Shortly after sending a happy birthday message to one of my grand-daughters, the news came on Radio 4 at 08.55 this morning that Pope Francis had passed away. Jorge Mario Bergoglio had left this life at 07.35. Hardly a shock, given his age and his recent debilitating illness, but an emotional shock nonetheless. Soon afterwards I posted the following reaction on social media:
“Our increasingly dangerous and turbulent world has just lost its only significant and universally recognised voice of moral authority. A Pope who chose the name of Francis, the humblest of saints, who spoke out against the attitudes towards migrants, minorities and the marginalised which seem prevalent in so many countries. A Pope who has been unequivocal in his criticism of certain political leaders… and one whose final acts included keeping his annual appointment with prisoners and giving his traditional Easter blessing to thousands of pilgrims in St Peter’s Square. Requiescat in pace.”
Very quickly my message about this Pope and Papá received dozens of ‘likes’, and a lovely reaction from a colleague consisting of an e-card which emphasises the true Easter message of rebirth and hope. Hence, these reflections of mine will finish with my thoughts on what we need in a new pontiff, and the positive effects I hope for, both for the Catholic and Christian Church, and for the wider world. A very real hope would be for the rebirth of the values of humanity, charity, empathy and true Christianity, especially in those who profess it, but all too often serve as examples of the opposite.
Media tributes
Unsurprisingly, in the few hours since the Vatican’s sad announcement, there have already been dozens of tributes and obituaries in the mainstream and social media. I therefore don’t need to repeat them, other than to pick out one or two things from two which have appeared in social media – which, whatever we think of it, reflects personal views like mine expressed above. Philip George mentions in his piece, “Papa: The People’s Pope, Bouncer of Souls”, how this Pope of the people – and of the poor – worked as a nightclub bouncer to finance his studies, and used to take the night bus incognito to do his priestly charitable work in the poor ghettos of Buenos Aires.
Migrants
In another social media post, Kevin Ryan writes that the Bergoglio Family were Italian emigrés to Argentina; in fact, they left Italy because of Mussolini’s Fascist régime in 1929. In other words, they were equivalent to asylum seekers. Ryan goes on to say: “A focus of his papacy was to speak out for those who were marginalised and exploited by others, in particular those in poverty or facing persecution. A passionate campaigner for social justice, he as recently as February reminded world leaders against poor treatment of refugees.” It says something about Pope Francis as a moral authority to the world that social media, as well as published media, has carried so many tributes.
A personal perspective
So, what have popes represented over the years for me, a practising but pragmatic ‘cradle Catholic’? Well, not just the remote man on a pedestal of my early childhood; nor the figure in white appearing at a distant window when we visited Rome or Castelgandolfo during family holidays. An amusing family anecdote was the reaction of one of our sons when we saw the then pope appearing at a window to bless the crowds assembled outside his summer residence: “I thought the Pope was plastic!”, alluding to the embossed plastic image in our church hall!
People’s Popes
I remember in my last year at a Catholic primary school following the election of the new pope in 1958, with all the technicalities of the conclave. Pope John XXIII was a revelation – known as ‘the Good Pope’, being far more of a pope for the people than his predecessors. His next-but-one successor, Pope John Paul II, was the first non-Italian for several centuries. He was, perhaps, the first pope to gain international respect as a moral authority, and there is no doubt that he was a catalyst in the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1982, with one of our young children and a baby on the way, we attended a huge open-air Mass on a glorious, sunny morning at Coventry Airport; this Pope was incredibly popular among Catholics. In 1989, I was able to speak to him and shook his hand in St Peter’s Square, when I was with a British military pilgrimage to Rome, and we were at the front row of the assembled throngs of pilgrims. I handed him a birthday card from my wife, who shares both his birthday (30 years difference!) and his first name. She received a thank-you card a few weeks later, and we have a framed papal blessing for the whole family just inside our front door! There was much to admire about Pope John Paul, but I have nothing to say about his ‘caretaker’ immediate successor.
A breath of fresh air – Assisi
As for Pope Francis: for me he has represented a much-needed breath of fresh air and a considerable step in the right direction for the Catholic Church. What was different about Jorge Mario Bergoglio? Firstly, of course, he was not European; his immediate origins were as a Latin American, with so much experience of poor communities in Argentina. Secondly, his humanity. This is most easily explained by his choice of ‘Francis’ as his papal name, reflecting his inspiration from St Francis of Assisi. I had been to Assisi a few times when I was young, but our visit there in 2016 had a huge impact on me, bringing home the message of this most altruistic saint in a couple of things we witnessed. I wrote about this four years ago in a WCV article entitled “The UK’s shameful hostile environment is persecuting hope”:
One of the most moving – and humbling – experiences I have ever had was a visit to the basilica and tomb of St Francis of Assisi. Many people will be familiar with the prayer of St Francis, even though its use by certain politicians seems to be a desecration of the sentiments it expresses. It was not just the feeling of supreme peace when visiting the saint’s tomb in the crypt. When we visited, a family was about to go into the main basilica, but the mother decided to stay outside rather than taking in one of the two teenage sons, who was severely mentally disabled, for fear that his incessant noise would disturb visitors and worshippers. One of the stewards insisted that the whole family should go into the church together because: “he is a child of God”. That’s inclusiveness, true humanity.
In the piazza in front of the upper church, there is a beaten-up old boat in which nine migrants had landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa, on a day when hundreds of other migrants had perished in the Mediterranean and other seas when trying to reach a better, safer life. Next to the boat was an explanation of its origins which is very moving: here are a few very poignant lines:
“Fear blinds and pushes for closing the borders, where perhaps some terrorists have passed, but where certainly one finds thousands of victims of the horrors some profess to define as “religious”, that slaughter every day and cause thousands of people to flee. And to abandon everything and to accept the notion of a likely death at sea to escape certain death in the country where they were born. It’s a boat without a name on which only nine travelled, but it represents all of the thousands of persons who ask for help and have a need and a right to have international protection.”
In the words of St Francis in this extract from his prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
…
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Pope Francis – his qualities
Pope Francis was known for his humility, his simplicity, his sense of humour and his empathy. Not for him the trappings of the papacy; he chose to live in the hostel for visiting clergy, not the papal apartments. He travelled around Rome sometimes in a beaten-up old car and on public transport. He identified with the poor and disadvantaged, right to the end, whatever the reasons for their plight. In this he reminds me of the patron saint of the world-wide charitable organisation of which I have been a member for almost 50 years, and of which I am president of our local group: St Vincent de Paul, a humble French parish priest known for his care of the elderly, poor and afflicted. Our motto is ‘Turning concern into action’, but I prefer my simpler version ‘practical Christianity’. For me, this epitomises Pope Francis’s approach. In addition, his answer when confronted by the matter of certain minorities often reviled by some so-called Christians is symptomatic of unconditional inclusiveness: “Who am I to judge?”. Coming from the Pope, that is true simplicity, humility and empathy, at a time when certain politicians and their cronies have condemned empathy as weakness.
Laudato si
As well as the threat to humanity represented by the way ruthless and unrestrained materialism is driving world economic and geopolitical developments, all sensible citizens should be concerned about the environment and climate-change. Pope Francis, mindful of his role-model being associated with patronage of animals and the environment, inspired and published his encyclical ‘Laudato si’ ten years ago in May 2015. This unique statement from the church on humankind’s responsibilities as custodians of the natural world constitutes a wake-up call to humanity. The Pope is implementing the words St Francis of Assisi wrote in the canticle from which the encyclical takes its name: “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”. The document is too long to précis here, but part of the prayer at the end is significant, particularly the last four lines:
Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined
to everything that is.God of love, show us our place in this world
as channels of your love
for all the creatures of this earth,
for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
Enlighten those who possess power and money
that they may avoid the sin of indifference,
that they may love the common good, advance the weak,
and care for this world in which we live.
Once again, Pope Francis and his patron saint have things to say to some of our so-called political leaders. No wonder he seems to have refused to meet a certain politician in his last hours!
The future
So, what about the next pope, who will be elected by conclave in the next few weeks? Can he be, like Francis, both Pope and, in a sense, Father of mankind? It seems simplistic to suggest that Francis’s will be a hard act to follow, but I, for one, just hope that he will have inspired the same qualities in his successor. I would add only that I hope his successor will be young enough and energetic enough to lead the Church to address the problem of falling congregations; of the younger generation drifting away – sometimes because of the impact on the Church’s reputation of clergy who did not live as Pope Francis did. In the world as it has developed in the last few months, ‘leadership’ seems all too often to mean the nastiness and ruthless pursuit of wealth and self-aggrandisement we have seen in so many who would regard themselves as ‘leaders’. Pope Francis has provided true moral leadership, not just for Catholics and Christians, but has provided a role-model for the world at large of the true Christian principles from which humanity would benefit.
