Pope Francis: A new international sensation!

Today is the date that newly-elected Pope Francis will be formally installed at Supreme Pontiff of the billion strong Catholic Church. So far in the first few days of his Pontificate, this Pope has amazed millions of people for his humility and simplicity. A case in point was when he went back to his Vatican owned hotel near the Piazza Navona to pay his bills and collect his luggage. Being Vatican owned Pope Francis could have just sent his orderlies to get his bags and as for the bill, charge it to the account of the Holy See. But he would have none of that. Later he took a bus with the other Cardinals as they moved to another place within the Vatican.

A day after he was elected Pope, he kept his promise to the Blessed Virgin Mary and went to the Basilica Mariae Majore (Mary Major), an ancient church which was a mere ten-minute walk from my hotel when we were in Rome last October for the canonization of St. Pedro Calungsod. Pope Francis did not take the waiting Mercedes Benz, but took a standard Volkswagen sedan and entered the church on its side door.

This Basilica (The biggest Basilica in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary) contains the relics of the crib of our Lord Jesus Christ when he was born in Bethlehem, which lies underneath the main Altar. There is also an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary which early Christians believe was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. Pope Francis placed a bouquet in the altar there.

Last Saturday, he met with the international press at the Vatican Auditorium, which was filled to the brim with journalists from world over. Watching over the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), I found it to be a candid, frank and friendly exchange between the new Pope and the press. When he gave them his blessing, he did not bless then with the usual Catholic way, but blessed each one of them in silence. Yes, he even blessed a seeing eye Labrador dog who was brought by a blind journalist.

I was watching one of the cartoons about that meeting with the journalists, with the caption, “Here’s my breaking news! The Vatican just elected a new Pope… and guess what… he is still Catholic!” While this maybe a joke, but the truth is… we expect Pope Francis to be a reformer… as he pointed out clearly, “I want a poor church and a church for the poor.” For sure, this message has already stirred controversy within the clergy that has for many years enjoyed a life of luxury. No doubt, by this fact alone, it is enough for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to look inward and ask themselves… “Are we just too comfortable with the way we live?”

At this point allow me to reprint two of the emails that I got in response to my Saturday article on the new Pope. This comment came from Pier Angeli Basadre, HS, English Teacher in Xavier School, San Juan who said, “Dear Sir, Thanks for your article. I am full of admiration to read the column of a Catholic Journalist. It is very seldom that we have your kind of “Journalism” in our rather secularized world.

Thanks for calling a spade a spade and for not sparing your words at the service of the faith. I hope and pray that more journalists will take a real, Catholic stand especially about issues that concern our Catholic Faith. Keep up the good work. God Bless.” Thank you for your kind and motivating words Pier Angeli Basadre. Here’s the other email sent by Dr. Edna Wina M. Hernandez, DSM.

“Dear Mr. Avila, I am an ardent reader of all columns in the Philippine STAR mainly because of the paper’s format and the quality of reads that I am confronted with daily. I do my blog everyday in my Facebook account under my other email add [email protected] but for personal views. I created another email MonteOro (mountain of gold) through which I am now sending my thoughts as inspired by what you wrote today in your Shooting Straight column. You and Mr. Boo Chanco are my most read columnists, in addition to Ms. Barbara Gonzalez’ Second Wind. I attended once her special class on creative writing way back 2009. I never missed reading her column since then and yours too. I simply rejoiced at the selection of Pope Francis as our new Pope.

I felt a surge of blood circulating with glee in my body system at his being chosen as the New Vicar of the Catholic Church. I believe it is already God’s initial step at reforms in our beloved Church with reminders of these basic traits that are now lost amongst us on earth: Humility, simplicity, servanthood, Godliness, love for the poor and the needy. May my simple thoughts that I am sending to you now help cement my, our desire for better people to run our government. The qualities, the character that Pope Francis has shown are by no means what we seek from our country’s leaders. God bless you more, May you continue to inspire our readers like me through your column.”

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