The Pope who showed America the mirror

Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, passed away on Easter Monday, aged 88. He was the Pope of the poor, the Pontiff who spoke up for the vulnerable and the marginalised, the one who championed interfaith dialogue as a means of fostering peace, who boldly etched sustainability as an abiding principle of the Holy See.

Among the many firsts Pope Francis was known for was his stinging criticism of a US administration that is now wholly focused on disarraying global ties, demonising immigrants and bullying partners. Pope Francis’ humble beginnings (he worked as a janitor and a night club bouncer) resonated through his Papacy and rang out loud and clear particularly in his last days as Donald Trump became the US President and the administration targeted immigrants and made it a mission to hunt and deport them with unfettered powers given to the immigration police.

Soon after he met vice-president J.D. Vance on Easter Sunday, 20 April, the message from the Pope was clear. The statement read out to the faithful from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica said: ‘How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalised, and migrants!’ Since this was the last public ‘darshan’, as it turned out, the message will continue to haunt and pressure America.

It’s a message Vance will also have to come to terms with, personally as a Catholic (he was baptised six years ago) and as a public leader, particularly since he chose to wield theological expressions like ordo amoris, Latin for the ‘order of love’, in a convoluted attempt to justify the crackdown on immigrants.

On 30 January, Vance said on ‘X’: ‘Just google “ordo amori”’.’ Vance understands the idea to mean that there is an order for charity that puts family and home before others. The argument being pushed was that immigrants must be thrown out to protect the homeland.

It was up to Pope Francis to send out a correction, which came in a letter to all US bishops, just 10 days later: ‘Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups… The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation. The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly… on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.’

The strong stand and clear messages of the 266th Pope even as he was battling illness indicate the depth of his feelings on the unfolding events in America and the pain that they caused. His letter, dated 10 February, further elaborated: ‘The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defencelessness… This is not a minor issue: an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalised.’

Pope Francis also stood out as an outspoken voice where many others, including those within America itself, particularly businesses, have fallen silent.

His words lent moral heft and spiritual courage to those who opposed the unjust actions that went against the true spirit of ordo amoris. Beyond the immediate battles he fought in support of immigrants, Pope Francis will be particularly remembered for his 184- page encyclical Laudato si’ (Praise be to you) devoted to care for our common home—the planet earth. This is a treatise on sustainability that is inspiring, revolutionary, holistic and grounded in systems thinking—one that goes well beyond the materiality metrics that abound to claim sustainability in business operations towards an approach filled with care and love.

It expands the boundaries of the discussion to embrace ideas of social justice, global imbalances and the human ego as the ruthless conqueror that ultimately destroys the earth. Calling climate a complex system that is a common good, the encyclical highlights a ‘very solid scientific consensus (which) indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system’ and calls for ‘changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this’.

It further speaks of social exclusion, inequitable distribution, new forms of social aggression and the loss of identity to argue that ‘growth of the past two centuries has not always led to an integral development and an improvement in the quality of life’.

The encyclical came in 2015, when DEI was the flavour of the season, introduced and shown in annual reports but never really understood or implemented in the right spirit. What resulted was precisely what the encyclical had warned of: ‘…what ensues are battles over conflicting interests, new forms of violence and brutality, and obstacles to the growth of a genuine culture of care for the environment’.

Jagdish Rattanani is a journalist and faculty member at SPJIMR

Courtesy: The Billion Press