Pope Franciss Crusade against Indifference

Should papal diplomacy prove ineffective in reconciling the church with society,
a potential force for so much more good would be lost.
by Mary Serumaga
July 14, 2015 No Comments

Pope Francis in St Peters square at the Vatican (Alfredo Borba/Wikimedia

Commons)
In 2015, two hundred years after the fact, the Catholic Church, through its
leader, apologized for sins committed against indigenous Bolivians in the process
of their colonization, from which the Church is said to have gained financially.
The stigma of servitude persists to this day and indigenous Indians remain the
largest (over 70%) but poorest segment of the population. As with indigenous
Canadian women, Bolivians are very often considered fair game for sexual
molestation and abuse by their compatriots of European descent. As if to
illustrate the urgency of reform, during independence celebrations in 2008, a
group of indigenous women marching in support of President Moraless (himself
an Aymara Indian) policies was verbally abused, stripped naked, and beaten.
Roma mora; Rome delays. It was 198 years (counting from 1800) before Pope
John Paul II apologized to Africans for Catholic involvement in the slave trade,

359 since the persecution and prosecution of Galileo for his allegedly heretical
scientific beliefs, and 794 for the sacking of Constantinople during the
Crusades.
A grave sin of omission was publicly confessed by John Paul II: the churchs
historical discrimination against the Jewish people. In an act not possible to
rationalize, the Third Lateran Council [of Bishops] sitting in 1179, decreed,
Jews and Saracens are not to be allowed to have christian servants in their
houses, either under pretence of nourishing their children or for service or any
other reason. Let those be excommunicated who presume to live with them.
This led to the establishment of ghettos out of which Jews were only allowed in
daylight hours. The only redeeming feature of the canon is that it protected
Jews from forcible baptism and prohibited the confiscation of the property of
Jewish converts to Christianity.
The Church is a work in progress and has needed reform in every age of its
existence. In this era, gestures are important because apart from the
consolation they bring, they have the potential to mobilize church members for
much needed social action. By reconciling the church to society, the Pope and his
two immediate predecessors are repairing the damage to the moral authority of
the office done by the churchs frequent flirtations with consumerism and
elevation of the secular values of power, possessions and pleasureand its quest
for a secular form of respectability.
In a splintered world, authoritative voices, such as those of Chief Rabbis, the
Dalai Llama, the Mahatma, and leaders of other faith groups and social
movements, have a role to play. Indeed one major, frequent and bitter criticism
of Pope Pius XII is that he remained silent (or more accurately, conservative in
his denunciation?) when the Nazis began to persecute Polish and Italian Jews. It
is believed a word from Pope Pius would have galvanized the Catholic faithful to
oppose the Holocaust, but that he failed to use his moral authority. This has
earned him, and the church generally, the reputation of having been sympathetic
towards the Nazis, despite Catholic efforts such as the Assisi Underground
through which Jewish Italians were hidden in religious institutions, some
disguised as monks (three babies are said to have been born in Pope Piuss
personal quarters in the Vatican).
World Meeting of Popular Movements: A Papal Initiative
Pope Franciss apologies were addressed[i] to the Second World Meeting of
Popular Movements, a gathering of activists, farmers and manual workers held in
Bolivia. The meeting, an initiative of Pope Francis and implemented by the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is a forum for the most excluded of the
world to interact in changing their situation. There was no requirement to be

Catholic to attend, and in fact Che Guevara T-shirts were very much in evidence.
The first meeting held in Rome was attended by groups as diverse as: the Asian
Social Institute from the Philippines, Border Agricultural Workers from the
US/Mexico Border, Farm Workers Association of Florida, Malawi Union for
Informal Sector, National Slum Dwellers Federation of India, Shack Dwellers
International/Zimbabwe Affiliate, and the Turkish Peasant Confederation.
A Radical Church is Nothing New
Franciss radical diplomacy is of a piece with his past life as a prelate and priest.
By declining to take up residence in the official papal apartments, he effectively
and peacefully occupied the Vatican. He has been demonstrating against
exclusion ever since, most notably when he broke with tradition and began to
wash the feet of women, prisoners and the sick on Holy Thursday as well as the
usual candidatesmembers of the visible church; the well-heeled and firmly
established in their parishes. As it is, he celebrates daily Mass with the people
who sweep St Peters Square and the staff of the guesthouse in which he lives.
Entry to the papal chapel had up to that point been the privilege of foreign
royalty and State visitors.
Just as leading from below exemplified by washing the feet of those one
leads/serves was radical at the birth of the Church and is totally biblical, so too
is radical action in favor of the excluded. Most observers, especially journalists
but also nominal Catholics, are unaware the faith is not confined to belief in its
theology. When the Pope says, as he did at both WMPMs, that consumerism has
led to war and displacement of peoples, he is not digressing from pastoral
themes as is reported by some journalists. Rather, he is referring to the
churchs social doctrine which its members are required to implement.
The unifying theme of the doctrine is the entitlement of each individual to the
goods of the earth; the essentials of life such as education (hence church
schools, technical schools and skills training), healthcare (church hospitals which
form the backbone of health services in much of the developing world) and
freedom from hunger (Catholic Action Groups such as Caritas and Catholic
Workers Movement). These are just three of what are called the Works of
Mercy which can be either corporal works or the more familiar spiritual works:
the more familiar pastoral themes considered by the secular world to be the
limit of the churchs concerns.
At the WMPM, Pope Francis was in combative mood, he said, Let us begin by
acknowledging that change is needed.I am speaking about problems common to
all Latin Americans and, more generally, to humanity as a whole.

He then pointed to the system that produces poverty: I wonder whether we can
see that these destructive realities are part of a system which has become
global. Do we realize that that system has imposed the mentality of profit at
any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature? If
such is the case, I would insist, let us not be afraid to say it: we want change,
real change, structural change. This system is by now intolerable.
Land, Roof, Work
Building on the theme of the inaugural WMPM in 2014, at which he called Land,
Roof and Work sacred rights, The Holy Father dwelt on the necessity for the
popular movements to participate alongside governments and international bodies
in securing those rights. Commending the work of popular movements he made
clear he was not advancing an ideology This rootedness in the barrio, the land,
the office, the labor union, this ability to see yourselves in the faces of others,
this daily proximity to their share of troubles and their little acts of heroism:
this is what enables you to practice the commandment of love, not on the basis
of ideas or concepts, but rather on the basis of genuine interpersonal encounter.
We do not love concepts or ideas; we love people.
Acknowledging that neither the Papacy nor the Church has a recipe for change,
he nevertheless proposed three tasks that would make a difference.
Put the Economy at the Service of Peoples
The first task is to put the economy at the service of peoples. A just economy
must create the conditions for everyone to be able to enjoy a childhood without
want, to develop their talents when young, to work with full rights during their
active years and to enjoy a dignified retirement as they grow older. It is an
economy where human beings, in harmony with nature, structure the entire
system of production and distribution in such a way that the abilities and needs
of each individual find suitable expression in social life. You, and other peoples
as well, sum up this desire in a simple and beautiful expression: to live well.
Such an economy is not only desirable and necessary, but also possible.The
available resources in our world, the fruit of the intergenerational labors of
peoples and the gifts of creation, more than suffice for the integral
development of each man and the whole man[ii] The problem is of another
kind.A system which, while irresponsibly accelerating the pace of production,
while using industrial and agricultural methods which damage Mother Earth in
the name of productivity, continues to deny many millions of our brothers and
sisters their most elementary economic, social and cultural rights.

Welfare programs geared to certain emergencies can only be considered

temporary responses. They will never be able to replace true inclusion, an
inclusion which provides worthy, free, creative, participatory and solidary work.
Along this path, popular movements play an essential role, not only by making
demands and lodging protests, but even more basically by being creative.
Work Towards Justice and Peace
The worlds peoples want to be artisans of their own destiny. They want their
culture, their language, their social processes and their religious traditions to be
respected. No actual or established power has the right to deprive peoples of
the full exercise of their sovereignty. Let us say NO to forms of colonialism
old and new. Let us say YES to the encounter between peoples and cultures.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
It was at this point that the apology was made to the people of Bolivia for
colonialism.
Environmental Protection
Our common home is being pillaged, laid waste and harmed with impunity.
Cowardice in defending it is a grave sin. We see with growing disappointment how
one international summit after another takes place without any significant
result. There exists a clear, definite and pressing ethical imperative to
implement what has not yet been done.
The Sleeping Giant
Beyond addressing the already socially active like the Popular Movements, and
holding out an olive branch to those who have left the church in disgust at its
many failings, Franciss challenge is to the millions of Catholics complacently
ticking off their checklists of daily devotions: Mass, rosary, Angelus, perhaps
Bible study, and weekly confession, a prison or hospital visit and of course
almsgiving, thereafter remaining content to bask in the glow of their
achievements. His example is meant for those who are able to sit through
endless news broadcasts of mass murder by States, genocide, induced poverty,
war and the forced migration and displacement that follow, without feeling
prompted to leave their comfort zones.
There was no visible or audible response from the international laity when the
Christian bishops of Gaza, (Catholic, Episcopalian and Orthodox) issued a joint
communiqu in 2014 calling for the end of the cycle in which every two or so
years there is a military assault on their country, and proposed that granting
Palestine official recognition as a State would be a move in that direction. The
Vatican has responded by recognizing Palestines statehood. To their credit, the
United States Conference of Bishops showed solidarity by leading pilgrimages to

the Holy Land followed by their own statement in support of Palestinian

Statehood. A similar statement was issued by Cardinal Vincent of Westminster
who visited Gaza in November 2014 to see for himself.
If just a fraction of ordinary Catholic laity had supported the appeal, at the
very least those with the power to intervene would have been inundated by
protest letters as they used to be during the struggle to free South Africa. If
the laity was more responsive, Aid agencies would not be short of cash as they
are today in Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere. However a straw poll of Christians
revealed the majority are not only yet to respond to the disasters of the day
(corporeally or spiritually), but are not up-to-date with the easily accessible
facts. For example, at the time of writing, young African migrants expelled from
Israel and deported to Uganda and Rwanda in exchange for arms from Israel,
travelled unnoticed to Libya via Sudan from where they hope to board unsafe
vessels to Europe. When asked how they would travel they answered simply,
People traders.
In conclusion, I would like to repeat: the future of humanity does not lie solely
in the hands of great leaders, the great powers and the elites. It is
fundamentally in the hands of peoples and in their ability to organize.I am with
you. Let us together say from the heart: no family without lodging, no rural
worker without land, no laborer without rights, no people without sovereignty, no
individual without dignity, no child without childhood, no young person without a
future, no elderly person without a venerable old age. Keep up your struggle and,
please, take great care of Mother Earth.
Should papal diplomacy prove ineffective in reconciling the church with society,
a potential force for so much more good would be lost, especially to Africa
whose non-performing leaders are yet to apologize to their people for the poor
governance that has produced so many failing states and forced migrants. It
would be a shame if a century from now, Catholics found themselves having to
apologize for indifference to the slow holocaust of the Palestinians and to the
descendants of displaced people.
Notes
[i] Source of Pope Franciss speech: Radio Vaticana News July 10 2015
[ii] PAUL VI, Encyclical Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 14: AAS 59
(1967), 264.
Bolivia, Christianity, Palestine, Vatican
Mary Serumaga

Mary Serumaga is a Ugandan writer. Her essays may be found in Transition (JSTOR),
King's Review and Pambazuka News.
More articles by this author