Pope Francis is truly a class act. The man’s genuine good intentions, his attempts to include everyone and his desire to reform the most archaic and bogged down institution in the world have endeared him to many.
The Pontiff made his intentions clear as soon as he was elected to lead the Roman Catholic Church. Simple gestures such as the simple garb he wears, his decision to live in an apartment rather than a royal palace, going to work on a bicycle and feeding the homeless immediately set him light years apart from any other Pope.
Not that other Popes were bad, many were just a product of their times. The Pope takes the business of leading his 1.2 billion strong flock seriously. And he leads by example. His current tour of the US comes off the back of a visit to Cuba. It is no coincidence. The Pope has been working hard behind the scenes to help in the mission to restore ties between Cuba and the US. In his visit to the US, the Pope urged people to treat arriving migrants as they would wish to be treated in a similar situation.
Many thought that the Vatican establishment would be too much for the Pope to take on. But he has risen to the challenge and has worked hard to purge it of its most evil – in his own words – vice, that of abuse of children. The pope asked for personal forgiveness for such transgressions and that has brought people much closer to him and the ideal of the Church. He has also reached out to the LGBT community, saying that if a person is seeking God’s love, then who is he to judge.
He has also reached out to those who are spiritual, yet not religious. He has bonded with the scientific community, defying millennia of dogma, saying that God is “not a magician with a magic wand” and said that the scientific theories of evolution and the big bang are not incompatible with the existence of a creator.
He also has the incredible gift of appreciating the good, but cautioning against the pitfalls of things. A classic example is the internet, which he called “a gift from God”. On the flipside, however, he cautioned against overuse, saying that it can alienate people from their families and friends.
The Pope has also been given plaudits on an interfaith level, with many Muslims and Jews viewing him as a breath of fresh air and a bridge of humanity between faiths. This man is special. If there is such a thing as God sending angels to earth to guide us in times when we have gone astray, then he is one of them.
Pope Francesco recently said that he did not see himself occupying his role for a long time. We hope that his self prophecy does not come true In a world of war mongering, regression to savagery, crime, hate, over exploitation of the earth, we need one person to remind us what being human is supposed to be like. There is only one person on the planet that has the capacity to be heard, and that is Pope Francis. He has modernized the church like no other. The Maltese Church was moribund when Archbishop Charles Scicluna was appointed. Sadly, it seems that it has not recovered and does not seem likely to. People say that on a local level, they are understood by priests who know the realities of today. But they still say that the Church as an establishment seems blind, numb and at a loss with what to do. All it needs to do is listen to its boss and behave more like him. That is what the faithful, those who have strayed and even those who never were close, really want from the Catholic Church in Malta; and everywhere else.