Today's General Audience (Pope Francis' third) included two minor readjustments.
The Pep-Rally introductions in each language group are again toned down, by the Holy Father himself introducing and greeting them (as Pope Benedict had done of late). Then the national monsignors simply giving the translations of the Pope's remarks.
And the Holy Father addressed the Spanish speaking world in his native Spanish, the first time he has done so in His official Papal public capacity, finally. It is his only apparent departure from his Italian only public addresses as Pope.
We seem to have in the adding of Spanish a crack in the Holy Father's hitherto "Bishop of Rome" emphasis to the implicit acknowledgment of his Supreme Pontificate?
We know he knows he's Pope, but his public testimony to that fact is at best extremely modest. In this I would have to say that he is simply seeking out the lost sheep who do not accept or understand anything about the truth of the Papal dignity and authority.
Bergoglio once famously said that the Church has become sick in it's self-referentiality. And it's obsession with titles and honors is a symptom of that malady. We have reversed the parable of the Lost Sheep. Instead of doing the turn of the Good Shepherd who leaves the comfort of the flock of ninety nine to find the one stray, we are in a Church in which ninety nine have strayed and we are content to stay with the one that remains; and we entertain ourselves by putting curlers in it's hair. Spiritual worldliness! Beware of spiritual worldliness in the Church, above all else! It is Her occupational hazard! Phariseeism!
The Church must get out of herself, and the "Bishop of Rome" leads the way.
Viva el Papa Francisco!
