By KATHERINE BAKAITIS
Staff Writer
TIME’s Person of the Year is a prestigious honor given to the most influential and popular person of the year. 2013 has seen the rise of many influential and popular people (Miley Cyrus first comes to mind), but it is only those who have undoubtedly spread positive (with the exceptions being Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Ayatollah Khomeini) and powerful inspiration throughout the world. While this wasn’t the first year a Pope has been elected Person of the Year, this is the first year where the decision to elect a Pope actually makes sense.
Personally, not being a Roman Catholic (or part of any religion), I probably could not have cared less about the resigning of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of a probable new pedophilic-lenient Pope. Despite my initial indifference towards the whole formality, I did enjoy the Facebook photo postings that compared the old Pope’s elaborate greeting on the Vatican balcony to the new Pope’s greeting after being elected. When I saw that picture of the newly-elected Pope Francis in his plain white Cardinal outfit, after being elected, smiling and waving shyly to the cheering crowd, I couldn’t help but grin approvingly.
From day one, Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, quickly proved to have a different style when approaching the duties of the Papacy. For one, he likes to sneak out of the Vatican at night with Archibishop Konrad Krajewski (who’s the Vatican almoner) disguised as a regular priest to pay visits to the deprived and homeless of Rome. Pope Francis has also become a strong advocate against capitalism, writing about it in his document titled Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), explaining that “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life,” he writes, “today, we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”
Pope Francis has also earned the title as the “people’s Pope” through his humble and hard-working past that has made his the person he is today. The Pope held many odd jobs back in the day such as sweeping floors and running lab tests before pursuing ministry, and even working as a bouncer in a bar in Buenos Aries! Pope Francis also played basketball when he was young. He’s also a supporter of his local football club in Buenos Aires, San Lorenzo de Almagro. The Pope recently met with the heads of FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, and he wasn’t shy to share his message about joys of sport and the destructive power of commercialization. “Sport is harmony, but if money and success prevail as the aim, this harmony crumbles.” He also warned against the commodification of athletes, which reduces humans to “mere trading material.”
Pope Francis is not soft, though. His stance on Vatican corruption and the mafia has brought out the bad-ass side of him. The mafia and the Vatican have had a long, quiet, mutually beneficial relationship. The mafia made investments in the Vatican and used the church’s financial system to launder money. Pope Francis is now working to reform church finances and dissolve such corruption. Quoting Jesus, he said, “It would be better for [the corrupt man] if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea.” Naturally, the mafia is a little more than displeased. Francis has spoken against organized crime and even called out particular groups by names, including a mafia organization in southern Italy that is reportedly unhappy with the Vatican reforms. A leading anti-mob prosecutor from Calabria is concerned that the Pope could be a target for assassination, but Pope Francis has done nothing to indicate that he cares. Like I said; bad-ass!
Some of the smaller things he does turn out to be the most wonderful. He gives out hugs to people who have devastating ailments, he has let someone ride in the Popemobile simply because he asked, and he let a little boy who was hugging his legs and running around him during a speech sit on his special chair. Pope Francis understands and accepts the fact that families are changing, and with an increase in divorce rates and same-sex marriage, he encourages the rest of the church to keep up with the times. He urged ministers and officials to “find a new balance” and warned against focusing too much on gay marriage, gay rights, and abortion: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will,” he said, “who am I to judge?”
The Pope also encourages church officials to live more modestly and ditch the fancy duds and jewel-encrusted chalices, such as he practices. He was also the first Pope in history to wash a woman’s feet when he visited Rome’s Casal Del Marmo Youth Detention Center in March. Speaking of different, Pope Francis celebrated the end of Ramadan this year by reaching out to Muslims. “I want to send a hello to Muslims around the world,” he said. “I hope that Christians and Muslims engage in mutual respect, especially through the education of new generations.” Compared to Pope Benedict’s comment in 2006 calling the Islamic text “evil and inhuman,” I would say that this is a slight improvement in tolerance. The Pope will also randomly call people who send him letters (or even if you don’t), and he has as many followers on Twitter as Justin Bieber. Probably my favorite quality about him is that he has the special ability to tick off the conservatives, a.k.a. the bad Christians at Fox News.
When the head of the most popular branch of the most followed religion in the world begins to turn heads with his above-average humility, then it’s something worth noting. He holds massive influence over billions of worshipers, some of whom have power themselves, and if he can turn them to “the good side” of acceptance and non-hypocrisy, then he could change the world.
