Pope Fan Magazine: Why I Won’t Buy It
Just when you thought he couldn’t get any more popular, Pope Francis ups the ante. The 77-year-old pontiff, rounding the corner to his one-year-anniversary at the helm of the Catholic church, is now the subject of a supermarket aisle fanzine called Il Mio Papa or “My Pope†complete with a smiley centerfold pin-up style photo of the pope clad in windswept vestments. The 66-page color magazine is the brainchild of Silvio Berlusconi’s Mondadori publishing arm, which has a string of gossip rags dedicated to Italian starlets and glitterati. But all you people who are gushing about the pontiff: he’s still all talk, not reformist action. He still excommunicates priests who dare to suggest that women should have full and equal participation in the church. He still defends the church on the issue of predatory priests, even though there are still cover-ups and financial shenanigans galore on that issue. You won’t see those issues discussed much in Il Mio Papa.
