The Dr. Hook hit “Cover of the Rollin Stone” has been playing in my head since I heard this morning that Pope Francis has made it.  Earlier in the day a media person called me on the hunt for an interview, but I suspect that other stories have overtaken this morning’s papal headline.

You might remember one of the lines in the song that is perhaps especially relevant: “We sing about beauty and we sing about truth”, this really is a papal job description!

This afternoon as I drove home from preparing a funeral I listened to a podcast of a lecture about Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest Christian teachers and we celebrated his feast day on Monday. He was big on truth and beauty, and proclaimed these realities wherever they are found, to be the divine heart of human existence.

Pope Francis, as Pope Benedict before him, is doing the same.