A famous statesman recently spoke of the human beings he admires most. He mentioned Pope Francis as “a genuinely good man.”
Pope Francis is not only the head of the Catholic Church. Why is he one of the most admired and influential world leaders?
The reason is simple. “We like to listen to this Pope,” said The Washington Post (by no means a Catholic newspaper) “because he talks like Jesus, acts like Jesus, and is like Jesus.”
As a bishop and cardinal, he lived in a slum among the poor, cooking for himself and another prelate. He used public transport for travel. When, at his election as Pope, journalists went to that slum in Argentina, they asked the local people, “Do you have a photo of the bishop?” “Yes,” most of them replied in delight. They would go into their poor house, and come out with a photo—not OF the bishop, but WITH the bishop. He was one of them, not someone who lived in a palace, with his office distributing framed photos to be kept in convent parlours.
One of his first trips as Pope was to the island of Lampedusa, the spot where African refugees, fleeing poverty and violence, tried to enter Europe. Many had perished in the Mediterranean Sea.
He lives in a simple room in the Vatican Guest House, not in the Apostolic Palace, where his predecessors had their quarters.
On Maundy Thursday, years ago, he shocked and inspired the world by washing the feet of refugees of different races, including some who were not Catholics.
Five years ago, he wrote Laudato Si, calling on all people of good will to care for the earth, our common home.
He also insists on certain priorities which make him the hated target of a several super-rich people and some church leaders who do not like his insistence on the church being poor and of the poor. His life and words challenge their comfortable life-style. He says what the world needs: “An economy centred around human beings, and not around profit.” Which profit-worshipping magnate would like to hear that?
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Fr Joe Mannath SDB
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