Is the pope Catholic?

SOME FINAL - and personal - thoughts on Pope Francis in America.

What struck me most were looks of joy. On faces of those who got close to him. On his face while interacting with them.

That and diversity: old people, young people, children, people of color. So many everywhere he went.

I've not seen the like in my lifetime.

And as the product of Catholic education - from (appropriately) St. Francis of Assisi, an inner-city grade school in Harrisburg, through high school and college - I was struck by how different my religion looks to me vis-a-vis this pope.

Old memories, amassed during impressionable youth, do not match the joy I saw.

The embodiment of Catholicism I watched in person at the White House last week and on TV since is far different from the feel of the church I grew up in.

I don't remember joy. I don't remember nuns, parish priests or any member of church hierarchy evoking much joy; certainly not on the level of Francis.

And, sure, it never occurred to me as a child. But looking back, I recall rigid rules, ritual and fear focused on lots of "don'ts" and mortal sins and preachy prospects of damnation.

This pope does not preach. He speaks about ideals.

I remember knuckle-rapping discipline in black habits, the unease and darkness of the confessional and being taught that eating meat on Fridays or missing Mass on Sundays meant going to hell - which, in retrospect, seems, you know, harsh.

But this guy, his aura, something about him, the all-white attire, conveys openness and aspiration.

Francis does not project a faith of fear.

Maybe it's his plain words, his tenderness with those he touches. Maybe it's his priorities: the poor, the planet, promoting unity and tolerance.

Maybe it's his calls for forgiveness, his humanism and humility.

Everything from his Fiat to eschewing the papal apartment for more modest quarters, including communal dining, speaks to an unassuming existence I don't recall as front and center among church leaders of the past.

And, remember, last December he excoriated the Curia running the Vatican, admonishing against narcissism, hypocrisy and "petrification."

Talk about speaking truth to power.

All this combined puts me in mind of the classic comedic/rhetorical question, "Is the pope Catholic?"

He is - but with a difference.

He offers a model not solely reliant on ecclesiastical constructs, not only built on the Baltimore Catechism that sought to guide (with blinders?) generations of the faithful.

And he does so without bending doctrine on issues such as marriage or abortion or the role of women in the church.

But can you imagine a past pope publicly saying that priests can forgive women who had abortions? Or, after his predecessor called homosexuality "an intrinsic moral evil," any pope saying when it comes to gays, "Who am I to judge?"

I cannot.

Francis offers leadership by example that challenges his church, its prelates and its members to be better.

I am a cynic, by personality and profession. I question all forms of authority. I doubt all public expressions of sincerity.

I see Francis' response to child-sex abuse - forming a tribunal, including victims, to look into bishops accused of cover-ups; assuming personal responsibility for priests who molested or raped children; and, yesterday, promising to hold "all responsible" accountable.

I wonder if it's for real.

Yet, I confess I am deeply touched by this pope, by his reaching out to children, his cradling those in wheelchairs.

I am moved by his slowly measured English that somehow, because of its delivery, carries added import.

And I'm inspired by the quiet power of his presence.

We all too often witness evil. He lets us witness good.

So, I'm glad he's Catholic. And grateful his unique and joyous manner supplants dark memories of my church with new and brighter ones.

Email: baerj@phillynews.com

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