text: Thanks for this commentary, Michael. One of the things I like about Pope Francis, and as his thinking appears to be reflected in the La Civilità Cattolica article, is his insight that Jesus, and his message, "transcends politics" — i.e. as I've argued previously, it is erroneous to view Jesus as bringing some alternative "political ideology" into the world to compete against all the existing political ideologies. Jesus is neither a supporter of the Republican Party nor the Democrats or, in Australia, the Liberals, Labor nor the Greens. The religion, spirituality or theology of Jesus is neither tribal, nor ideological. (continues in next post...)