Michelle Boorstein of The Washington Post has interviewed a few Catholic leaders who are trying to discern where Pope Francis wants to lead the Roman Catholic Church. She writes:
On Thursday, Pope Francis said in a historic interview that the Catholic Church talks too much about abortion. Then on Friday he gave his most forceful antiabortion comments to date.
What’s the strategy here? Is there one? ….
Experts on Catholicism and religious leadership see a savvy pope trying to reposition a church that, at least in the West, has been tangled up for years in a culture war.
Some think the end game is a revival of “big tent” Catholicism, of the Catholic middle — thus his very public embrace of priorities dear to different Catholic camps. Others think he is being deliberately general in his language — reaching out several times over just a few months even to nonbelievers — to affirm the legitimacy not just of Catholicism but of Christianity.
What do yo think the pope is up to?