NOW ONLINE: "Should we stay or leave?"... (Main Forum)

by kaythegardener, OREGON, USA, Monday, April 16, 2012, 23:02 (400 days ago) @ Chris Hum

Many of his contemporaries had probably known of the old church ruins near Assisi, but it was only Francis who took the time & effort to rebuild it by himself.
It was only after this physical action, that he THEN went about trying to "rebuild the Church" in a spiritual way.
BUT HE MADE SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT YET VITAL CHANGES IN HIS METHODS!!
1) He now worked with small groups of like-minded people, not alone...
2) They worked in pioneering novel ways OUTSIDE THE WAYS OF THE CURRENT STRUCTURES...THEN they had a working group model to present to the Pope of the day for his knowledge & approval.
PS -- notice that he didn't try to get Curial or Episcopal oks when he sought to expand his work, by the typical way of working up the ladder of influence...
3) After getting Papal awareness of his plans, he then went to the fringes of the Catholic world to start his new expansions, eg the Holy Land (at the nexus of warring Catholic-Islamic conflicts)...
PPS -- centuries later, Ignatius Loyola also sent his new Jesuits to the fringes--eg Francis Xavier & Mateo Ricci to the Far East.