Pope Francis

For more than a week now we have been  inundated with reports and  chronicles about the new Pope.  Everyone has a story to tell about Bagoglio's past or predictions about his future. There have been long extrapolations about his first words and gestures. All very interesting but mothing really substantial. We know he has a mixed history -- who hasn't?  That he could have done more -- who couldn't have?  There are good signs; there are concerns. How could it be otherwise?  Underlying it all is the expectation that  the pope is  going to change the Church. And I think that's  dead wrong,

The papacy is an impossible job. No pope can really change much. Perhaps he can create a public climate, as did John XXIII. He can leave some doors open or he can shut them tight. But, he doesn't have the power - contrary to all the popular feeling, to really change much in the way of beliefs or of institutional practices. John XXIII said that being pope was like being a cat shut up in a sack. And he was right.

Things need to change. They will change when we really decide as Catholics that they must change and then go about doing it. This is a chance for the progressive church to come out swinging and take our church in hand. If I read the signals right, we will have an open ear at the top - and that will help, but no one can replace our job of building something different from the bottom -- where the real church lives: outside the walls.