Comparison of Benedict XVI and Francis:

Fr. John Wauck: “Benedict was content to let words speak for themselves. He was a teacher and very self-effacing – he was a very humble man. He was humble in the sense that he didn’t want the message to be about himself in any way. In some ways, he shied away from making his personality part of the story.”[1]

Me: But Pope Francis, like Christ, is the Word lived. No less humble – perhaps more so – he writes: “Whoever wants to preach must be the first to let the word of God move him deeply and become incarnate in his daily life… we need to let ourselves be penetrated by that by that word which will also penetrate others, for it is a living and active word like a sword ‘which pierces to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intention of the heart’ (Heb. 4, 12). This has great pastoral importance. Today too, people prefer to listen to witnesses: they ‘thirst for authenticity and ‘call for evangelizers to speak of a God whom they themselves know and are familiar with, as if they were seeing him.’  (…) What is essential is that the preacher be certain that God loves him, that Jesus Christ has saved him and that his love has always the last word… and if he does not devote time to pray with that word, then he will indeed be a false prophet, a fraud, a shallow impostor… Christ’s message must truly penetrate and possess the preacher, not just intellectually but in his entire being.”[2]

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[1] Instaurare, The Christendom College Quarterly Mag. 16.

[2] EV  #151.