Thoughts on Pope Francis

I knew the moment that Pope Francis stepped out on the loggia that there was something I really liked about him. I was first struck by the way he appeared on the balcony, and asked that before he imposed the Apostolic Blessing, the people should pray for him. He led people in an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be for him and for Benedict XVI. For awhile he bowed his head in silent prayer-the massive rain-soaked crowd was silent. His entire first appearance to the world was centered on prayer.


Since his election yesterday, I've learned quite a lot about Pope Francis. I've learned that as Archbishop of Buenos Aries, he was offered a permanent post in the Roman Curia by Blessed John Paul II, but he politely and respectfully turned it down. Instead, he remained Archbishop of the Argentine capital, and eschewed the well-appointed episcopal residence for a sparse apartment. He turned down the car and driver which the Archdiocese provided for him and took the bus and the subway instead. One person from Buenos Aries said in a news interview that if you wanted to have an audience with Cardinal Brogolio, you just needed to know which train or bus he was taking. Oh, and in addition to his ecclesiastical duties, he apparently cared for a fellow Jesuit priest with a disability who stayed with him at his little apartment. I identify with the Holy Father, because when I was a single man, I lived in the city and I took the bus everywhere-I had to because of my own disability (the Holy Father obviously identifies with disabled people since he was close friends with and cared for a disabled person).


He apparently turned down his official Vatican car and decided instead to take the bus with the cardinals back to Casa Santa Martha. He took the Vatican's equivalent of a taxi to the Basilica of St. Mary Major this morning, and celebrated the Mass to close the conclave at the Sistine Chapel where he said in his homily “we can build so many things but if we don’t confess Jesus Christ, then something is wrong. We will become a pitiful NGO [non-governmental organization], but not the Church, spouse of Christ.”


In formation, we are taught about the meaning of diakonia, from which we get the word "deacon." That word, in the Greek, means "servant" or "slave." One of the most obvious uses of the word is to be found in Philippians 2:7-8, where we are told that Jesus "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant [diakonia], being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross."


In his homily today, Pope Francis talked a lot about the cross and the need for believers to take it up. In fact, he said that to claim Christ but be unwilling to take up his cross doesn't make us believers at all. It has struck me that we talk a lot about diakonia and servanthood, and with good reason, because that is part of the calling of a deacon. In Pope Francis, it seems that we have a living example to the whole world of what diakonia is really all about.