Pope Francis isn’t a bad fellow at all. I know that today we’re expected to dissect every public figure to find out what isn’t all-good (such as today, the day after Nelson Mandela died, and the first voices reminding the world of Mandela’s cooperation with exploitative capitalists) but I still think this Frankie is okay. Don’t worry: I’m at no risk of returning to that silly religion of a dead and resurrected soothsayer born of a woman who had sex with God just like that God was Zeus and had a kid who was born because that God wanted to show the Devil who was boss by having the Devil stand by while God prepared for the murder of his own child, after which the devil quickly arose from his laughter and began causing mischief in the world once again. But Frankie is my kind of Pope. 

I have no problem with a guy who sincerely desires to improve the lives of all this planet’s people. I don’t really care that he’s against female priests or gay marriage or abortion, even though I favor all these things. It’s just that he’s putting the emphasis of the church back where it should be: on social justice issues, not on peripheral, canon law. Yay for him, and may the world’s millions of Catholics for once realize that this is what it means to be a Christian.