• BY AKBAR AHMED, CRAIG CONSIDINE

The iconic spiritual leaders of our time took decades of struggle and growth before they were formed into the universally recognized symbols that we know and love. Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela are universally recognized examples. Pope Francis is an exception.

He comes to us, as it were, fully formed. In terms of his tenure as popehe is in his infancy and yet Francis seems to have hit his stride.

To understand the pope’s approach, method and message, take a look at his visit to the island of Lampedusa. The small island in the Mediterranean has become a battleground of the larger ideas that are in conflict in Europe. It has been visited by rightwing leaders who denounce immigrants in crudely racist and xenophobic terms. The pope’s visit therefore became symbolic of a counter-balancing approach, one that was more welcoming, all-embracing, caring and compassionate.

The pope spoke of the “immigrants dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of hope and became vehicles of death.” He shared his distress at the “tragedy” which has become like “a painful thorn in my heart.” He felt “shame” at the plight of those who were suffering and the indifference of the world. “The Church” he assured the immigrants, ”is at your side as you seek a more dignified life for yourselves and your families.”

The pope used the plight of the mainly African immigrants to raise larger issues that afflict all humanity in the age of globalization. He condemned what he called “the globalization of indifference.” He berated “the culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial; they offer a fleeting and empty illusion which results in indifference to others.”

The pope also embarked, again almost immediately, on reaching out to the Muslim world. Relations between Muslims and Christians had not really recovered since the time when his predecessor Pope Benedict XV1 gave a lecture in September 2006 in which he quoted a passage that described Islam as “evil and inhuman.” Even at the time the present pope, then Archbishop in Buenos Aires, registered his disagreement stating, “Pope Benedict’s statement[s] don’t reflect my opinions.” Click for full article;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/10/08/salam-and-salutation-to-pope-francis/

Posted by F. Sheikh