Catholic Culture Liturgical Living
Catholic Culture Liturgical Living

Reading Pope Francis: A Catholic Hermeneutic!

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Oct 02, 2013

I hate to use On the Culture to point you elsewhere, but the need to do a thorough treatment of Pope Francis' second interview caused me to write more than should properly be posted in this space. So it is posted as an In Depth AnalysisReading Pope Francis: The Furor Continues.

But this space is closer to the top of the page. It better catches the eye, and I do not want you to miss anything.

What I hope will happen with this essay is that people will read it once and then stop worrying about it. At some point, it becomes time to move on, and that is why I have taken the time now to explain how to do that. I would agree with those who say it is not all our fault that Pope Francis confuses us. But we need to overcome that confusion. We can do so relatively easily. And that is our responsibility.

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

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  • Posted by: j.fleming8019 - Oct. 05, 2013 1:42 AM ET USA

    You say "proselytism is undue or unfair pressure in making converts, and it is very wrong". The Concise Oxford Dictionary (2011 edition) as: "convert from one opinion, religion, or party to another". Now I do not know if American dictionaries mean what you mean by this word. But there is clearly a problem when someone uses a word like that as translated into English. It makes the Pope's words here incoherent and is bound to lead good people to believe the Pope is denying conversion.