Well, we have a new Pope, and a big surprise. The first time I posted about Benedict’s resignation recently, I was surprised that – because most people know I do not follow any Deity-centred religion – they felt able to post at will, demanding to know why I was “wasting my time” talking about religious irrelevance. It seemed to me a classic case of assuming a correlation between provenance and importance.
My father was a Catholic who lapsed for entirely theological reasons, because he was a logical man who disliked hypocrisy. I’d like to think I can continue this better side of his complex personality. To suggest that the election of a Pope is of little importance – especially the first Jesuit, South American or Francis – is like saying that Lionel Messi is irrelevant because he’s just a footballer. Neither is true, for the simple reason that Catholicism’s support and influence round the world is massive, and Francis I is likely to prove a game-changing choice.
The general verdict amongst mates and Slog threaders tonight seems to be one of ‘too old, just another conservative, compromise decision, tarnished history, not progressive’. I would dub these observations, respectively, plot loss, irrelevant, dubious and muddled.
When an important leader in any role comes to power, expectation is everything. Once the new leader’s direction is clear, all sorts of different groups alter their behaviour accordingly. For a time at least, the new person may do nothing, but there will be change. Within minutes of Margaret Thatcher taking over in 1979, the British trade union movement geared up for battle. Within weeks, they knew the cosy tea and sarnies at Number Ten days were over, and changed course accordingly. In fact, she did almost nothing at first except say a few combative things: but this is what counts.
So far, looking across the blogosphere and the mainstream media, I’d say they see Francis I as more curate’s egg than cardinals’ choice. Much of this seems to stem from his record as being quiet under the Argentine junta, but a noisy critic of the Kirchners. But the facts don’t bear examination on this – if we are trying to judge the man behind the papal title.
There are wild accusations that the new Pope ‘hid junta prisoners from international inspectors’ for which, so far, I can find no proof at all. There are other suggestions that his dislike of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner somehow renders him a supporter of ‘vulture funds’ buying Argentine debt cheaply to put the screws on Buenos Aires. None of this is what you’d call solid investigative journalism. And the Kirschner split is nothing to do with nasty New York based hedge fund directors. Much of the Francis-bashing is knee-jerk hatred of all organised religion. I share the doubts, but not the hatred.
First up, Francis I will be a very conservative Pope. But conservatives are not by definition cruelly judgemental. Recently he told Argentine believers, “”Jesus teaches us: Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out and interact with your brothers, go out and share, go out and ask. Become the Word in body as well as spirit”. He seems to be a fan of a Saviour who went out among pub pissheads and hookers to recruit converts. I have no problem with that. The new Pope made strenuous efforts to repair the reputation of a church that lost many followers by failing to openly challenge Argentina’s appalling 1976-83 dictatorship, but there is no evidence at all that he was a collaborator.
“In favour of Bergoglio [Francis I] is his pastoral attitude, as they say in the Church – his relationship with the people,” said Leandro Pastor, a friend for many years who is philosophy professor at the University of Buenos Aires. “He’s a very simple man. He’s very austere. But also, I think he’s an intelligent man and someone who is very good at communicating.” Austere maybe, but also human and understanding: “In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don’t baptise the children of single mothers because they weren’t conceived in the sanctity of marriage,” Francis told his priests recently, “These are today’s hypocrites. Those who clericalise the Church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to parish so that it’s baptised”. If he’s against that kind of sh*t, then he works for me….and all of us who prefer decency to condemnation.
Sources close to Bergoglio say, “The relationship with Cristina Kirchner is not bad: it is awful.” But the Pope’s outspoken attacks on the Kirchner Government are very easy to understand: he sees the Argentine Prime Minister as a mindless pol embracing liberal fashions to grab younger voters. Cristina Kirchner is an opportunist par excellence: she saw a British government under the financial cosh, cutting its armed forces, and distracted by its difficult EU relationship. She also saw a lagoon of precious oil reserves around the Falklands. So she’s turning up the diplomatic heat to get their beloved Malvinas back. It is a purely popularity driven power-play. Like her arch-rival David Cameron, she is full of piss and wind. If the new Pope has discerned this then, again, he gets my vote.
People sound horrified when they are told of Francis I’s implacable opposition to appointing gays, and same-sex marriage. What do they expect? He is the head of a Church trying to keep its sense of values while all around others are losing theirs. While my view isn’t popular, none of my Gay friends shun me because I say “An uncivilised society criminalises homosexuality, but a mad one celebrates it”. The Catholic church’s view of marriage (albeit a narrow one) is that it exists for the procreation of children in a loving family environment. I don’t believe in asking where the new baby is every nine months – as many priests in the old days used to do – but as a model for society, I’d love to hear a better one than the loving family at some point. Kibbutzes failed, Hippyism failed, and multiple unmarried partnerships have failed. Rome stands for tough love if it stands for anything. Yet again, that’s good for me.
Perhaps the thing I’m most encouraged by in the new occupant of the Vatican is that he passes the Slog test when it comes to ‘listen not to what the buggers say, but watch what they do’. Francis I comes from humble origins as the son of left-wing parents. He uses public transport and cooks his own meals. To dismiss this as ‘Vatican spin’ is bollocks: right across Google long before his election, all these things were emphatically recorded about the bloke. Of course the canny Cardinals will try to make him worthy of being God’s Messenger on Earth, and of course in my view he isn’t. But that isn’t the point: he will be opposed to the infinitely ghastly greed of bankers and the bullying control of privileged paedophiles. For these reasons alone – given the boxes I’m interest in – he ticks all of them.
Equal treatment, love, attacking unwarranted privilege, supporting no side, practising what you preach, upholding the values of public office, standing up to bullies, purging psychos, and forgiving human weakness: these are the mores sneeringly ignored by the Diamonds, Hunts, Huhnes, Fall0ns, Balls, Blairs, Romneys and Murdochs of this world. For the last fifteen to twenty years, they have had the world pretty much to themselves. I confess to being unsurprised that the Murdoch press leads today (Thursday) with the somewhat puerile fact that Francis I sees the Falklands as Argentine territory, but it doesn’t surprise me: the Digger is against anything and anyone that might conceivably get in his way.
The world the politico-globalist monsters have created is one of growing wealth inequities, poor infrastructural investment, globalist claptrap, CEOs earning on average 380 times more than their average employee, massive sovereign debt, bonused failure, banking collapse, unjust citizen pauperisation, and the casual acceptance of sociopathic ideas. As I don’t see a whole helluva lot of powerful opponents of all this emerging in the temporal sphere, I think the very least we owe to the new Pope is a chance to show what he can do, and support him whenever he takes on the Forces of Darkness.
My hunch is that he will reward us. On verra
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Lucas 2012 Infos 