Pope Francis and the Roman Catholic Future

Holy Smoke! A couple of seagulls! Where in the world could these two seafarers have hailed from? From across the Emerald Sea? They alternatively perched on the Sistine Chapel's chimney which was used to signal the election of a new pope. They stole the scene right from a flock of birds of much brighter color and plumage gathering below to pick among themselves an important bird, a cardinal to be exact, which will be transfigured into a kingfisher by popular acclaim.

Some said it was an omen straight from heaven, the Holy Spirit incarnate, to bless the tweeting and twittering proceeding going on down below. Well, that was not quite a pure white bird, a dove to be exact, one would expect of the Holy Spirit. But that will do, in this age of global village, we are mostly drab mongrels and mutts anyway, not many of us can claim one comes from a family of pure breed or noble pedigree. Even the Holy Spirit must reflect the zeitgeist and diversity of our time. Count one to add to the existential angst of those true believers and faithful followers of Eugenics, the failed Adolf Hitler's monstrous dream of "master race" of pure Aryans.

The new Pope took on the regnal name of Francis, a la St. Francis of Assisi, according to the media. St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint to birds and animals. He also bore the holy stigmata of Christ, the five wounds of Jesus’ passion, not to be confused with Mel Gibson’s passion for alcohol, anti-Semitic, anti-minority and misogynistic rants and his movie “Passion of the Christ”, a sadomasochistic film masquerading as a religious moral play. St. Francis also swore to a life of poverty and service to the down-trodden and found a monastic order that bears his name, the Franciscans. It was said when he was living the life of an ascetic hermit in the hill cave of Assisi, the birds and a wolf brought him food. His statue is often seen with a few birds perching on his shoulders, one bird in his hand, a wolf sitting by his feet, and more birds tweeting on the grounds and trees nearby.

On the other side of the world, there has also been a change of guard in China’s leadership; a new president was installed to govern the 1.3 billion or so of people. Therefore I also think that he also intended his chosen name to pay tribute to the other St. Francis, co-founder of the Jesuit order the new Pope himself belongs, St. Francis Xavier, a hint, maybe, to his intention to bring his pontifical mission to Asia, especially China, whose population rivals that of his faithful. St. Francis Xavier led extensive missionary expeditions to Asia, most notably in India, Japan, Borneo and the Molluccas. He was hoping to bring the Good Book to China when he died on an island off the China’s coast.

But judging from their BMI, rosy round cheeks and Rudolf, the reindeer’s noses, some princelings of the church by all appearance seem to lead a life of opulence and Chianti abandon. They might all claim to follow the footsteps of St. Francis, a looming figure in the Roman Catholic pantheon of saints, but their personal carbon footprints tell us otherwise. Our U. S. Congress would do well to take notice, you all leave footprints of some sort and we’ll be watching you.

The new pope was said to have an abundance of "fetching humility." But how much, in terms of U. S. dollars, Italian Euros or Argentinian Pesos would a pound of humility fetch, if it were just to be all style than substance? Will the Pope be a Servant to the poor and the infirm or an avid environmentalist to the birds and animals, as St. Francis was declared the patron saint of the environment? I hope he will do both. With one stroke in the cannon law, he can sanction contraception to ease the stress on our environment caused by exponential human population growth.

He can make optional clergy celibacy to attract more diversity of faithful that will only enhance the evangelist contribution and enrich the theological philosophy of the church and move it in steps with the time. He can also provide equal opportunity to women for priesthood to alleviate male priest shortage and bring in those other untapped 50% potential talents. Embrace and welcome our other brothers and sisters with alternate orientation into the church, are they not also the children of one same God? Finally, he should get the church out the money business by eliminating the Vatican Bank, a source of corruption in the Curia, and concentrate what the church does best, God's business, that of evangelism and charity work.

For those cynics who claim that "there will be poor always!” I offer a contrarian, Einstein's relativity view. On a relative scale, there will always be "poorer" people compared to others. But that doesn't mean their basic standard of living, basic health care needs and basic human dignity cannot be improved or uplifted to a higher level, just as human life span has improved with advances of science and technology.

Since the Papacy has been the self-appointed castellan of all human virtues, will the new Pope be more tolerant and slow to denounce all seemingly vices in the Holy See's all-clear seeing eyes? Will the new head of the Vatican see his fellow human all as potential sinners that need the Church's intervention in every aspect of their lives or as an intelligent equal who can make their own moral choices reasonably well in their own unique circumstances? Or will it still cling to the archaic view that all human are burdened with the "Original Sin" since the day of their conception, the sin of the "First Parents" visited upon the unborn and those yet to be born? Should the Church's doctrine continue to foster the negative self-image and inferior complex of a “born sinner” in children at such tender age, that all human race is to be put in such negative light to be abhorred and not to be respected?

We all can tell the difference between a vice from a sin. A sin is an abomination against your fellow sentient beings, be it an animal, plant or human. A vice is bad habit against oneself. Oftentimes the Church does not see the differences. Take for example, the seven deadly sins or cardinal sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Although they are also known as capital vices, this proves exactly my point. Wrath would not harm anyone unless you lashed out at someone. Even God would do that sometimes, witness God’s wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah. Without greed you have no motivation for success, but greed at the expense of others is not a good thing. As for the rest, they are all self-inflicted masochistic excesses known to Freud as death wishes. If the vices and sins also happen to be also on your local penal codes, then they become crimes, punishable by your local court.

“You eat salad and steak, don’t you?” you ask, “How do they jive with what you are saying, in your opinion?” In Christian culture, they say grace and give thanks, presumably to God, not to the chopped lettuces or the slaughtered cattle, for the foods before they eat, thus absolving them from the sins of eating them. In Non-Christian cultures, they perform absolution rituals before an animal is slaughtered for food, either to a hunter’s god or to the spirit of the animal about to be slaughtered. For plant foods, such as corn and rice, they hold mid-autumn or harvest moon festivals to thank the mother-earth spirit for her abundance and providence, namely rice and corn.

So when does the vice part come in? When does the abomination part, the sinful part, happen? And where the crime part comes in? Ah, all good questions! They will all be explained in due course. If you were a shepherd and laid with a few sheep, and the sheep acted sheepish and did not show any distress, it would probably be a vice. If you felt or acted sheepish afterwards and the sheep acted with distress during the act, then it would be an abomination, a cardinal sin according to the Roman Catholic Cannon Laws. If you were caught in the act by a nosy, armchair law book practitioner, and this vice of yours was etched in stone on your local penal codes, then forget the vice and sin arguments you’d like to present to court, it would no doubt be a crime. Now you see the difference?

All the same, the Church is quick to condemn both and to pass eternal judgment. Should a teenager be condemned to a life time of fear of eternal damnation, overridden guilt and self-hate, just because he performs acts of self-love under the blanket just a tad too often, due to raging hormones? Therefore to condemn all vices is to condemn humanity. As the Nobel Literature Laureate, John Galsworthy, so wisely pointed out: “The true lover of the human race is surely he who can put up with it in all its forms, in vice as well as in virtue.” Pope Francis should learn some wisdom or two from his observation, to become a lover of human race or its detractor.

Until God, in His infinite wisdom, do away with the "Devil" or whatever “fall guy” we invented to pin our own failings and blames on, to hate all vices is to hate humanity. Detest the sins, not the sinners. "Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar," as the good book intones, so render to all humanity what belongs to them, their basic right to choose, to live free and equal access to opportunities now limited to a selected few, gender or classes.

But for those Catholics who want meaningful and immediate reforms to revitalize their church, time seems to be unbearable long for those who wait. It seems to some that the Holy See is still waiting for some "Divine Intervention." As they say, here on earth, God's work must truly be our own.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day for a little Irish in all of us!