Soon after Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis, I wrote several pieces exploring the idea that the new pope might be striving to effectively transcend the liberal/conservative civil war that’s dominated Catholic life in the West since the Second Vatican Council, and find a new synthesis or center for the church somewhere beyond that post-1960s conflict. I have not written as much on that theme in the last year, mostly because of what’s been happening with the debate around divorce and communion: There the pope’s choices have at least temporarily added fuel to Catholicism’s internal conflict, rather than cooling it, in ways that threaten to overshadow other elements of his agenda, other possibilities for his time as Peter.
But even with that polarizing debate percolating in the background, the last few weeks have offered a pair of case studies of what I had in mind when I envisioned this pope as a unifying figure (to the extent that’s possible) for the post-John Paul/Benedict church.
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