By Paul Otieno Onyango
A lot has been said and written about the person of Jorge Maria Bergoglio, the Argentinian priest commonly known as Pope Francis, regarding his leadership style and his vision on controversial issues in the society today. He has single handedly changed the image of the Catholic Church and has somehow become a paradigm of what it means to be a catholic and a leader.
This month, the Pope is to make his Maiden trip to the continent of Africa at a time when the continent is experiencing difficulties of all kinds: migration to Europe (along the northern coastline) with many lives being lost in the high seas, poverty and disease menace, the issues of human rights, corruption and political instability with many leaders looking for ways to perpetuate their stay in power.
The question every person is asking is: Who is Pope Francis? Is he a Diplomat (The case of USA and Cuba restoring Diplomatic relations)? Is he a Politician ready to face any political group or country on issues from climate change to sexual orientation and divorce etc.? Is he an activist of human rights, especially the rights of the underprivileged in the society? What of his political inclinations: capitalist or socialist?
The answer to these questions and many others that could be validly asked is not easy to come by. However, one needs to read the Papal encyclicals, his messages, homilies and corporal expressions that break the Vatican and religious protocol always associated with such a post or role.
In the first place, we must talk of Jorge Maria Bergoglio the Latin American Priest and Bishop. A ‘continent’ marked with a very rich religious, theological, social and political history. A land considered by the powers that be in the Vatican as being religiously and theologically rebellious in comparison to the rest of the continents such as Africa, Asia and Europe. When we talk of Latin America (LA) as a ‘continent’ we essentially refer to the Spanish speaking nations together with Brazil putting aside USA and Canada.
In Latin American, the Catholic Church, the theological hence pastoral development in terms of opening new frontiers and thinking outside the Vatican theological box, is a well-known fact; I guess by now you are thinking of the famous liberation theology. In the LA ‘continent’ the theology of the poor, the emphasis on the new concept of Christology and ecclesiology that ensures that it is the human person that must be at the centre of any theological or religious experience, and the insistence on the contextualization of the Message and the Person of Jesus Christ, tend to bring up a Priest or Bishop or a Theologian who seems to be ‘rebellious’ and uncomfortable with the status quo within the church confine. That does not mean in any way that all priests, bishops and religious people end up in the same category. So this is the context in which we must first put and understand George Mary.
One could easily describe LAtin America as the seed bed for different political, social and civil organisations; that is the democracy as we know, is thriving with clearly marked political ideology: socialist countries (Leftists) from extreme ones to the middle ones (Venezuela with Cuban experience of socialism, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Nicaragua among others and the Capitalist which is somehow interpreted as democratic (Rightists) in countries such as Colombia, Chile, ‘Brazil’ (note the parenthesis on Brazil).
It is also a continent that has experienced military coups like no other. At the same time it has had a history with guerrilla wars and drug trafficking. In short, one can affirm that it is a continent where the political ideologies and issue based politics is clearly being marked and is thriving. Something that Africa as a continent is yet to experiment in its Independence history.
From what we have seen, read and heard of him, Pope Francis is an aggressive and influential Diplomat. The Vatican as a State has got diplomatic relations with many countries. However, the usage of the said relations depends mainly on the person of the Pope of the time. The current one has injected new energy and strategy into the Vatican’s Diplomacy through his personality and leadership style.
For instance, when he recently gave a papal medal with a carved angel to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, that was symbolically interpreted to mean he considers the Palestinian Authority as an ‘angel of peace.’ It appears the Diplomatic Philosophy of the Argentinian is straight to the point with truth no matter who gets injured in the process of saying, defending and pointing the truth. He is a Pope who speaks his mind, for this reason he does not mince words to say what he thinks since he came to the throne of Peter in 2013.
In September this year he sent a letter to the G20 leaders with a clear message against the intended attack on the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, pointing out his fear of a possible break out of war. Another issue that seems very dear to the Pope is the migration to the western countries from Syria, our African continent and other third world countries.
He has referred to this phenomenon as the ‘white terror’ with ‘persecutions with White gloves’. In this way he denounces indirectly states, companies and arms manufacturers with large interests in the war industry and exploitation of the motherland.
Pope Francis played a critical role of ensuring that USA renewed their diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than 50 years of having broken the said relations.
On the other hand, the Pope is a silent political operator who knows how to use his good image and publicity to move the world political chairs. Together with this, he seems to apply to the maximum his mastery of political symbolism and shrewdness thanks to the Vatican’s diplomatic relations.
Paul Valley notes the following when he refers to Francis as a Politician, “the political strategies he uses to enact [his] vision are sophisticated and even wily. Inside the Church, he has set out to modernize the Vatican, rooting out corruption and careerism and placing the pastoral care of ordinary people before dogma and rules. Love and inclusion now come before judgment and condemnation. In the world, his mission is just as radical: to realign global policy to better aid the poor and excluded. That has included pushing nations to address the prickly issues of climate change and economic inequality.”
In short, no one can doubt the political maneuvers of the Pontiff who believes strongly in creating connections with the other leaders and people who believe in another possible and better world.
Finally, the Pontiff seems to bring out the figure of activist for the fundamental rights of the human being with a special if not religious inclination towards the most unfortunate in the society and with the encyclical Laudato si, the environmental issue where he considers the environment as being with rights to be protected, a kind of personification.
He has taken advantage of the world stage to empower the poor and marginalized by asking them not to shrink but to organize and find creative ways to win.
In short, Pope Francis has and continues to construct a clear model of leadership that shows how faith can respectfully inform political discussion hence influence the diplomatic relations of the world.
What should we expect of the Pope as Kenyans? Let’s wait and find out.
The writer is based in Caracas, Venezuela, at the Institute of Consolata Missionaries(IMC)
