What Shall We Do With Pope Francis?

Glory be to Jesus Christ!

Today in the Church many are angry with Pope Francis over his desire to turn to the Christian East as a model for a future Catholic Communion of Churches.  His desire to learn from the Christian East and focus on economia or mercy in regard to applying the law is what is evident in Amoris Laetitia and in his teaching and way of being a spiritual Father.  However, not all Catholics are angry with the Pope and it appears that while traditional Catholics of the Roman Rite are at odds with the Pontiff, Eastern and Oriental Catholics, who are by nature traditional, truly love this Pope--in fact, he really could be considered more of an Eastern Christian Pope then a Latin one.  Pope Francis is Eastern in mindset and in thinking about the Church and unfortunately many Catholics get this confused with a Protestant mindset. Francis also appreciates, as Eastern Christians do, dialogue with other confessions to establish peace and work together in order to achieve healing and mutual understanding.  This dialogue process is the fruit of Eastern Christians being oppressed historically and needing the assistance of other Christians to help them--this age also calls for dialogue and cooperation so to assist Christians being persecuted all throughout the world

As a convert to the Byzantine Catholic Church, I learned rather quickly that if one does not express the Catholic Faith in a Latin way one is automatically suspect of heresy by some traditional Latin Rite Catholics--which is the problem Pope Francis is having.  I also learned that the Catholic Faith and Life as expressed by the Eastern Catholic Churches was often seen as foreign and unCatholic to those Latin laity unfamiliar with it--even with Latin bishops and priests historically and in our day.  However, the way the Byzantines express the Catholic Faith is just as Catholic as that of the Latins although our focus, and that of Pope Francis, is that the law is the servant of the mercy of God--a reality which may be misconstrued as modernist or liberal, an error of those who do not clearly understand the Byzantine mindset.  The Byzantines also had a great influence on the Second Vatican Council--another reality which traditional Latins fail to see, that Eastern Catholic teaching and practice, as fully Catholic as that of the Latins, also has influenced the Latin Church and its expression of faith and praxis.

For years Byzantine Catholics were subject to latinization and to being inferior in the eyes of Latins--not so with Pope Francis, who along with Saint Pope John Paul II view our contributions to the Universal Church and our identity as fully Catholic and useful even to reform the Latin Church.  All of the ritual Churches, Latin, Eastern, and Oriental, have gifts to share with the Universal Church and I hope you may have learned today that one may indeed be a traditional Catholic and love this Pope--a Pope who needs our prayers and understanding in an age which seeks to gossip rather then to love.  I have contributed to this gossip online in the past and I have repented of it to save my soul.  I pray you will be able to see Pope Francis through Eastern eyes and in so doing see him as a traditional Pope and one who loves the Catholic Faith--a Pope who feels he has an obligation to express the mindset of not only Latins but also Eastern and Oriental Catholics.

May God grant Francis, Pope of Rome, Many Years in Health and Happiness!