Pope of the century

On 24th April, 2005, I remember that with so many other friars I was also seated in a TV room in Kerala, waiting to see the new pope. As the window opened and Joseph Ratzinger came out, so many of the viewers went out of the room with disappointment.

I still believed that there is something going to happen in the church and after all my belief was not based on the Pope or the Catholic Church but on Jesus. A renovation with him as the Pope was impossible and no one expected anything other than what he did till today. Nothing special about that.

But still I personally think that there were three good occasions that make be remembered for a long time.

In 2012 he met Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary icon as a friend and urged for some changes. My theme is not on what he discussed with him but he had the openness to meet him at least. Fidel Castro was never considered or taken positively by the church. To me it is more important as I come from a land (Kerala), where the Bishops and church representatives consider the people who follow communist ideas as infidels and treat them not as friends. During the time of state elections pastoral letters were read urging not to give vote for these ‘atheists’.  May be because I do see some metal in their life, I have photos of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara on my wall.

In 2011, Pope called on 12 astronauts circling the earth in space shuttle Endeavour from Vatican. This is history, and absolutely history. He appreciated their efforts and courage to do that and told that they are ‘our representatives spearheading humanity’s exploration of new spaces and possibilities for our future’. This gesture is from a person representing the Catholic Church, which one made Galileo pay his life for telling a scientific truth. This is from a Pope who is the head of the Catholic Church which once were reluctant to accept anesthesia when it was first discovered.

In December 2012 he became part of the social networking site of Twitter sending his tweet through @Pontifex from an iPad. He was a modern pope in a narrow sense but still looking at a person from the angle of positivity helps me to stay positive in life and in church.