John’s Reviews > The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope > Status Update

Reread & think about mentions of the reality of the devil, seeing the tail of the devil, etc.

In addition to 1) building up the church among & evangelizing from the shanty towns, & 2) forging deep bonds across boundaries of religion &politics, there was a third dimension to B’s final years as cardinal/archbishop. 3) It involved a challenge to mafias.

The growth of legal gambling was a symptom of the collusion of state &market. Gambling’s expansion produced an explosion of addictions &family breakups.

Bergoglio’s Four civic principles: greater than parts, unity is greater than conflict,, reality is superior to the ideal time prevails over space.

Bergoglio’s big themes: Politics of service, preferential option for the poor, the culture of encounter, solidarity,, and the common good.

Social pastoral BDay in Argentina: a church sponsored gathering of political and social leaders, Those representing other interests share a common humanity. The sin in Argentine politics is personalized factionalism.

Ch 6. Agere Contra: Faced with a temptation, you should redouble your effort to go in the opposite direction. To combat greed, fast. To combat a loss of interest in prayer, double your prayer time.

Bergoglio’s: ‘Dialogues betwn JP2 and Fidel C’ - rejects both Marxism & neoliberalism as alien to soul of Cuban Pueblo & Latin America. Anti totalitarianism &anthropoligicsl error of socialism& spirit of neolib

Desolation teaches the powerful that “of our own power we can do nothing, all this is a grace from God our Lord.” Desolation is visited on us” as St Ignatius, “so we do not build our nest where we don’t belong.”

Marxist Lib Theology criticism: Bergoglio was “ too concerned with feeding the poor, and not concerned enough with asking why they were poor.”

Note: Different flavors of LT developed, some concentrating on option for the poor so the Marxist k class analysis. These sprang from the experience of the poor, not books. These favored by Bergoglio.