"Pope Francis: A Breath of Fresh Air?" by Matthew Fox/ Join us for "A Spirituality for 21st Century" All Day Program with Matthew Fox on Feb. 22nd in Sarasota, Florida

Former Dominican priest Matthew Fox has a new book out called Letters to Pope Francis, which I highly recommend. He also published a “condensed version”  of this essay in Tikkun magazine on Dec. 8, 2013 
Here’s an excerpt, but read the whole thing on Matthew Fox's Creation Spirituality website. 

http://www.matthewfox.org/2013/12/pope-francis-a-breath-of-fresh-air/
If you would like to hear Matthew Fox in person, register for an all day workshop on Feb. 22, 2014, (9:30AM - 4:00 PM) at St. Andrew UCC 6908 Beneva, Sarasota, Fl. Contact Michael Rigdon for registration information contact drmikerigdon@gmail.com Hurry, spaces are filling up fast!
Matthew Fox on Pope Francis: "I recently wrote a book on Pope Francis, or better a book to him, entitled Letters to Pope Francis.The book was released in Italian on Thanksgiving Day.  In it I challenge him to live up to his purposefully chosen namesake and that people would hold his feet to the fire because no other pope had ever taken up that name, ikon that it is, and that most people do know what St Francis of Assisi stood for: Ecology and non­chauvinistic relationships to the plant and animal worlds; a preferential option for the poor; and (this may be slightly less acknowledged) an admirable andalmost startling balance of gender justice and consciousness. In his celebrated poem, “BrotherSun, Sister Moon,” he moves back and forth, back and forth, between masculine and feminine names for the sacred.
People who care about such matters recognize fresh consciousness in the pope's refusal to move into the palatial headquarters known as the papal apartments; in his refusal to drive in limousines and his call for bishops and cardinals to follow suit; his trips to embrace embattled refugees on islands off southern Italy; his visits to favelas or slums in Rio de Janairo as well as his work in the same in Argentina over the years.  These actions, plus his strong words denouncing the “idols” and “gods” of the marketplace together seem to be framing a story of a different kind of pope and papacy from anything we have had since Pope John Paul I who was (most probably) murdered after thirty ­one days in the office some thirty­ four years ago.  It raises hopes in the minds and hearts of activists and progressive Catholics many of whom have left the church behind but still recognize its potential power as a source for good in many parts of the world.
Theologically, Pope Francis is speaking the radical language of Vatican II abandoned by his two predecessors, that the church is NOT the hierarchy but “the people” whose “sensus fidelium” actually matters.  The effort to poll parishioners about such subjects as birth control, abortion, women's rights and homosexual unions is a first (though quite lame effort as the survey was unprofessionally done asking for essay answers and not direct answers and in many cases has been ignored by the bishops who are simply filling in the blanks according to their own theological whims)... "