Beyond shorelines

Today’s chatter on who will run in the 2016 elections demonstrates how our line of sight ends at the seashore. We rarely look beyond.

To what?

Come Wednesday, to take one example, Filipino Catholic youngsters are among those invited, from 29 other Asian countries, to next door South Korea.  Pope Francis launches from Daejon the Sixth Asian Youth Day ceremonies. 

Francis will beatify, at an August 18 mass, 124 Korean martyrs from the church’s first entry into this East-Asian nation in the 18th century. It will also demonstrate what CNN has aptly called “The Francis Effect.”

Start asking around—Catholics and atheists alike. Suddenly, it's easy to find people—gays to, divorced couples –eager to share how one man, in just over a year, has tapped into their pain and gave hope.

Focus on the numbers and you miss the story, cautions the Rev. John Unni, of Boston. There are plenty of ex-Catholics, as in Latin America.   “But how many are now deciding whether to come to the party."

Since his election as 265^th successor to Peter, in March 2013, Francis has flayed bishops who spend money “like they're auditioning for MTV Cribs”. He chastised priests who forget they're servants, not princes.

He also assailed the Italian mafia, on its own home ground, ex-communicating them. Instead, he visited families of those assassinated to offer comfort.

He called for a truce in the culture wars, refused to judge gay people and reached out to Muslims and those of other creeds.. Francis hugged a man covered with tumors, washed the feet of Muslim prisoners and wore a clown nose—just for giggles.

Francis formed   a group of cardinals—including Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston—to reform the curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that has a reputation for more shady deals than Tammany Hall. He, refused to live in the Apostolic Palace  choosing Spartan lodgings at a Vatican hostel.

Just before taking off   for Korea, he lined up for lunch with Vatican blue collar workers at the cafeteria. “He showed up, got his tray, silverware, stood in line and we served him, “recalls cafeteria chef Franco Piani. He then ate with the workers from the Vatican’s pharmacy, chatting about their families, soccer, the economy.

The whole time, people were snapping the inevitable selfies with their cameras, cellphones and iPads.  He wasn’t bothered a bit.  After giving the group his blessing, he left in his assistant’s car to his Domus Sancta Martha residence.  “We were all caught off guard,” Piani said. “But it was one of the best things that could happen...”

Francis made the cover of Time, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone and The Advocate, a gay and lesbian magazine. He said it's immoral when the media reports every move of the market but ignores the death of a homeless person.

Be open and merciful; he urged bishops, Forget the robes and support young people in making  a mess in the streets;  to secure justice for the poorest. Be a field hospital for this sin-sick world.

Pew Research Center poll  says more than 71% say he's a change for the better. “Those kinds of numbers haven't been seen since the prime of Pope John Paul II."

What she likes most about Francis, though, is the way he's changed the church's tone from Thou Shalt Not to Thou Shall. Maureen Sterk Duns noted.   “This is not a slam on Benedict or John Paul II,” she adds.  Those Popes just spoke a different language, wrote for a different crowd.

An accordion player, Duns can't help describing the difference between Francis and previous popes in musical terms. "He's got his own sense of the beats of the church. He's more merengue than Mozart.”

Francis was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1969 and led the society's Argentine branch from 1973 to 1979. He says he joined the Jesuits for three reasons: their missionary spirit, their community and their discipline.

Because of the Pope's popularity, inquiries to join the Society of Jesus   doubled in the last year, to five or six each week, says the Rev. Chuck Frederico, vocations director for the Jesuit provinces on the US East Coast. "I can barely keep up. Many of these men who want to join the Jesuits say they heard about the society through Francis.  Some .haven't even been to church in years."

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio turned over the palace into a hospital run by a religious order for the poor. He took the bus to work from his rented two room apartment. He also recruited priests to go into the city's most dangerous slums, called "villas."

In these places, the clerical collar does not offer much protection. Priests have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered. Still, Bergoglio often showed up unannounced to drink tea with parishioners and support local priests.

And in 2009, when one of his priests received a death threat for having spoken out against drugs in the villa, Bergoglio walked the streets, providing himself as a target and a dare for anyone wanting to retaliate. "They were never bothered again>”

Call that   the "Francis effect," live and in the flesh, says CNN. And after Korea, we will see that here in the Philippines, come January 2015.