Dear Friends,
 
Pope Francis continues to capture the world’s attention as he goes about his ministry with humility, courage, simple brilliance, and the down-to-earth approachability of a country pastor.
 
His most recent interview with the editors of Jesuit publications has made the front pages of newspapers around the world and set the blogosphere buzzing.  With good reason.  For me it represents the freshest breeze to flow through the Church since the days of Blessed Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council.
 
In case you have not had a chance to read the entire interview, click here for the complete text (http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview).  It’s not a quick read, but it’s definitely a worthwhile one.  (You don’t need the commentators to interpret if for you—read it for yourself!)
 
I find the interview quite extraordinary and utterly unique in the annals of papal discourse.  It is candid, direct, and beautifully pastoral in tone.  It is full of fresh air and fresh thinking and it definitely takes one ‘outside the box.’  After reading it, I found myself thinking of the line from an African-American Spiritual, “I never heard a man speak like this man before!”
 
One of the gratifying things about the interview (and all the things that prepared the way for it since Francis was elected back in March) is that wherever I go, people are talking about Pope Francis!  And I’m not just talking about Catholics.  Far from it.  The world is talking about Pope Francis. 
 
I suspect this is your experience, too.  One person put it very succinctly for me.  “I feel proud to be Catholic,” she said.
 
I am hoping that Cathedral parishioners who have been ‘on the fence’ for some time when it comes to actively engaging with the parish, as well as people who have felt that there was no place for them in the Church, or who have been turned off by what they have experienced as harsh or insensitive treatment, might be encouraged by Pope Francis to take another look.
 
St. James Cathedral has long been a welcoming community, and in the spirit of Pope Francis, our wonderful pastoral team joins me in recommitting ourselves to being just that. May the Holy Spirit, so visibly at work in our Church today, inspire each one of us to live our Christian faith with the joy and enthusiasm that radiates from Pope Francis.

Father Michael G. Ryan