MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe
By Lisa Wangsness | GLOBE STAFF DECEMBER 22, 2013
A year ago, it would have been impossible to imagine: A pope who dresses simply, who lives in a Vatican guesthouse, who calls for a “poor church for the poor.”
Who speaks warmly about gay people. Who poses for selfies with young fans.
Who says church leaders have become too preoccupied with contraception, homosexuality, and abortion.
After one of the worst decades in Roman Catholic church history, marked by a devastating sexual abuse scandal, internecine turf battles at the Vatican, and a widening chasm between the hierarchy and the people, Pope Francis is changing the conversation about Catholicism around the world — and here at home.
Interviews with a dozen local Catholics offer a sense of how New Englanders have been absorbing the pope’s words and gestures, considering their meaning for the church and for their own spiritual lives.
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