FRANCIS‒ THE POPE WHO CAN.

Finger pointing is a simple and commonplace gesture, and yet it can be infused with so much meaning.  In the Akan tradition, one is not supposed to point at their home with the left hand, a disrespectful action and one which may bring ill-luck.

Pope Francis has thrown caution to the wind and is doing a lot of pointing at the Catholic Church and with the left hand too!

I am no fan of Popes and I am immune to their charm. I am always wary of politics and the Church. Power corrupts and not even the Church is safe from the contamination of power. The pedigree of the Catholic Church in world politics has left much to be desired, to characterize it in the mildest terms. And whenever men see it as their task to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, it usually ends with awkward and tragic scenarios like the caliphates of the Islamic state and Boko Haram.

 But then along came Pope Francis, an odd and an historic choice from Argentina. He could have been pope for much longer if we are to believe rumours that after John Paul II, his was one of the votes which went up in black smoke.

Coming after Pope Benedict, whose reign historians may well gloss over, Pope Francis appears to offer a sharp contrast to the traditionalist Benedict; he is not one that history can easily forget.

 Since he became the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has both charmed and awed the world and the media. The latter is usually not the best friend of Christianity.

From the very onset he came across as the common man’s Pope. On the first day, he came on to the stage, and rather than assume the role of the Holy Father‒the repository of blessings‒ he instead asked the people in the square to BLESS HIM!  Here was one shunning any pretensions of being some god and admitting his humanity. He shunned the traditional footwear of popes and settled on simpler stuff.  On his trips, he has ditched the pope-mobile and opted for transports which have put him in touch with his flock and possibly, in danger of a bullet as well.

The reception so far accorded the Pope, brings to mind  President Barack Obama in 2008. Obama had so much good will that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, for reasons still not very clear to me. But even before his first year was over, it was apparent that President Obama was a man whose strength laid in words and not in deeds.  Not so with Pope Francis.

About eight months after his election, he stunned the world when he kissed a man with neurofibromatosis, a severe form which had made the man quite unsightly.  He has said and done some uncomfortable things too. He has been unafraid to speak out against the needless poverty plaguing people on every continent and in every nation. He has spoken in support of a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Arab crisis. On this matter though, I was not particularly impressed with his stop and kiss act at the wall in Bethlehem. To my mind, it continued a particular Vatican posture of lukewarmness towards Israel and the Jews.  And then there was his refusal to grant audience to the Dalai Lama, an obvious pandering to China.

Perhaps his most commendable action so far, has been efforts dealing with rot and corruption at the Vatican. The cynic might explain away all the Pope’s actions as mere political gesticulations but that would definitely not explain the public washing of the dirty linens of the Holy Catholic Church. It feels good to speak out against the evil perpetrated by others; it takes real courage and honesty to deal with the dishonesty of your own. Such deeds cannot be faked just for evening news. On this account alone, this pope has won my grudging admiration.