Two provocative posts from Fr. Z on Pope Francis and his critics

First, commenting Nicholas Frankovich's "Pope Francis Enters His Third Year of Scolding Introverts" (NRO, March 13, 2015), Fr. Z writes:

At NRO, Nicholas Frankovich, a deputy managing editor, has some sharp comments on Pope Francis as he begins the third year of his pontificate. You can sense the frustration in his commentary, along with his hope.

There is a lot to chew over in this piece. Some people are going to hate this while others should avoid precipitous high fives. THINK as you read.

Good advice.

Second, commenting on a piece by Ross Douthat called "Who Are Pope Francis's Critics?" in the NYT, which Fr. Z calls "Hell's Bible," Fr. Z writes an article about Douthat's article about "three groups of Pope Francis' critics on the 'right'" (Fr. Z's Blog, March 13, 2015):

The insightful Russ Douthat of, remarkably, Hell’s Bible (aka New York Times) has some comments about Pope Francis’ critics on the right. This is worth your time. It is long, so we’ll have just a taste here. Keep in mind that he doesn’t go into Francis’ critics on the other end of the spectrum, and they are growing in number as their disatisfaction with him grows.

The three groups on "the right" that Douthat distinguishes are: (1) Traditionalists, running a spectrum from Michael Brendan Dougherty to Michael Voris, Rorate Caeli to the SSPX; (2) Catholics who are economic conservatives or libertarians, running the spectrum from traditional Republicans to tea party conservatives, classical "Liberals" (i.e., minimal government advocates, followers of John Locke), like Ron and Rand Paul, to Austrian Anarcho-Libertarians like Tom Woods and Lew Rockwell (though he doesn't discuss any of these), and (3) Doctrinal conservatives, like Cardinal Burke and a growing number of Catholics similarly concerned about the direction of the October Synod of last year.