text: I can still recall to this day the four-letter words uttered by theology students at the breakfast table at my university residence when Pope John Paul II had just been elected. I had little interest in the new Pope. The protestant theological students on the other hand were horrified. One explained to me that this Polish cardinal was an ultraconservative and seemed to have lost contact with the Church after the Iron Curtain descended. JPII didn't seem interested in progressing from Vatican II. Instead, he seemed to want to return to the kind of Catholic church made famous by Bing Crosby in Going My Way. And he was charismatic, so he got his way. But the Church suffered. Christianity suffered. The Church became something of a chocolate box: all fancy gilt wrapping with sweet and sugary content. JPII occaisionally said things critical of Western Culture, but he was ignored because he was safely conservative. Francis is no Sunday School Pope. He's here to stir things up. Amen.