Robert Barron, Pope Francis and Divine Mercy

Bishop Robert Barron writes at The National Catholic Register (and also at RealClearReligion) about Pope Francis and his perception by the American Media.

He takes issue with their impression that Francis is a revolutionary change from his predecessors. He writes:

Often, I heard words such as "revolutionary" and "game-changing" in regard to Pope Francis, and one commentator sighed that she couldn't imagine going back to the Church as it was before the current pontiff. 

In the later part of the article he says:

When Pope Francis speaks of those on the margins, he does indeed mean people who are economically and politically disadvantaged, but he also means people who are cut off from the divine life, spiritually poor. And just as he reaches out to the materially marginalized in order to bring them to the center, so he reaches out to those on the existential periphery in order to bring them to a better place.  In speaking of mercy and inclusivity, he is decidedly not declaring that "I'm okay and you're okay."  He is calling people to conversion.  As my mentor Cardinal Francis George said "All are welcome in Church, but on Christ's terms and not their own."

And:

Nowhere has the confusion on this score been greater than in relation to the Pope's famous remark regarding a priest with a homosexual orientation, "Who am I to judge?" I would wager that 95% of those who took in those words understood them to mean that, as far as Pope Francis is concerned, homosexual activity is not really sinful. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Pope was responding to a hypothetical involving a priest with same sex attraction, who had fallen in the past and who is now endeavoring to live in accord with the moral law, a sinner, in a word, who has been looked upon by the face of mercy.

You should read his entire article.