AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times
October 3, 2015
Georgina Connery
Reporter at The Chronicle
The Pope is proving popular with the masses, but evidence his charisma is reinvigorating the Australian Catholic Church is harder to find.
The faithful in our hemisphere have watched as the cult of celebrity surrounding Pope Francis has amplified during his recent three-city visit to the United States.
His Holiness reaches out to followers via Twitter, preaches tolerance, encourages care of the environment, has announced that abortion can be forgiven as a sin and offered open-armed acceptance to gay and lesbian Catholics who have felt alienated from their church for decades.
Dr Bob Dixon, director of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Pastoral Research Office, said it was difficult to gauge to what degree the “Francis factor” was at play in Australia.
“Is there a Francis effect? Quite possibly, but not one that shows up in [religious] personnel numbers,” he said.
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