As Pope Francis arrives in the U.S. to a church very bitterly divided on ideological and political grounds, the centrist Catholic publications are still talking "balance," as they've done for decades now. As if someone has appointed them divine overseers to stand in the middle and keep the quarreling children on either side in line. As if they themselves are omniscient and objective, and have no dogs in any frays. As if the pope himself is a model of "balance." As if "balance" and the "center" were what Jesus himself was about. As if anything really important in the world gets accomplished by "balance."
As if the novum ever comes to us wrapped in the fetid old winding cloths that buried the body of the day before.
(Note: if I don't post here later today or tomorrow, the reason will be that I have an appointment this morning with the endodontist, to deal with a tooth that has been aching fiercely for the past two days. I'm hoping to find relief from the pain — but the relief may also have me out of commission briefly. Thanks for understanding.)
The graphic is a screenshot from the Pew Center's report in May this year entitled "America's Changing Religious Landscape."
