Build Bridges—Not Walls! We Have Lost a Great Advocate for the Poor!
By Stephen Wilson, one of our reporters abroad
His Holiness Pope Francis
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The late Pope Francis has just died. The advent of this Pope represented a real catalyst for Catholics and others practising a compassionate, caring and authentic Christianity unafraid to embrace the most vulnerable and oppressed of the world. He was an unapologetic advocate for the poor, prisoners, the homeless, refugees and migrants. Small wonder that he was known as 'the People's Pope,' 'the Progressive Pope' and in a sense, 'the outsider.'
At a time when we are witnessing the resurgence of an ugly racism and even fascism his voice is more than ever lamented. His supportive and warm presence will be greatly missed. He was a brilliant pope. He was one of the best advocates for the poor.
“Who wept for these people who were aboard the boats? For the young mother who brought their babies? For these men who wanted to support their families? We are society that has forgotten to cry,”…and “Before they are numbers, refugees are first and foremost human beings,” stated Pope Francis in a speech where he made a prayer and threw a wreath into the sea in memory of those refugees who had drowned attempting to cross into Europe. For since he had become the pope in 2013, he had made defending and assisting refugees and migrants an integral part of his mission. This went beyond just kind words.
Pope Francis continually visited, spoke and took into care refugee families. He condemned Europe and America for its increasingly indifferent and callous approach to migrants and refugees.
And when Pope Francis arrived in the Vatican on his special jet with two refugee families he had promised to support, officials were taken aback. They were stunned. They were not used to such gestures. The aim of his example was in his own words to instruct others and so 'overcome the paralysis of fear, the indifference that kills' and condemns to death refugees. '
Not surprisingly, Pope Francis implacably opposed Trump's mass deportation plans and the building of a wall between Mexico and America, declaring, “A person who thinks only about building walls wherever this may be and not build bridges is not a Christian.” Such a speech stirred up Trump who took offence, protesting, “Who is he to decide who is a Christian?” Trump fumed. He obviously has not listened.
Vice President Vance even went so far as to make a theological defence of mass deportation by citing the Ordo Amoris by claiming. “You love your family, and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community and then you love your citizens in your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”
Pope Francis was having none of that. He retorted that Vance had misconstrued the Ordo Amoris. He answered, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. The true Ordo Amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the 'Good Samaritan,' that is by mediating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.'
Pope Francis's love was unlimited. In contrast to so many priests and former Popes, he refused to condemn gays. Asked about his views on gays he answered, “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Such a statement consoled many gay Catholics who were cold-shouldered and disowned by their families.
Migrants on the road in California
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Pope Francis appealed to people not to be seduced by the toxic rhetoric of those who stoked up hatred against migrants, refugees and anyone simply different. He stated, “Not to give in to the narratives that discourse against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrants and refugee brother and sister”…and “I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportation. The rightly-formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgement and express disagreement.”
What inspired Pope Francis to try to live up to a bold vision of turning the Catholic Church into a field hospital for the suffering? There is no doubt that his traumatic experience of serving as a priest under the dictatorship of the Junta in Argentina played a part {from 1976 to 1983 where an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 Argentinian disappeared or were killed}. The horrific impact of the disappearances can be read up on pages 135 to 143 of Naomi Klein's “The Shock Doctrine,” 2007, New York: Picador}.
Then Pope Francis was assisting priests to avoid persecution and death by hiding and smuggling them out the country. It is perhaps also no accident that the parents of Pope Francis were refugees from Mussolini's Italy.
There is doubt that Pope Francis was psychologically scarred by this experience and suffered deep anxiety where he underwent therapy.
But Pope Francis was deeply inspired by the example of the medieval Saint Francis. Saint Francis was a person who acted as a peacemaker who tried to stop Italian states from warring against each other, and attempted to aid outcasts, whether they were the poor, prisoners or condemed criminals. There are legends that Saint Francis tamed a wolf who had been terrorising a town of people. To the people who cynically believed that man by nature was evil and a wolf to other men, {Homo homini lupus} Francis brought a tamed wolf into town as his own brother! There is a story that when some followers of the saint had boasted of beating up and driving away a group of thieves in the countryside, the saint went up to the thieves and apologised for the behaviour of his followers and treated their wounds. As a result, two of the thieves became his best followers.
Francis's vision of monks who embraced poverty in their quest for God and assisted all those in distress was later lost and completely transformed into something at strong variance. It turned out to be too radical for the church and the powers that be. When the Bishop of Assisi chided the saint with the words “Your way of living without owning anything seems to me very harsh and difficult.” The saint answered, “My Lord, if we possessed property, we should need arms to defend it.' { See “Brother Francis, An Anthology of Writings By and About St Francis of Assisi,” edited by Lawrence Cunningham, 1975, New York: Family Library, , and also pages 222-232 of “The Medieval World,” by Friedrich Heer, 1962, New York: Mentor Books}.
Unfortunately, we are witnessing a situation where the American state is putting up walls against Canada, Mexico, China—and Greenland of all places! And a climate of fear and paranoia has turned America into an armed fortress which asks for arms, arms, and more arms.
Pope Francis will be greatly missed. There is a belief in Russia that if a person dies on Easter day, he must be a saint! When a Russia Orthodox believer heard that he had died on Easter day she became convinced he must have been a saint. Well, that may be!
However, I think Pope Francis will be better remembered for his active love and support of refugees and migrants! We are obliged to continue this sacred struggle.
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For more info, please see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis