Pope Francis during a past function.
Everyone who has written tributes to the departed Pope has had flattering words to say about the man. In a world where religion is a deeply divisive topic and wars have been waged over the mere mention of spiritual figureheads, it’s no coincidence even those who last saw the symbol of the cross at a religious education class could not help sparing few moments to revise their yellowing notes now nibbled by rats at the seams.
In Pope Francis we had a remarkable philosophical compass who embodied the virtue of humility in leadership, brought down the walls that separated the pious and the irreligious, and magnetised those on the fringes of society who needed a comrade in their struggle for self-awareness and common identity.
The 21st century global leadership – whether domiciled inside blue chip corner offices, or out in the din of roughshod political chaos – is increasingly becoming bereft of representation with a human face. Prime time news is infested by mindless argumentative irritants, mostly driven by the desire to win shouting matches than articulate principled ideology. In Pope Francis, we had a spiritual luminary who used the limelight as an avenue to spread love and close ranks, who spoke in a soft voice that carried hard messages mostly to leaders converting public office for private gain.
Pope Francis greets a group of women during a Jubilee audience at St Peter's Square in Vatican City, Italy, on June 30, 2016. He earned a reputation as the leader of the Catholic Church who challenged restrictive traditions to amplify women’s voices within the Church.
We live in a world where the official vehicle shuffling the president is backed up by a long trail of identical camouflage – so long you’d be late for work by half a day if you took the same presidential route map. Usually critical trunk roads on the travelling locus are closed hours in advance, unannounced, and devoid of concern for emergency welfare, public participation be damned. The convoy – of growling fuel guzzlers driven at breakneck speed in a rush for the final slot at the overcrowded feeding trough – is always motivated by the desire to break traffic codes in full glare of the same public being lectured to observe them.
As cardinal, Pope Francis reported to work in public transport and on the night of his election he rode with the other cardinals on a minibus back to their hotel instead of using the papal limousine. While at the Vatican he used a small-scale Ford Focus from the official vehicle pool and when the fleet was upgraded in December last year, he chose an all-electric car in a strong message to climate change deniers who worship fossil fuel and drink from the misery of those affected by its pollution.
However, if humility was the hallmark of Pope Francis’ papacy, wait until you go through his vision board at revolutionising the church. There are religious leaders who take advantage of their calling to aggravate human suffering and partition the church in favour of the elite in society. This bad behaviour always take the form of elevating political leaders to a demigod status, offering them the pulpit to sharpen their fork-tongues and cheering political speech that has not gone to school. It has led to the church taking sides in political contests in exchange for earthly riches for moth and vermin, ravaging the spiritual health of the flock left confused by downgrading of priority, ending up scattering the sheep and inflating the ego of card-carrying animists.
In 2022 – and for the first time in the history of Kenyan politics – the Kenyan church took an evangelical position that bordered on political interference by backing a presidential candidate. Two years later, they’re back to our screens weeping and gnashing their teeth offering half-hearted apologies that would leave the devil smiling sheepishly to the bank.
The Roman Catholic Church will miss Pope Francis, but the world will miss him more – and for those who find themselves secluded from mainstream policy practice by virtue of their perceived warped morality by religious fundamentalists, we have no words to commiserate with their profound loss. In Pope Francis, we had a frontline defender of human rights in all its forms and manifestations, abhorred those who stepped on the poor, homeless and vulnerable, advocated for justice and compassion; and warned against weaponising religion for political ends. Something that put him in conflict with the conservative wing of the Catholic Church who saw him as a degrader of moral tradition and an embarrassing flag-waving populist.
Pope Francis.
In truth, the world felt a little safer and more warmly with Pope Francis at the seat of the Holy See. In him, the moral codes that the church has hitherto summoned to extend oppression were in danger of revision for the greater good, denying rigid agents of religious hypocrisy the clout to inflict more harm on those breaking free from the bondage of retrogressive dogma. By demystifying the papacy and welcoming all children of God to see themselves in the image of their creator, Pope Francis not only brought the church back to the people where it originally belonged but also restored the hope that humanity had finally arrived to those on the fringes of society.
For a long time, historians have made us accustomed to the theory that true revolutionaries can only be found in those who launched guerrilla war in the quest for overturning mafia rule, and comrades-in-arms can only be used in reference to those who have been imprisoned for their role in wielding Marxist political ideology.
Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives for his weekly general audience at St Peter's square on April 21, 2016 in Vatican. / AFP PHOTO / ALBERTO PIZZOLI
Thanks to Pope Francis, we now know that a revolutionary is that person who puts humanity first and religious persuasion last, who judges people not on the basis of their ethnic or racial background but by the content of their character, who shields the poor and marginalised from state violence and protects endangered ecosystems from rapacious vultures; and who puts in place progressive ideas that contributes towards healing the spiritually wounded and bringing them back into a sustainable relationship with their creator.
Thanks to Pope Francis, we now know that not all who work in broken bureaucratic systems are sellouts of the struggle for a better world, and those who embody his character should be celebrated in life for their attempt at washing the cup from the inside.
