The Pontiff and the Pontificator
On the night he was elected, Pope Francis declined a ride in the papal limousine and took a bus with the other cardinals back to the hotel he had been staying at before the conclave. When he checked out, he insisted on paying his bill. He chose not to live in the Vatican Palace and instead resided in the Vatican guest house. During his first trip abroad, Francis denounced the “globalization of indifference” around migrants. He was known for his humility and concern for the poor. In the first speech by a pope at the US Capitol, Francis focused on climate change, immigration, and poverty reduction. He famously stated that, “those who build walls will become prisoners of the walls they put up.” In the other words, he was in many ways the yin to the yang of Trumpism, and the noxious stench of authoritarianism that is engulfing America and the world. I’m not an expert on religion and I’m certainly no expert on popes. But Francis was a leader who moved his organization in the direction of decency at a moment in history when doing so was going decidedly against the grain. The big question now is whether the Church will elect a new pope that carries on in that direction, or one who follows the demands of so many of Francis’s detractors, including those among America’s right wing, who want to reverse course, and essentially make Vatican City great again. NYT (Gift Article): “Pope Francis, who rose from modest means in Argentina to become the first Jesuit and Latin American pontiff, who clashed bitterly with traditionalists in his push for a more inclusive Roman Catholic Church, and who spoke out tirelessly for migrants, the marginalized and the health of the planet, died on Monday at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. He was 88.”
+ “In a historic moment characterized by autocrats and would-be autocrats, Francis was the antithesis of a strongman.” The New Yorker: The Down-to-Earth Pope.
+ “Francis inherited a deeply divided Church after the resignation in 2013 of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. The conservative-progressive gap became a chasm after Francis, from Argentina, was elected the first non-European pope in 1,300 years. The polarization was fiercest in the United States, where conservative Catholicism often blended with well-financed right-wing politics and media outlets.” Reuters: A pontiff who shook up the Catholic Church.
+ NYT (Gift Article): How Francis, a Progressive Pope, Catalyzed the Catholic Right in the U.S.
+ And back to his polar (or maybe infernal is a more accurate adjective) opposite: The New Yorker: How Trump Worship Took Hold in Washington. “In Trump’s Washington, the imperative has never been more plain: if you want to get ahead or stay out of trouble, praise the President as much as he praises himself. ‘You are the leader of the world,’ Archbishop Elpidophoros, of the Greek Orthodox Church, said, at a recent celebration in the White House’s East Room. ‘You remind me of the great Roman emperor Constantine the Great.’ The crowd cheered. Elpidophoros presented Trump with a gold cross—the symbol, he remarked, that led Constantine to victory. ‘Wow,’ Trump replied, as he cradled the cross. ‘I didn’t know that was going to happen, but I’ll take it.'” (Maybe it’s an expected irony that Trump pontificates more than the pontiff.)
