Thomas J. Farrell's 52 OEN Articles on Pope Francis (REVIEW ESSAY)

Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) July 2, 2025: I was in the Jesuit order from September 1979 to early 1987. I did my theological STUDIES AT THE Jesuit theologate at the University of Toronto.

Subsequently, I taught at the University of Minnesota Duluth from September 1987 to the end of May 2009. Over my 22 years of teaching at UMD, I taught an introductory survey course on the bible 20 times. I wrote my first OEN article in October 2009. The present OEN article is my 680th OEN article.

Because I had been in the Jesuits, I was especially interested when the cardinal-electors in the Roman Catholic Church elected the Argentinian Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (born in 1936) to be the first Jesuit pope in March 2013. He took the name Pope Francis. He died recently. May he rest in peace. However, over the years, I published 52 OEN articles in which I mention Pope Francis by name to one degree or another.

Now, Jesuits, like members of all religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church, take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. In plain English, the vow of chastity involves celibacy. Now, by church law, regular diocesan priests throughout the world are required to practice celibacy. Because this requirement for diocesan priests is a matter of church law, church law could be changed to drop this requirement for diocesan priests. But the vow of chastity in the various religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church cannot be changed, because the vow of chastity in religious orders is considered to be an integral part of the charism of each religious order.

Now, starting in the 1980s, the priest sex-abuse scandal and the accompanying bishop-cover-up scandal came to light. Starting in the 1980s, these inter-related scandals were widely covered in the United States and elsewhere by both the religious press and the secular media. Like many other people, I was scandalized by these inter-related church scandals. Oftentimes, certain practicing American Catholics used the priest-sex-abuse scandal to call for an end of the church law requiring diocesan priests to practice celibacy.

However, when I first heard this call for the end of the church law requiring diocesan priests to practice celibacy, I did not support it. But I now regret that. Yes, I now support the call for the church to end the church law that requires diocesan priests to practice chastity. Nevertheless, during Pope Francis' papacy (2013-2025), I did not call for him to end the church law that requires diocesan priests to practice celibacy in any of my 52 OEN articles in which I mention Pope Francis by name.

In my important OEN article titled "Robert Moore on Optimal Human Psychological Development" (dated September 12, 2024; viewed 1,254 times as of June 30, 2025), I mentioned Pope Francis by name as I set forth for the first time my criticism of the church's vision individual personal moral development. Subsequently, my criticism of the church's vision of individual personal moral development informed my positive review of Philip Shenon's perceptive book Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church (Alfred A. Knopf, 2025) in my lengthy OEN article titled "Philip Shenon on the Last Seven Popes" (dated March 11, 2025). Even though Philip Shenon discusses Pope Francis extensively (for specific page references, see the "Index" [pp. 574-576]), I do not mention Pope Francis by name in my OEN article about Philip Shenon's perceptive book.

Subsequently, my criticism of the church's vision of individual personal moral development led me to articulate my deeper criticism of the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity in my wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 28,800-word 665th OEN article titled "Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump's Foreign Policy" (dated March 24, 2025) - in which I mention the busty (39") American pornstar Mandy Flores (born on March 19, 1989) 250 times by name. I see the busty (39") Mandy Flores' body-positivity and sex-positivity in her many charming mom-son porn videos that are available free on the internet as one way for young American boys and men of all ages to combat and counter the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity in their psyches.

In any event, when I wrote my important criticism of the Roman Catholic Church's moral vision of individual personal development in my OEN article "Robert Moore on Optimal Human Psychological Development" (dated September 12, 2024), I was feeling mildly euphoric. I felt mildly euphoric for about ten weeks in the fall of 2024. I stopped feeling mildly euphoric a few days before the national election on November 5, 2024. I started feeling mildly euphoric when I watched the DVD version of the 1970s Wonder Woman television series starring the busty (37") Lynda Carter (born in 1951) on the big-screen television in the living room of my home in Duluth, Minnesota. As I watched the busty (37") young Lynda Carter perform in her wonderfully revealing Wonder Woman costume, I became infatuated with her gloriously beautiful body.

During the ten weeks when I felt mildly euphoric in the fall of 2024, I published ten OEN articles, starting with "Young Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman" (dated September 3, 2024; viewed 1,718 times as of June 30, 2025) and extending through "Pope Francis' New 2024 Encyclical" (dated November 1, 2024; viewed 2,058 times as of June 30, 2025).

Since the inception of my feeling mildly euphoric for about ten weeks in the fall of 2024, I have published 42 OEN articles. The present OEN article is my 43rd OEN article since the inception of my feeling mildly euphoric for about ten weeks in the fall of 2024.

Now, at first, I interpreted my infatuation with busty (37") young Lynda Carter's gloriously beautiful body with the emergence of the optimal and positive form of the masculine Lover archetype in my psyche - after a lifetime of being locked into the Impotent Lover "shadow" form of the masculine Lover archetype in my psyche. Yes, to be sure, I attributed my lifetime of being locked into the Impotent Lover "shadow" form of the masculine Lover archetype of maturity in my psyche to my own personal indoctrination in the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity.

More recently, however, I have come to interpret my infatuation with busty (37") young Lynda Carter's gloriously beautiful body, and the accompanying ten weeks of feeling mildly euphoric in the fall of 2024, to the emergence of the Ego-Self axis in my psyche that Robert Moore writes about in the extensively revised and expanded second edition of his book The King Within: Accessing the King [Archetype] in the Male Psyche (Exploration Press, 2007, esp. p. 246; original work published 1992a).

Thus, according to this new interpretation, the present OEN article is my 43rd OEN article written since the emergence of the Ego-Self axis in my psyche in the fall of 2024.

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