NEW JERSEY
The Record
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
By ALFRED P. DOBLIN
Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record. Contact him at doblin@northjersey.com. Follow AlfredPDoblin on Twitter.
SOMETHING remarkable is happening in Rome. Fifty years ago, Pope John XXIII opened a window in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis has torn off the roof.
In a remarkable interview with a Jesuit journalist, the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, conducted this summer and published this week, the pope does more than tug at the cobwebs or move the furniture; he lays the room bare.
“The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules,” he said. It is a stunning, simplistic assessment of what has hurt the Catholic Church. Francis clearly sees that the institution and the strident tone it has taken on all things small has not been in concert with a mission of mercy for all.
Francis’ comments on gays will be the ones most discussed on cable and the Internet. The media sometimes has locked itself up in small things, as well. The pope has not changed church teachings on homosexuality. He does not question them, dispute them or purport to rewrite them. On homosexuality, the pope is moving away from a conversation based solely on sex.
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