Pope Francis from “My Side of the Table”

CEBU, Philippines – Perhaps it is due to his being veritably the “People’s Pope,” popular, that a celibate Roman Catholic priest from Manila, who regularly offers Mass on TV, would like to address Pope Francis as “Lolo Kiko.” He has his reasons for doing so and I am open to “his truth” or “his side of the table.” However, I personally cannot address the Roman Pontiff that way because he is only a little over three years older than I am.  Applying my “Analogy of the Table” principle (The Freeman, September 21, 2014, p. 16), I say “iyaha pod na,” as we Cebuano say, (meaning “that is how he views the table,” which in this case is Pope Francis).

A married Roman Catholic priest from Cebu, a columnist in another Cebu daily newspaper, applies a nobler title to Pope Francis – Prophet.  I agree with this description of our present Pope because he is as brave as St. John the Baptist who courageously condemned King Herod’s immorality in taking his brother Philip’s wife as his mistress or paramour – “kabit.”  Our Lord Jesus Christ even called him as greater than a prophet.

According to that Cebuano married priest, Pope Francis deserves to be called a prophet because he is guiding the Roman Catholic Church against “clericalism” which “has made the clergy aloof and legalistic in serving the people.”  He added that our present Pope is encouraging Roman Catholics to be prophets like the latter “by speaking up in the face of the abuses and privileged ways of the clergy.”

By the way, as long as a priest does not get married, he belongs to the clergy and has the right to be supported by stole fees coming from offering Mass and administering the sacraments of KBL (Kasal, Bunyag, Lubong, which means “patay o buhi, sapi sa pari”).  As soon as he contracts marriage, whether civilly or in church, he is longer entitled to those fees (“kun magminyo ang pari, dili na siya ka panapi”).

Since they no longer belong to the clergy, married priests are no longer bound by the so called “esprit d’corps’ in French.  They can now freely write about the “tyranny of the clergy” for the good of the “unchaste celibates” or “celibates with lovers or paramours” or “celibates with kabits.”  Let me repeat for the nth time that it is for their own good and for the good of Roman Catholics under their spiritual care that I am calling their attention to their anomalous states.

To the two Ps describing Pope Francis discussed above, “popular” and “prophet,” I would like to add two Fs; namely, fearless and faithful.  A previous article in The Freeman (Octobler 5, 2014, p. 17)  titled “Our Fearless Pope Francis” expressed my view of his fearlessness. My second description for Pope Francis is that he is faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ’s teachings as well as to the documents of Vatican II Ecumenical Council’s documents.

When I heard that our present Pope chose the name “Francis” upon his election as the successor of Pope Benedict XVI who resigned, the name rang a bell and brought back to my mind happy memories of Italy where I sojourned as an SVD seminarian (1962-1964) and as a diocesan priest (1975-1977), particularly that of Rome and Assisi, St. Francis’ native place.

Before the Vatican, an independent small state adjacent to Rome, where the Basilica of St. Peter is located, the Basilica of St. John Lateran used to be the Holy See or the head of all the churches all over the world because it was there that the Pope was residing.  Across the street from this basilica is a huge statue of St. Francis of Assisi with outstretched arms as though trying to prevent the church from toppling down.

The symbolism, according to the tourist guide, is that during the time of St. Francis the Roman Catholic Church was about to crumble due to attacks from the inside (the scandals perpetrated by clerics and members of the Church hierarchy) and from the outside (the heretics and others hurling their attacks on the Roman Catholic Church). “Il Poverello” di Assisi saved the Church from collapse. Let us hope that the non-materialistic Argentinian Pope, of Italian descent, will save the Roman Catholic Church from the disaster that comes from materialism.

If we read his biography, Pope Francis is really faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ who was born poor, died poor and practiced what he was preaching that “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  It is really unfortunate that we hear of a local “Monsignor” who was frowning upon our present Pontiff’s not availing of the luxurious vehicle (no, it’s not a BMW) to which the latter is entitled.

Being a friend of the media and being a netizen, Pope Francis is indeed faithful to Vatican II’s “aggiornamento” or being abreast with the advances in science and technology. Biblically speaking, he is in the world but not of the world!

VIVA IL PAPA!