Francis memes and what the current surge of papal positivity says about us

As a Catholic, I appreciate the positive attention pope Francis is getting in the media - it is certainly a breath of fresh air to hear about his ideas in the news as opposed to the constant (and rightly so) reporting of sex scandals throughout the late 90s and early 2000s.

But I've gotta say the only really different things about Pope Francis that I see are (1) that he rejects many of the 'elitist' formalities of office (whereas his predecessors viewed it as a necessary burden), and (2) he uses common language with a great social media presence, thereby appealing to a much broader swath of society.  It is not news that he (and by implication, the church) accepts much of evolutionary theory, that he criticises corporate capitalism and human greed, that he suggests pollution and other environmental damage is sinful, or that he preaches love and compassion above other considerations (especially those surrounding marriage and divorce).  

All of these things have been true of much of the church leadership for much of the last few decades.  For example, John-Paul II wrote extensively about the importance of philosophy, logic, and the power of the human intellect, especially when it comes to science and technology, and Benedict XVI spoke often about the importance of preserving the environment, how pollution is sinful, and that climate change is a grave problem for humanity that is coupled with our modern lifestyle.  At the core, Benedicts message on caring for the environment (“As we care for creation, we realize that God, through creation, cares for us”), is really no different than David Suzuki's (what we do the the environment, we do to ourselves) minus the theism.  And so I'm inclined to think that, while I agree that Pope Francis seems poised to make more significant changes, the public, in general, are a bit naive when it comes to Catholicism, both in practice and in theory.

The current bandwagon seems to be largely occupied by people who formerly had been (or perhaps still are) persuaded to to think that the Catholic leadership and teachings were universally corrupt and bad.  I'm certainly not defending the entire canon (I could hardly do so effectively as both a layperson and a partial dissenter), and there have definitely been some truly bad people in the church's leadership.   But I would suggest that, if you're going to be critical of of something, you should at least consider the possibility of good and bad simultaneously, rather than simply picking the bits that agree with your world-view.  In this case, my suspicion is that many of us had prematurely jumped on the Pope-critiquing bandwagon in the past.

So if you're one of the people giving Francis a Facebook pat-on-the-back, it might be worthwhile asking yourself whether you are doing so because something has fundamentally changed, or because you just like what he says.  If it's the former, please point out to me what the changes are, because I'm very busy and could use the help.  If it's the latter, I would suggest that you would probably like much of what all recent popes have written or said, and may want to reconsider your (premature) judgement of them.

Alternatively, if you're just being happy and positive, please continue, and enjoy this photo of a cute sloth wearing a papal mitre.