All sorts of Catholics — the hurt and the whole, the progressive and the traditional — want to believe our eyes and trust all the positive signs and signals out of Rome since Francis was chosen to succeed Benedict: "It's like falling in love," a friend said. "God help me," another agreed.
It's been a long, bruising decade since the height of the clerical sex abuse scandal here in the United States in 2002, and this new pontiff's message so far, in both words and symbolic gestures, is right on target for many of us who chose to stay anyway, denying nothing.
"How I would like a church that is poor and for the poor," he told reporters, and a little bit of my "wait and see" posture gave way. "True power is service," he tweeted Tuesday. "The pope must serve all people, especially the poor, the weak, the vulnerable."