Hey, Pope Francis, leave these nuns alone!

The church's recent reprimand of a group of nuns is the latest sign that Francis is as orthodox as his predecessors

Nun
(Image credit: (STEFANO RELLANDINI/Reuters/Corbis))

Almost from the moment Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis, he raised the hopes of progressive Catholics for sweeping reform of the church. Moving out of the palatial papal residence in favor of more modest accommodations, striking a seemingly nonjudgmental stance toward homosexuals, emphasizing pastoral care far more than doctrinal purity — in all of these ways and others, Francis' pontificate seemed to mark a break from the style and substance of the previous two popes, and to augur more dramatic, long-lasting changes to come.

From the beginning, I've been a skeptic. While admiring Francis' personal words and deeds, I've expressed repeated doubts about whether this pope is likely to initiate serious doctrinal reforms. In an essay for The New Republic last summer, I argued that institutional limits on the power of any pope to break significantly with the past, combined with this particular pope's broadly nonconfrontational character, indicated that changes were likely to remain mostly rhetorical.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.