Pope Francis has finally met with his predecessor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. No such meeting of this sort has taken place for at least 600 years.

What took place in the meeting we do not know for certain and, according to BBC’s Alan Johnson, “We will never know the details of their talks.”

It was a simple lunch meeting between the two of them. While details are not available, it is certain that this meeting is far more cordial than the last such meeting of two popes.

That last meeting in 1294 saw Pope Celestine V who had resigned after only five months as pope meeting Boniface VIII who had been had been elected days after Celestine V’s resignation. Boniface VIII then had his predecessor imprisoned. Poor Celestine was dead within a year.

Fortunately, Pope Francis has only spoken warmly Pope Benedict and one of his first acts as Pope was to telephone Benedict at his temporary residence in Castel Gandolfo, where the former pontiff had been watching the proceedings on television.

Saturday’s lunch was a bit of a protocol nightmare, seeing that there was no protocol for this type of meeting which was never expected to be necessary. The results were a blend of formality and informality—all carefully choreographed.

Benedict greeted Francis with a warm embrace and the two priests then prayed together in the villa’s private chapel where Pope Francis knelt beside Benedict, shunning the prepared papal kneeler. “No,” Francis insisted, “We are brothers. We pray together.”

It was indeed another sign of the new pope’s humility.

The new head of the Catholic Church is usually elected after the death of the previous pope and there is no public record of any previous meeting between an incumbent pope and a former pope. Hence the protocol nightmare.

One thing certainly on the agenda for this meeting was the passing of a top secret document from Benedict to Francis. The document was prepared by Benedict regarding last year’s information leaks.

Pope Francis has chosen to begin the Church's most important liturgical season on Sunday with a Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter's Square. This will be followed by six more liturgies during the coming week which will conclude with the Easter Sunday Mass and the Urbi et Orbi blessing.

One marked difference between this pope and the last is clearly seen in the clothes they choose to wear. Pope Francis dresses very simply, preferring to wear plain black shoes under a simple white habit rather than the red leather loafers and ermine-trimmed cape worn by his predecessor.

Furthermore, Pope Francis places himself on the very same level as his guests, rather than greeting them from a throne on an elevated platform. This is being seen as a powerful gesture after centuries and centuries of Vatican extravagance.

Pope Francis has also started inviting guests to his early morning Mass - including Vatican gardeners, street sweepers, kitchen staff and maids working at the hotel where he is currently staying.

In a stunning announcement, the pope has scheduled to celebrate Holy Thursday Mass—not in St. Peter’s or even St. John’s basilicas—but in Casal del Marmo, Rome's prison for minors. Pope Francis intends to hold mass for the young prisoners and will wash the feet of 12 inmates in commemoration of Jesus’ washing of the feet of the 12 disciples.

This seems to be a personal tradition of this new pope, begun when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires and would visit jails, hospitals and other places where the poor and rejected would meet.

According to Agence France-Presse, Pope Francis has spoken in favor of narrowing the gap between laypeople and the Church and where he chooses to share Mass and wash the feet of others is a certain sign of his ever-unfolded attitude toward the poor and rejected.

While there is a difference in style, there is a "radical" convergence in their spirituality, according to Civilta Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit magazine.

"They are two figures of the highest spirituality, whose relationship with life is completely anchored in God," the magazine wrote. "This radicalness is shown in Pope Benedict's shy and kind bearing, and in Pope Francis it is revealed by his immediate sweetness and spontaneity."


The Church has awaited this very type of pope.







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Tuesday, March 19, 2013 marks the true beginning of something intriguing, even amazing. The inauguration of Pope Francis has already been a study in firsts and breaking of traditions. It is now emerging as a fulfillment of the hopes that have been expressed since the pontiff’s election by the college of cardinals.

The firsts continue, to be sure. He will be the first pope in hundreds of years to have lunch with his predecessor. The patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church was in attendance at the papal inauguration for the first time since 1054’s Great Schism. The Chief Rabbi of Rome was present as well as representatives from so many other religions.

He was the first to bless a dog in the Vatican on Saturday, breaking ceremonial rules. The dog was a service dog for a blind radio-journalist. Today, he stopped the post-inauguration tour to bless a disabled man, kiss babies, grasp hands with the crowds.

His symbols of power are simpler. The Fisherman’s Ring is gold-plated and not the usual solid gold. His inauguration was a full one hour shorter than that of Benedict XVI. This will be a more modest pope. He said on Saturday, “Ah, how I would like a Church that is poor… of the poor, for the poor.”

His address called for compassion for the poor and oppressed; to stand for the outcast and ignored like St. Francis Xavier. More than that, he demonstrated a concern for the outcast by having Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe in attendance.

Mugabe, 89 years old, is an outcast in world politics because of accusations of human rights abuses. He has been banned from traveling to the European Union. The Vatican, however, is not a part of the EU and Italy has not impeded travel through its airspace and territory for those whose destination is Vatican City.

Pope Francis is open-armed to the outcasts who may even be guilty of great evil. After all, how better to change a darkened heart than to draw it close in a loving embrace? And forgiveness does not imply guiltlessness.

In a moving blessing to those present he said: “Since many of you are not members of the Catholic Church, and others are not believers, I cordially give this blessing silently, to each of you, respecting the conscience of each, but in the knowledge that each of you is a child of God. May God bless you!”

He is sensitive to the beliefs or non-beliefs of others.

He called for environmental care and for civil justice and especially for mercy among the peoples of the earth.  Perhaps the most powerful statement was “We must not be afraid of goodness or even tenderness.”

On the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeldt are rewriting the events that have dominated the past decade, Pope Francis is inaugurated with calls for mercy and tenderness.

Tenderness. Now, there is an idea whose time surely has come.




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As if his career in Buenos Aires were not indication enough, the opening days of the papacy of Pope Francis I have already revealed his character and possibly the future of his reign in striking ways. He has broken with tradition in several ways and has shown that this administration of the Roman Catholic Church may be unlike any other in history or at least for a long, long time.

We know of his habit for taking the bus to work when he was cardinal in Argentina. We know that he had washed the feet of AIDS patients in Buenos Aires. We know that he preferred quiet diplomacy over blustering demonstration.

Now in his first days as Pope Francis I he has taken a name previously unused by the popes. He has addressed his colleagues from the pulpit instead of the papal throne. He has dined informally with them and has joked with them about God forgiving them for what they have done in electing him. He has stumbled ascending the throne and has smiled about it. He has asked the faithful by mouth and by Tweet to pray for him.

Today, Sunday March 17, 2013, Pope Francis has broken with tradition yet again. In Day Five of his papacy in his first Sunday address from the Vatican window, he spoke to the crowd without a written speech but from the heart. He spoke only in Italian.

There were 150,000 people in St. Peter’s Square and he greeted them with the simple buon giorno (good morning).  He spoke of the forgiveness and mercy of God. His homily had said that we are much harder on ourselves and on our fellow human beings than God ever is toward us.

After Mass at St. Anne’s Church, he stepped toward the huge crowd and greeted them individually. One man in the crowd actually was patting the pope on the back. It has been a long time since any pope was so at ease with the crowds.

The new pope’s installation on Tuesday will be attended by ecumenical luminaries from the Eastern Church, as well. In a surprising move, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I will be attending the ceremonies as will Metropolitan Ioannis of Pergamon. The Patriarchs of Constantinople have not attended since the church split between east and west in 1054—almost one thousand years.

It may be simply irony that both Pope and Patriarch have taken previously unused names but it does invite wonder. What is interesting is that when Pope Francis—then Archbishop Bergoglio of Buenos Aires—was in Argentina, he served as Ordinary for the Eastern Rite Church who had no Ordinary of their own there. Pope Francis has a long history of reaching out to the Eastern Church.

Even the Russian Orthodox Church, long resentful of Rome, has opened the door to a future meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kiril of Moscow.

Most intriguing of all, perhaps, is the invitation sent to Rome’s Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni.  This may not be a surprise considering the close relationship that he maintained with the Jewish community in Argentina.  Even the conservatism of Pope Francis seems no trouble to Rabbi David Rosen who calls it  “the sweetest of ironies” that many times the Church’s conservatives have the best disposition toward Judaism.

We are witnessing something exciting and every one of us—Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, Agnostics and Atheists—should take it all in and hope for the best for Pope Francis I.

If you are a praying person, do as his Tweet requests.




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March 15, 2013 - Of course. It is the Ides of March and an attack on the leader of a Roman Empire emerges.

2057 years ago, a Roman colossus was attacked by little men from the Roman Senate and so ended Julius Caesar. Today, small-minded men coordinate and consolidate an attack on the pope.

It was called "a dirty war" and a young Jesuit provincial who was not yet cardinal or even bishop was unable to recover two Jesuits abducted by government thugs in Argentina in 1976. Well over 30 years later, a journalist comes forward with his telling of the story.

In his account, the un-named journalist offers the opinion that Fr. Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis I) did not do enough to obtain the release of the captured Jesuits. What biographers of Pope Francis I have declared is that he was working through back channels and even humiliating himself and his position to advocate for mercy from the Argentine dictator Jorge Videla.

He celebrated Mass for the dictator and offered his clerical services to incur favor and obtain the release of the prisoners through more diplomatic ways. This was not in keeping with the Jesuits who were publicly rallying against the Chilean dictators of the same time.

However, it was in strict keeping with Bergoglio's own character: never gathering attention to himself, choosing the path of humility and simplicity. What may be his great strengths of humility and simplicity may be a double-edged sword used against him by those who do not understand the strength of a humble heart.

That humble heart shows itself again and again with each passing day. When he was ascending the throne of St. Peter, he stumbled on his way up but smiled and continued up unabated. When he addressed his assembled cardinals, the spoke from the pulpit and not from the throne.

Whatever scandals and accusations continue to rock the Church, it becomes apparent that this pope will meet them head-on with humility... just like his Savior did.

As I have said before, I am not a Roman Catholic but there is something moving and inspiring about seeing someone take the role of Vicar of Christ and take it seriously in all its implications.





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The thrill over the election of Pope Francis I is escalating more than diminishing in the passing of the early hours and day since the conclusion of the conclave.

The college of cardinals are beginning to speak about their choice and some, like Cardinal Dolan, are positively effusive about their choice. Dolan laughingly reported that during a casual supper with his former colleagues, the Pope said to them "May God forgive you for what you have done."

That self-effacing humor and humility is indicative of the character of the former cardinal who would ride a bus to work and even rode the bus with his cardinals instead of the "popemobile."

This is a man of compassion and grace for the abandoned and ignored. Perhaps his most famous act as a cardinal in Buenos Aires was the washing of the feet of AIDS patients there.

While he has a great concern for the poor and the neglected, he does remain a strong conservative in the areas of same-sex marriage and other social issues. He has been called a "compassionate conservative" and that is a worrisome phrase that first came into vogue as a description of George H.W. Bush and was then adopted as a campaign slogan by George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential campaign. Still, I am more optimistic about the use of that phrase with this pope.

His father was an Italian immigrant to Argentina and worked on the railroads. A disease in his teenage years left the future pope with only one lung. His life experiences seem to have made many character-impressions on him. He is humble and frugal. He does not like extravagance and he pays his own way.

In fact, the rent of the house where he stayed while in Rome was payed with his own money. He is concerned with setting a proper model for the lifestyles of priests and bishops.

The first non-European pope in 1,300 years, he told the audience in St. Peter's Square "pray for me." The cardinals, he said, had to go to the ends of the world to find him. That was a surprise to many, especially the Italians, who considered Cardinal Scola of Milan to be the sure successor.

The Italian bishops even blundered into a "Dewey Defeats Truman" scenario by sending a congratulatory message to Scola, celebrating his victory. Seeing the white smoke, they knew it must be Scola to have been elected so quickly and they sent the ill-advised message. Embarrassing.

There will be changes during this papacy. Openly gay clergy? Certainly not. Married clergy? Probably not. Females in the priesthood? Well, maybe in the diaconate.

But at least the Europeans have lost the choke-hold on the Church and will continue to do so. The plurality of Italians in the college of cardinals will undergo a dramatic change as Pope Francis begins to appoint his own cardinals. As the number of non-European cardinals increase, the choice of pope from the Old World will diminish more and more in the next elections.

There will be a new era of transparency, too. Struggling with the financial and moral issues of the last years, this pope will meet them head on and stand for the oppressed and for simplicity.

The stage has been set for an American, an African, an Asian pope and the Church may truly regain an authority of culture to speak to the whole world.

And it begins with transparency and humility.




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The conclave of March, 2013 is over after what appears to be only five ballot rounds. The white smoke appeared and the declaration “Habemus Papam” (“We have a Pope”) was made to the crowd in St. Peter’s square.

When a cardinal has been selected by the college of cardinals to be pope, he is taken into a private chapel and asked two questions: Do you want the job? and By what name will you administer the church?”

When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen and asked those questions, he answers were obviously “yes” and “Francis I.”

It is a surprise in many ways that Cardinal Bergoglio was chosen. First, he is the first pope chosen from the western side of the Atlantic Ocean. He is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Second, he is a Jesuit. This is astonishing because of the antipathy that many Catholic orders feel towards the Society of Jesus.

I once asked my Jesuit friend, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., if there would ever be a Jesuit pope and he snorted and said, “No cardinal would ever vote for one us.”

It is interesting to hear the commentators talk about Bergoglio’s choice of the name “Francis I.” A new name for what may be a new focus for the papacy. So far, each one I have heard has said with glistening eyes that it is wonderful that the pope would choose to honor “Blessed St. Francis of Assisi” in this way. Obviously this pope would follow the simple life of St. Francis and establish a humbler model of the papacy. While those sentiments may be true and I hope they are, they are forgetting the new pope’s Jesuit background.

His choice is almost certainly also based on the life and legacy of St. Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits alongside St. Ignatius Loyola. Pope Benedict XVI had said of Ignatius and Francis that their passion was for carrying the Gospel to those who had been ignored.

Standing on behalf of the ignored is what we may hope to see in Pope Francis I. The ignored are no longer just people in foreign lands who have not “heard the Gospel;” they are the poor and humiliated who have been ignored by their governments and by the wealthy. In that way, both Francises are honored.

Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical “Rerum Novarum” may still have something to say to this papacy about the world of labor and wealth, communism and unrestricted capitalism. It remains a book worth reading over a hundred years after its writing.

I know that Pope Francis I has read it. I hope that he has heeded it.









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Today is the first day of the latest conclave to elect a new pope also known as the Bishop of Rome. I am not a Roman Catholic but any event that impacts 1.2 billion people in the world is worth watching.

The pope is the spiritual, theological and political head of the oldest Christian tradition in the world. The new pope will have a dramatic impact on the next decade..or two or more, if he is young and healthy.

There are 115 voting cardinals; they are the “princes of the Church.” From amongst themselves, traditionally, they will choose the next one to lead the Church of Rome.

This conclave (which in Latin means “under key”) of the “college of cardinals” is locked away until a successor to Pope Benedict XVI is chosen. Usually the voting will take mere days. But this is not always the case.

One conclave lasted 33 months without a choice until the senators and people of Rome decided they would not feed the cardinals until a choice was made. Or so the story goes…

The people of Rome later acted again in the selection of a pope which led to disaster. After Pope Gregory XI died (1378), the Roman populace rioted to guarantee the election of an Italian for pope. The people had grown sick of the Papal throne residing in Avignon, France. That same year, the cardinals elected Bartolomeo Prignano, the Archbishop of Bari, who became Pope Urban VI.

However, the French cardinals soon began to complain about being forced to choose an Italian. They left Rome and held another conclave in Anagni where they elected Pope Clement VII. Clement chose Avignon once again as his papal seat.

The two popes excommunicated each other and Europe was in confusion. The emperors, kings and princes began to choose along national interests instead of religious ones.

Even after these two popes died, this split (called the “Great Western Schism”) continued. Another pope (Boniface IX) was elected after Urban VI died in Rome and Benedict XIII followed the French pope. This mess continued until moves began to be made to settle the situation.

In 1409, French and Italian cardinals with their followers from other nations abandoned both of their popes. They met for a council in Pisa, Italy, where they would choose a new pope together. They chose Alexander V who died in less than a year. The council was still in session and chose John XXIII.

Now there were three popes, excommunicating each other…for five more years.

Finally, the Council of Constance met in 1414, under the guidance of theologian Jean Gerson. The council obtained the resignations of John XXIII and Gregory XII of Rome. The council elected Martin V in 1415 who was recognized as legitimate by most every nation, except for Aragon in Spain. The “popes” in Avignon continued for 14 more years until the final French “pope” resigned. For Roman Catholic historians, however, when there was more than one “pope,” the popes in Rome are recognized as the official popes.

Now Pope John XXIII may sound familiar. Wasn’t the pope who called for Vatican Council II in the early 60’s named John XXIII? Indeed, he was. It was a shock when he chose the name of an “antipope” but this was his way of shutting a door on the schism and declaring “time to move on.” I think he also may have thought to continue some of the legacy of John XXII from back in 1324, a fresh thinker and innovative theologian. But my Roman Catholic friends may disagree.

It is said that some time after his election in 1958, Pope John went to the windows of his Vatican offices and threw them wide open. He turned to look at the cardinals and advisers in attendance and said, “We need a breath of fresh air.” Vatican II was the council that came out of that moment. Indeed he was fresh and innovative.

This is the kind of man and thinker that we may hope to see elected this time. After so much scandal and crisis in recent years and after the resignation (unheard-of for centuries) of Benedict XVI, it is time for some fresh air in the Church of Rome. We need another John XXIII.

And not just for Catholics but for people of good will in every religion and every denomination. Even agnostics and atheists should have a deep concern for this. The greatest popes wrote brilliant encyclicals on social welfare, health concerns, liberty and human rights.

I think especially of Leo XIII’s monumental “Rerum Novarum” which discussed the rejection of communism AND unrestricted capitalism; about the rights of workers and care for the poor. A good pope is good for the world.

There is excitement in this conclave. There are many front-runners in this elections and I must admit that I have some favorites.

Peter Turkson is the former archbishop of Ghana but now is the leader of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He is like the Vatican’s equivalent of a Supreme Court Chief Justice. He is laid back but young and full of energy. Unfortunately Cardinal Turkson, aged 64, has made a few bungles that may hurt his chances. I hope not.

John Onaiyekan is the archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, and has been dubbed "the Timothy Dolan of Africa" by the National Catholic Reporter for his “big personality.” Cardinal Onaiyekan, aged 69, is intellectually and morally imposing and he successfully pushed for democratic elections in Nigeria.

Timothy Dolan is the gregarious archbishop of New York and may be the best-known cardinal in America. He heads the extremely important Conference of U.S. Bishops. Cardinal Dolan, aged 63, is also young and healthy. He is not shy of cameras or political struggles. He said earlier this week that he hopes the conclave does not last too long because he brought a limited supply of socks! Some of the other cardinals may be not-so-thrilled about such bubbly humor.


Those are my three choices. They are the fresh air. Other cardinals bring great skills and qualities to bear but my money is on one of these three. I mean… my prayers are with these three.







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My wife asked me today if Napoleon was really as short as people think. The truth is that he was actually 5 feet 6 1/2 inches tall. Not only not short but slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his day. Don't forget, though, that Napoleon was not French; he was Corsican.

What created this image of his shortness was the height of his generals and those soldiers in his Imperial Guard. Generals like Augereau,  Massena and Serurier were well over 6 feet tall and they seemed to tower over the younger general. In fact, when these very generals first encountered Napoleon (then called General Bonaparte), they thought that their height gave them an advantage over Napoleon.

Wow, were they wrong!

When the young general reached northern Italy to take command of the French Army there, the army was in bad shape; they were without proper supplies and were almost totally without discipline.

The Army of Northern Italy was divided into three corps under generals Massena, Augereau and Serurier. All three were battle-hardened commanders of the armies of revolutionary France and very tall. Each had already served a long time in command situations and they resented this young general who was only 26 years old.

So when Napoleon entered the headquarters for the first time, the three generals did not even rise to meet him. In fact, Augereau kept his feet propped atop the table. Napoleon had won no victories under his own command as yet and they doubted his command capabilities and determination.

The young general said nothing about their attitude but he calmly removed his hat and set it on the table. Augereau, sometimes a bully, began to feel uncomfortable at the cool character of the fresh commander.

Napoleon placed his palms on the table and leaned toward the generals. He looked each of them in the eye and announced that they would fight to victory. They would fight with discipline, with speed and with unshakeable will and Napoleon would lead them.

"What has gone before does not matter. The failures of the past are not my failures."

Slowly, Augereau removed his feet from the table.

Napoleon continued to lay out his plans and what he expected from his generals.

"You will fight with determination. You will march far and march fast. Speed and surprise will achieve more than guns."

Simple enough. There was no room for discussion or haughtiness.

When Napoleon stood to leave, the three older generals leaped to their feet at attention. When Napoleon was gone from the room, Augereau stared at the others and said in quiet astonishment, "the little bougre scared the water out of me." Being tall wasn't such an advantage after all.

Napoleon enjoyed being around tall people and when he created his Imperial Guard, he wanted them all to be at least 6 feet tall. In all the paintings and in people's memories, Napoleon always looked shorter than he really was. But to his enemies, he looked like a giant.