“After you’ve been in the Vaticanology business for a while, it’s hard to be surprised by the occasionally tone-deaf questions people ask. During a Christmas Eve broadcast just before the pope’s vigil Mass, however, I was briefly at a loss when asked how I expected Francis to ‘shake up’ Christmas.
“On the surface of it, the notion that any pope would consciously upend one of the most sacred periods on the church’s calendar seemed so silly it was tough to know how to respond. . . .
“For sure, Francis did not redact the basic Christmas message, nor did he significantly depart from the script that previous popes have followed. Yet there was nonetheless a distinctive Francis imprint on Christmas 2013, which can be expressed in terms of how it reflected three emerging pillars of his papacy.
“I’ve written before that those three pillars are:
- Leadership as Service
- The Social Gospel
- Mercy”
In a recent National Catholic Reporter commentary, writer John L. Allen Jr. reported and reflected on how Pope Francis observed Christmas.
To access his complete post, please visit:
National Catholic Reporter: A very Franciscan Christmas after all (27 DEC 13)
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