pope: I trust the cardinals more than a sketchy assortment of articles about the pababili, and the papacy is about a position as leader of a huge flock, not about an individual. I simply value the chance to join with a new leader and the One he represents on earth.

I decided to go to Mass that afternoon to pray for the new pope. The church to attend was an easy choice: St Francis' in the Prudential Center (in equal parts due to its name and the facts that it's one of my favourite churches around, and it has several Masses each day so I expected there'd be a suitable afternoon Mass). The celebrant said just a few words about the new pope, who he knew because he worked in Buenos Aires for eighteen years. I was happy to hear "together with Francis our pope, Sean our bishop"... at the appropriate point: it's already starting to sound familiar.