After my recent rants against the new pope, I ran across a new article by Matthew Fox, a mystic, writer, and scholar whom I’ve long admired. What he says is right on the money, particularly this paragraph:
The silver lining in the election of this, the first Grand Inquisitor as Pope, is this: Now people of conscience the world over have a clear choice between Religion and Spirituality; Fundamentalism and Wisdom; A Punitive Father God and the Mother-Father Creator of Justice and Compassion; Fascism and Control vs. Letting the Spirit Work; between a preferential option for the rich and powerful (cf. Opus Dei) and a preferential option for the poor (as in liberation theology).
Now all people–and Catholics in particular–are called to find their consciences and take a stand about the Punitive Father God of Fundamentalism and the Divine Wisdom of Justice and Compassion and against idolatry including religious idolatry and papalolatry and the television cult of personality, and between lies and truth.
These are important questions and observations. It is interesting to consider how the Catholic Church will react to this new pope.