As described by José María Poirier, director of the Argentine Catholic magazine Criterio, the pope is a man who “wants a holy church, or at least one with a great striving for virtue,” because he knows that Christian example is at least as important as logical argument in the church’s evangelization work—a conviction that explains his recent (and welcome) criticism of Catholic “sourpusses.”

He is, by the testimony of many who have worked with him, an efficient executive who consults widely, ponders his options, and then acts decisively. He is not afraid of making decisions, but he makes his decisions carefully, having learned (as he once put it) to be skeptical of his initial impressions and instincts in facing difficult situations. He is not afraid of criticism, he learns from his mistakes, and he wants his collaborators to challenge him when they think he’s wrong.

He is a man of broad culture, well-read theologically but more given to literary references and illustrations than to scholarly theological citations in his preaching and catechesis. Thus one of his recent daily Mass sermons praised Robert Hugh Benson’s early 20th-century apocalyptic novel, “Lord of the World,” for raising important cautions against dictatorial utopianism, or what the pope called “adolescent progressivism.”