A Pope for our times

The death of Pope Francis was expected given his frail health. But I still received the news with shock and sadness.

- BOO CHANCO

He was a Pope for our times, the most relevant Pope in my lifetime. He worked to guide his flock through the challenges in our troubled world today.

Pope Francis wasn't impressed by the pomp and splendor that comes with high office in the Catholic Church. The first pope to come from the Global South, he wanted a Church that prioritizes humility and service, as Christ showed during his earthly ministry.

The writings of Pope Francis reveal a heart that beats for the good of people. His encyclical, Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers), is an extensive exposition of his concerns. Most relevant to us today is his call "for a better kind of politics, one truly at the service of the common good."

Bull's eye on our problem as a Catholic country that has failed to progress economically nor managed to live cohesively as one nation. We have no sense of common good. And our politics benefited our elites at the expense of a decent human existence for those at the bottom of the social structure.

Pope Francis criticized this "lack of concern for the vulnerable as it hides behind a populism that exploits them demagogically for its own purposes."

Pope Francis warned of "an unhealthy 'populism' when individuals are able to politically exploit a people's culture, under whatever ideological banner, for their own personal advantage or continuing grip on power. Or when, at other times, they seek popularity by appealing to the basest and most selfish inclinations of certain sectors of the population. This becomes all the more serious when, whether in cruder or more subtle forms, it leads to the usurpation of institutions and laws."