I think what Pope Francis values in Guardini are some of Guardini's ideas about the social realm. At least that's what I pick up in some of what's in the book The Mind of Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio's Intellectual Journey. You can see some of its pages at Google Books; here's a bit:

There is no question that the thought of Romano Guardini and his concept of concrete-living serves as an essential reference point. Bergoglio found in Guardini a "synthetic," "integral" model, a "catholic" paradigm similar to his own, capable of explaining and embracing the principal personal/social/political contrasts that tend to crystallize into dialectical contradictions that fuel dangerous conflicts.

I am certain that Guardini is a thinker who has much to say to the people of our time, and not only to Christians. You are carrying out this project with your foundation, bringing Guardini’s thought into a polyphonic dialogue in the spheres of today’s politics, culture and science. I earnestly hope for the success of this endeavour. ...

Guardini says that, by “humbly accepting existence from the hand of God, personal will transforms into divine will and in this way, without the creature ceasing to be only a creature and God truly God, their living unity is brought about”.... This is Guardini’s profound vision.

For Guardini this “living unity” with God consists in the concrete relationships of individuals with the world and with those around them. The individual feels interwoven within a people, namely, in an “original union of men that by species, country and historical evolution in life and in their destinies are a unique whole”.

Cyrus, I'm pretty sure I'd like von B a lot, too. And on the basis of the little I've read I do. But he wrote so much that I've sort of abandoned the idea of getting very far into his work.

I plan to read Ratzinger's Intro, though. I think I bought it a few years ago...or did I?...yes, I see it on the shelf now.

My favorite of Balthasar's is his small book "Heart of the World." I often think of it as more of a poem that a theological treatise.

Yes, Dare We Hope. I never understood all the controversy over that book. The same people who complain that he is a universalist say that Fatima prayer between every decade of their Rosary ("lead ALL souls to heaven..."). All he really said was that we have a duty to HOPE for all, and can never say we KNOW that there is a single soul in hell.

Since he is described as a universalist I can see why Catholics would dislike von B. If he’s not a universalist, we should probably be informed.

Bishop Robert Barron wrote the foreword in the 2014 Ignatius Press edition of Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved?; here's some of it:

The most striking and original contribution that Balthasar makes to this discussion, I believe, is his critique of Thomas Aquinas’s view—shared widely in the classical tradition—that part of the joy of heaven is to witness the sufferings of the damned. To this he contrasts the approach of a surprising number of saints and mystics, who declared a willingness to suffer on behalf of a denizen of Hell or even, at the limit, to take his or her place as a gesture of love. The prototype here is St. Paul himself, who says in the ninth chapter of Romans: “I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:3). The possibility that his fellow Jews might be separated from Christ does not awaken in Paul anything even vaguely resembling gloating self-satisfaction, or even delight in the divine justice, but rather a mercy that conduces to utter self-sacrifice.

Balthasar draws our attention to a number of female mystics who share this Pauline attitude: Mechtild of Hackeborn, Angela Foligno, Therese of Lisieux, and Catherine of Siena. A conversation between Christ and Catherine is especially illuminating. Fired by the hope that all people might be saved, Catherine said to Jesus, “How could I ever reconcile myself, Lord, to the prospect that a single one of those whom you have created in your image and likeness should become lost and slip from your hands?” The answer that the Lord gives her, confided to her spiritual director Raymond of Capua, is breathtaking: “Love cannot be contained in Hell; it would totally annihilate Hell.” In other words, the love that Catherine is exhibiting, precisely through her hope that all be saved, functions as an antidote to the poison, or according to her own metaphor, an obstacle to the entrance of Hell. She tells her Lord, “If I could remain united with you in love while, at the same time, placing myself before the entrance of Hell and blocking it off in such a way that no one could enter, that would be the greatest of joys for me.”

I didn't know that. But presumably it wasn't because of that prayer, since it fits with his views.

Thanks for posting that, Marianne. It's very illuminating. That teaching of St. Thomas has always bothered me. I can sort of almost see it as an acknowledgement of God's perfect justice, but still...I'm glad to have some support for the other view from other saints and theologians.

D.B. Hart has a book coming out this fall in which he argues for some sort of universalism. Will be interesting to say the least.

"It's the horror of the possibility that God would be unjust that bothers us, and I think we can set aside that possibility and trust him."

Ironically enough it's Hart's little book on the tsunami that really nailed that for me.

It's a great little book. Hart draws a lot on Dostoevsky, and his take on Ivan's argument against God in Bros. K. really helped my understandings of both theology and Dost'y. I haven't read the latter the same way since.

Thanks, I'll read that. And probably the book. Hart is always an enjoyable as well as interesting read.