I AM NOT A FAN OF POPE FRANCIS: It Is Mercy That This Age Needs More Than Ever Before

I was born to hear of only one Pope, he was Pope John Paul II, he was my little idea of a Pope, in fact I thought his other name was Pope. It was later as a growing child and a young adolescent, I realized that the Pope was elected and could leave the office. I heard of the Marian Pius IX, the Most Beloved John XIII and the Smiling John Paul I who lasted for only 30 days as Pope. When John Paul II died, I followed every moment of it in 2005 to his very last minute. It was like the end of the World, I had read and digested many of his encyclicals, and he was a great and passionate writer.

Benedict XVI arose in the shoes of JPII and he was a scholar per excellence. He was the quintessence of orthodoxy and the Pope at my Ordination as a priest 7 years ago. His Encyclicals, Deus Caritas Est, Spe Salvi and Caritate Et Veritate are indeed classics, but we woke up one morning to the news that we was retiring, it shook the world to its foundations. Can a pope retire?

Then arose a relatively not so known cardinal who chose a name that was never known to historians as a papal name. Pope Francis, became Pope and was quite elderly, I did not know much about him, he was not like the charismatic and many languages speaking, John Paul II nor the Scholarly Benedict XVI. I was not so enthusiastic about reading his works as I did the others.

Then he wrote his encyclical on Climate Change, Environmental Conservation and Care of the Earth, Laudato Si. He struck a chord in me. I was an advocate of tree planting and environmental conservation for some years now, hmmm, a Pope wrote an encyclical on that? It was and still is a topical issue and matters on the care of the earth, our common home. Yes, care goes beyond the care of the sick, the poor and the down trodden, the depletion of mother earth was also a crime that cries to heaven. Kudos to Pope Francis.

I was just reading his works on that and the commentaries on it, and then he struck again: The Extra Ordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. What!!! A Year of Mercy, O Pope Francis got me there.

There is nothing the world needs now than a message of mercy. Mercy is the greatest attribute of God. It His mercy that wakes up this morning, it is His Mercy that makes the Sun to Shine and sustain the air we breathe. It is His mercy that has led us to this time of the year and we trust in His mercy to lead us to the end of the year and into 2016.

By Rev Fr Thaddeus Apka