Though just 17 years old when St. John Paul II was elected, I wasn’t Catholic, but he had much to do with my conversion. When Benedict was elected I had been away from the Church, the worst time of my life, but returned shortly after his election. During his pontificate I was still struggling with the idea that Vatican II was in continuity with tradition.
But I was inspired when Benedict resigned, sure that the Holy Spirit had guided him in his decision, an d that a time of great grace was about to open under unusual circumstances. I prayed intensely in the month between his resignation and Francis’ election. Far from being the caricature demi - liberal pope common to the corporate and Traditional a list press, he seems to me to be like one of the popes we know little of because they were surrounded by a heathen ocean. He reminds me of St. Peter as he is in 1st Peter - the bishop writing simply to the flock; we’ve seen flashes of the more prophetic Peter at times in his discourses, but these don’ t get much attention. So far he’s been exhorting us to be as cunning as serpents though gentle as doves.
These words, as those in all his homilies, reinforce the sense that he is very much the good shepherd, asking us to go with him in quest of all who have strayed.
