Reflections on Francis and the deconstruction of the 'Imperial Papacy'

• John L. Allen Jr.
• crux now

Reflections on Francis and the deconstruction of the 'Imperial Papacy

ROME - Sometimes ideas arrive fully formed, springing like Athena from the head of Zeus, but other times they’re more of a slow burn, requiring multiple pieces of the picture to fall into place before they really take shape.
I’ve been working on one of those slow burn ideas recently, to wit: As we near the five-year anniversary of Francis’s election to the papacy next month, it’s becoming steadily clearer that a core aspect of his legacy may be a deconstruction of the strong “imperial papacy” many observers believe has taken shape over the last century or so.