Pope Francis and the Convert Problem

The dog days of August are a time to smuggle in the kind of article you've been meaning to write but putting off because of all the trouble it's going to bring you. But still, I hesitate even now to write about convert neurosis, and how it conditions critiques of Pope Francis.

For one, I don't want to be seen to be sniffy and condescending towards people who become Catholic, which is how Dr. Stephen Bullivant, writing in First Things, said he felt about a comment in Michael Sean Winters's blogpost. “I am so tired of converts telling us that the pope is not Catholic,” complained the sage of the National Catholic Reporter.