It is a pity that ex Pope Benedict stepped down. There is a qualitative and quantitative difference in intellect, theology and reason between Benedict and his successor Francis. Benedict is one of the great Popes of reason and intelligence. He was a philosopher, thinker, teacher and theologian. A man who knew Christianity better than any Church theologian since Aquinas. He understood the threads of culture and philosophy which made Christianity possible, along with the eternal truths expressed in the Old and New Testaments. Benedict reflected, rationalized and proved Christianity. From that platform he would evangelize what to him was obvious – Christianity is the only way. In this vein he had no qualms about calling Islam what it is – a cult.

Francis is entirely different. He is a man focused on living the gospel. In his worldview Christianity must be simple, less rational, and less interested in 'why' than what Benedict had discussed. Faith for Francis is confirmed through simplicity in living, caring for the poor, and toleration of all. The gospel is your life. Francis illustrates the emotional, simplified faith of Christianity expressed in deeds and simple piety. Worry not about the details of why, how, or what caused something. Live the life of St. Francis of Assisi and all shall be good. He is in many way's the opposite of Benedict.

I much prefer Benedict. One cannot argue against the virtues of Francis or of his creed of simple poverty and aid to all. Christianity however, is of two parts – the rational and the spiritual. Discard one for the other, and you lose your faith. Retreat into the cave to meditate on spiritual matters and the solitary expression of that piety will likely die with you. Engage only in rationalization of faith and the great immaterial world of the spirit, of emotion, of hope, of miracles and the beauty of the world is discarded and lost. Benedict knew this. From his great book, 'Introduction to Christianity':

“...religion is not to be found along the solitary path of the mystic but only in the community of proclaiming and hearing. Man’s conversation with God and men’s conversation with one another are mutually necessary and interdependent.”

“Christianity is not a system of knowledge but a way. The believers’ “We” is not a secondary addition for small minds; in a certain sense it is the matter itself—the community with one’s fellowmen is a reality that lies on a different plane from that of the mere “idea”. If Platonism provides an idea of the truth, Christian belief offers truth as a way, and only by becoming a way has it become man’s truth.”

“...thirteenth century the great Franciscan theologian Bonaventure felt obliged to reproach his colleagues of the philosophical faculty at Paris with having learned how to measure the world but having forgotten how to measure themselves. Let us repeat the same thing once again in another form: Belief in the sense intended by the Creed is not an incomplete kind of knowledge, an opinion that subsequently can or should be converted into practical knowledge. It is much rather an essentially different kind of intellectual attitude, which stands alongside practical knowledge as something independent and particular and cannot be traced back to it or deduced from it.”

Where does this spiritual journey, conversations, reason, practicality, awareness and even doubt about the faith lead to?

“..freedom is the characteristic mark of the Christian belief in God as opposed to any kind of monism. At the beginning of all being it puts not just some kind of consciousness but a creative freedom that creates further freedoms.”

This is indeed true. Christianity frees your mind, spirit, soul and your body. It leads to other freedoms we take for granted. Without Catholicism and its Orthodox brother Byzantium, there is no modern world. There would be no freedom, no rationality, no inventions of note, no advancements across the centuries, no hospitals, no metaphysical contemplations and philosophies. There would be nothing. See Islam for more details. These facts are lost on Pope Francis.

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