Pope Francis Has a Bit of Fun

The papacy is, of course, a position of extraordinary dignity and cultural weight.   On the other hand, the Pope is also, at bottom, a priest, and a parish priest at that... he's the Bishop of Rome, after all.   He says Mass; you can read his homilies; presumably he does baptisms, hears confessions, gives last rites, etc.  

But I didn't see this coming.   Apparently it is the tradition for the Pope to greet newly married couples on Wednesdays.   Here a couple who volunteer as clown therapists had just gotten married, and Pope Francis greeted them... well, you get the picture.

I had and have very high regard for both the Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict, the first for his world-historical, courageous leadership; the second because of his extraordinarily important intellectual writings, which will no doubt make him someday a Doctor of the Church.   But Pope Francis is doing something really interesting... he's bringing the Papacy back down to earth and back to being essentially about evangelizing among the people, one at a time.   We've been very lucky to have these three very different, but very great men as our Popes over the past four decades.