#437: It Took Pope Francis Less Than One Hour To Change the Game

How good a messenger is Pope Francis?  He is so good that even the media gets the message! 

As the news networks provided wall to wall coverage of the pope’s arrival at the White House, his parade along the National Mall, and his prayer service at Saint Matthew’s Cathedral, commentator after commentator spoke facts that seem foreign to American ears: 

This pope is not a politician, he is a pastor. 

His interest is not power, but people. 

He offers a view that is neither conservative nor liberal, but a view rooted in the gospel message. 

He aims to promote no party, no program, no politician--but the common good of all people. 

He speaks not only to Catholics, but to the human race. 

He sees the world, not as a collection of allies fighting enemies, but as “our common home.”

He is interested less in judging who is right and who is wrong than in getting all of us to work together. 

His response to power is neither to fear or fight it, but to offer us the wisdom to use power well. 

He is not a reformer, but a radical in the original sense of going to the root of things.  For rather than changing the tradition he represents, he is presenting it in a new light as a comprehensive worldview that the 21st century badly needs. 

And his personal authenticity makes it nearly impossible to simply ignore him, no matter how uncomfortable listening to him might make us.  He is showing us that the leadership we need must embody a moral authority that few officeholders have.

He will challenge us, and those who are not too cowardly to listen will listen at our own peril.  As president Obama said, Francis will “awaken us from our complacence.”

 Bernard F. Swain PhD 201