Yes, yes… we know that Rolling Stone, which recently featured on its cover the photo of the Boston Marathon terrorist, has now jumped onto the Pope Francis bandwagon.
The real take away from this is that, while Rolling Stone and other liberal outlets go gaga for The Wonderfullest Pope Ehvur (because they think he has abolished the Church’s teaching on homosexuality), other liberals are not so keen. For example, here is the cover of Der Spiegel right now:
Predictably, it’s about sex.
Furthermore:
Not very nice.
The editor of Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter), Tom Fox, nearly has an embarrassing moment of ecstasy in his commentary on the cover of the Rolling Stone.
Pope Francis continues to take the world by storm. His latest media triumph, a cover story on, yes, the Rolling Stone this week.
“The Times They Are A-Changin’: ?Inside the Pope’s gentle revolution,” is a 7,700-word profile by contributing editor Mark Binelli, who writes, “In less than a year since his papacy began, Pope Francis has done much to separate himself from past popes and establish himself as a people’s pope.”
In the last few months Francis has appeared on the covers of Time (“Person of the Year”), The New Yorker, The Advocate (“The Person of the Year”), and Vanity Fair (Italian issue), among a dozen or more others — to say nothing about Catholic publications such as America and the National Catholic Reporter(Of course). [Such prestigious journals!]
The real climax of the NSR piece comes when Fox quotes the Stoner‘s bashing of Pope Benedict:
After the disastrous papacy of Benedict, a staunch traditionalist who looked like he should be wearing a striped shirt with knife-fingered gloves and menacing teenagers in their nightmares, Francis’ basic mastery of skills like smiling in public seemed a small miracle to the average Catholic.
Don't be fooled. He's not really smiling.
Smiling in public! No Pope ever smiled in public before Francis! Ehvur!
What, however, is the take away from the Rolling Stone thingy?
Yes, yes… we know that Pope Francis is pretty popular with the essentially uncritical MSM and the essentially non-practicing, rank-and-file un-churched Catholic. Perhaps you have met a few people who say, “Oh, I don’t believe what the Church teaches, but I really like this Pope!” We will continue to see lots of mainstream praise for Francis.
I am waiting to see whether The Francis Effect™ brings true conversions in its wake. Time will tell. I sincerely hope so.
Meanwhile, you won’t see praise for Francis from the feminists. You won’t see praise for Francis from the LCWR types.
Pope Francis is not about to change the Church’s doctrine and discipline in substantive matters. He can’t change doctrine, of course. This has already started to dawn on elements of the ‘c’atholic Left.
He isn’t going to approve of homosexual sex…. ehvur. He isn’t going to ordain a woman… ehvur.
Eventually the different lefty factions will turn on each other over Francis. Some on the Left will continue to coo over Pope Fluffy (who – as they imagine – doesn’t demand conversion from their various life-choices). Others on the Left, will get angrier and angrier that Pope Francis isn’t conforming to their expectations. They will start demanding that the other, supportive side of the Left, start criticizing the Pope with them.
Francis is dividing the Left.
