Pope Francis: A Pope for all seasons

Even as a Bishop and having been to the Vatican and encountered both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul 11 severally, nothing prepared me for the shock of my first formal personal encounter with Pope Francis on November 28th, 2013. I arrived in the morning of November 26th for the inaugural meeting of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Council to which I had been appointed by his predecessor and retained by him. I had checked into the very comfortable (at least by the Spartan Vatican standards of accommodation) Domus Sancta Martha residence where accommodation had been reserved for us. I showered, finished my prayers and went into the Dinning Room for breakfast.

I was just about to descend on my plate of cereals when I saw someone with a white soutane walk into the same Dinning Room. Only the Pope wears white and so I had to clear my eyes, and yes, the Pope had come in for breakfast with us. Three persons, two priests and a layman accompanied him. They went straight down to a table barely ten metres from where I had sat. He was chatting away with his three friends, occasionally saying a hello to someone else and stood up twice and went to the central table where all the morning’s breakfast was laid out for all of us.  He helped himself, as opposed to being served!It was my first shock.

For the four days at the residence, it was not uncommon to call the lift or step out of it, head to the chapel or the main door and see the Holy Father coming towards you, coming out or going into the lift or just or going in a different direction. He would greet you even when you stepped aside for him, he would nod and often literally express gratitude that you stepped aside for him, implying that you had as much right to the passage as he had. When we finally were together in one of the Halls at the Vatican for a formal meeting with him, I thanked God that being a black man hides your emotions well. He stepped into the hall not with the swagger of power, but with the assurance of a believer in the sacredness of both space and the human person. His handshake very much like a bar man welcoming a customer to his bar. It was a warm, nice-to-see-you-man kind of handshake, firm, respectful but almost playful and unpretentious. I thought of my friend Richard and believed that the Catholic Church had not only elected a black Pope but a friend, an uncle that one knew already.

When I rose up to formally meet the Pope, I was almost lost for words. His face lit up when I told him I was from Nigeria. I tried to respond to his question as to how things were in Nigeria by asking him to come and see for himself and to bless us when he took the words off me: Please pray for me, pray for me. I need your prayers very much. His piercing facial look right into your eyes reminded you of a groom genuinely looking into the eyes of his beloved bride on the altar. It was difficult to contain my emotions. I realized that even if an unserious Protestant like Richard had been here, the Pope would even still ask him to pray for him too. My pride as a Catholic and a bishop took a hit at that thought and I was happy Richard was not near.

To celebrate his first anniversary on Thursday March 13th, Pope Francis chose to be on a retreat for prayers, not in the accompany of a crowd of adoring admirers who would have filled up St. Peter’s square. His papacy has been the most eventful within the shortest period of time. Not only has he brought a breathe of fresh air to a Church that was beginning to show signs of weariness from the endless institutional assaults, he has reawakened Christendom to the real joy that comes from knowing Christ our Saviour.

Pope Francis has opened to the world, the real face of the Catholic Church, clearly overturning the saying that a tree cannot make a forest. He has illustrated truly and in the simplest manner why Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us, the reason why the cross may bea scandal to unbelievers, but the wisdom and power of God (Mat 1:23, I Cor 1: 18f). He has taught us very many lessons covering most areas of life, from politics, economics, family life, Christian love, neighbourliness, the youth, dealing with the strangers, the poor and so on. This is not the place to run over what has been a fast paced one-year Papacy and pray that God gives him a long life and keeps him focused on the love which the world so badly needs. I will three short lessons for us.

The first is the fact that real power is simple and accessible and that taking ordinary people seriously is the source of real lasting power and authority of a leader. From leaving St. Peter’s Basilica after his election and travelling by bus to the residence with his brother Cardinals, paying his bills as Cardinal at Domus Santa Martha before moving into the same residence formally as Pope, washing and kissing the feet of a female and other poor prisoners, iPhone mug shots with youths in Brazil, to setting up a twitter account among others, he has done ordinary things in the most extraordinary way.

Secondly, the media which had waged a scurrilous and relentless campaign of calumny against the Catholic Church in the last ten years has since become an allay, leaving us a lesson that a frustrated world was looking for simplicity, honesty, vision, and some level of individual and institutional trust. The media has feasted on the carnival that can be tagged, Francismania. My friend, an Indian and an avowed atheist sent me an email saying that Pope Francis has made him rethink some of the assumptions he had about faith, religion, and the Catholic Church. We are still talking about the future.

Thirdly, Pope Francis has redefined our understanding and appreciation of wealth and power. He has shown that Poverty is not just a sociological category of being or of analysis of the human condition. Rather, he insists that poverty is a theological category. Poverty must be seen as a choice made by Jesus Christ Himself first by virtue of taking up broken human flesh, but also by deliberately choosing to enter the world through the poverty or homelessness amidst dirt of a stable with animals (Lk. 2:6). The clarity of this option for the poor resounds the Pope’s strident attack against increasing inequalities in the world. He resounds the words of his predecessor, Pope Benedict who said, God became poor for us, so as to enrich us with his poverty.
Finally in his Apostolic Exhortation, Evengelii Gaudium, the Joyof the Gospel, he has warned Christians against allowing themselves allowing the devil to rob themus of fraternal love, missionary zeal, a sense of community, and hope, among others.

Pope Francis has lit up the world, but then, the devil remains at work. We must heed the words of St Peter that the devil is roaring around like a lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5: 8). Amidst the excitement, it is clearly too early to say how this Papacy will shape the world or how the challenges of the world and the controversies around his teachings shape the Church. This is a time for renewal and a call to the fact that we must all join hands to re-make the world. Looking back, we can only ponder the wonders of God’s mystical ways. When the world woke up to the shocking news that Pope Benedict had resigned on February 28th last year, the Catholic world was enveloped in fear and uncertainty while a cynical world looked on wondering if the Catholic Church had come to a dead end.

But, the Lord of the empty tomb has demonstrated to us that He can bring out from his storeroom, treasures both old and new (Matt 13:52). The emergence of Pope Francis is a testimony of the linear and unbroken progression in the chain of faith. The challenge is for us to hold on to this trust. For now, all we can say is that the world and the Catholic Church will never be the same again because Pope Francis passed here. Long may he live!

Kukah is the Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sokoto