A half hour's excitement

A dear friend of mine has often commented that what the Church and the world need is a new St. Francis of Assisi, someone who is simple and holy and sees the essential.

Having been a lifelong fan of that particular Francis, I was quite excited when the new pope's name was announced, thinking that anyone who would take the name of Francis of Assisi would be the reformer the Church and the world need in this era. Yess!!

But then the shoe dropped -- the pope-elect chose the name, OF COURSE, of one of the founders of his Jesuit community, St. Francis Xavier...

We don't know much about Pope Francis yet, but it seems that he's a man who favours simplicity, and he has some pastoral sense if he's telling his priest to baptize infants even if their parents haven't been married. I mean, it's not the child's fault that his parents didn't see the necessity.

So I'm going to reserve judgment, and just say, God bless Pope Francis.

And, come, Holy Spirit!