By the same token, the new and stringent Ultramontanism on the Catholic Left - in which even the mildest questions about how things are working in this pontificate are denounced as treasonous disloyalty - is an affront to the open conversation for which the pope [FRANCIS] has called.

"You don't believe what you read in the papers about anything else; why do you believe it about the pope?" That's where I'd start.

I hope ["reanimated the papacy"] means that the new interest in the pope evokes a new interest in the Church's teaching, of which the pope is the custodian.

The people who are behind the curve of the Catholic future are the institutional-maintenance types.

There's an obvious investment in some media circles in the "narrative" of "the pope who's finally going to get with it."

Freedom that lacks moral truth becomes its own worst enemy.

The short-term impact is that people are encouraged to give the Church another look. It's up to the liveliest parts of the Church - the dynamically orthodox parts of the Church - to seize that opportunity.