And time to start loving him.
You do not need to like the pope. Not liking the pope does not make you a bad person. Christ did not command us to like everybody, He commanded us to love. And that is the mark of a Christian. In fact, you will merit much more if you can overcome your selfishness and make way for the victory of charity.
It is a strange climate where it is assumed that if you don't like the
pope you do not pray for the pope or think him some heretic. Is this
really where the online Catholic community is at? Talking about the
"women priestesses" liking the foot washing means you want it to be known the pope will change the sacrament of the priesthood? Maybe it's better to just talk about his shoes. Do they know Fr. Hardon only owned two pairs of clothes, both from dead Jesuits? It's a Jesuit thing. If there were blogs when JPII created female altar servers, would it have been okay to talk about? Or pretend it didn't happen... Pretending things didn't happen hasn't worked out well for Catholics. Fr. Hardon begged the Holy Father not to make the change to altar servers. God bless him.
There seems to be this idea out there that our proper relationship with the Holy Father is one that involves warm, fuzzy feelings gushing forth and praise for every action. Or silence if something he does is not to your liking. Some blogs have been severely chastised for being honest and open on their thoughts about the election of our Holy Father and his actions thus far as pope. It used to be called being frank. The knee jerk reactionaries could error on the side of not getting to know the pope, about his life, what his thoughts and positions are, since they may find something they don't like. Have those reactionaries sacrificed love for affection? You cannot love someone you do not know. Has something disturbed their peace? Peace comes with accepting the mortification of being in a situation contrary to your will. The pope doesn't like traditional liturgy? God's will be done.
If you spend all of your time worrying about liking the pope, you will miss a perfect opportunity to love. Give real love, not a false sentimentality, and even real affection for the man may blossom.
- Written as a note to myself
