We can learn more from some recent reports of Pope Francis' activities than what appear to be this Pope's quite sincere concerns and commitments to improving the lot of the poor, and those adversely affected by the consequences of war. Consider the following:
"Pope Francis, celebrating his first Christmas as Roman Catholic leader, on Wednesday [Dec. 25] called on atheists to unite with believers of all religions and work for 'a homemade peace' that can spread across the world. . . . He said that people of other religions were also praying for peace, and - departing from his prepared text - he urged atheists to join forces with believers. 'I invite even non-believers to desire peace. (Join us) with your desire, a desire that widens the heart. Let us all unite, either with prayer or with desire, but everyone, for peace, he said, drawing sustained applause from the crowd.'"A Pope, any Pope, is in many ways one of our few world leaders who is given -- or can simply seize -- an ability to speak his or her mind, not only, in Pope Francis' case, to his 1.2 billion followers, but to more billions beyond. When he chooses to use that opportunity to address problems of poverty, inequality and greed, war and peace, appealing to our better angels, he can provide a moral and ethical beacon for all of humankind. And because he communicates primarily, or at least as much, by his actions as by his words, he truly has our attention. (I will leave for another day Church positions he has neither addressed nor given any indication of a likelihood to change.) So, yeah, I'm a fan.
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"Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of a dozen inmates at a juvenile detention center in a Holy Thursday ritual that he celebrated for years as archbishop and is continuing now that he is pope. Two of the 12 were young women . . .."
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"Pope Francis announc[ed] that . . . 'the time has come to abandon all intolerance. . . . Even atheists acknowledge the divine. . . . The church no longer believes in a literal hell where people suffer. . . . All religions are true, because they are true in the hearts of all those who believe in them. . . . Our church is big enough for heterosexuals and homosexuals, for the pro-life and the pro-choice! For conservatives and liberals, even communists are welcome and have joined us. We all love and worship the same God. . . . [I]t is my hope that we will have a woman pope one day. . . . Racism today is the ultimate evil in the world. . . . [T]hose who would dare to turn immigrants away, be they legal or undocumented, turn their backs on Christ himself! . . . [B]ecause Muslims, Hindus and African Animists are also made in the very likeness and image of God, to . . . reject them to is to reject God and the Gospel of Christ.'"
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"Three homeless men [who] live on the street in the Rome neighborhood just outside the Vatican's walls . . . helped Pope Francis celebrate his 77th birthday Tuesday [Dec. 24] [when they] were invited . . . to attend the Mass, which Francis celebrates daily at the hotel where he lives on Vatican City grounds. [He] also invited his household help to join him in a 'family-like' atmosphere, and he spoke of them one by one during his homily."
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In an interview with uCatholic, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, who serves as 'Almoner of His Holiness,' implied that Pope Francis may be sneaking out of the Vatican at night to personally give money and food to the homeless citizens of Rome. . . . [Krajewski commented} that Francis used to do exactly that as archbishop of Buenos Aires, before he was elected pope. . . . 'As archbishop of Buenos Aires, when he was known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future pontiff would go out at night ... to find people, talk with them, or buy them something to eat. He would sit with them and eat with them on the street.' . . . [A]n anonymous source in the church [said] that 'Swiss guards confirmed that the pope has ventured out at night, dressed as a regular priest, to meet with homeless men and women.'”
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So what more can we learn from these stories beyond what they tell us regarding the character and style of this Pope?
They tell us something about the extent to which "believing is seeing;" that is, what we believe, or want to believe, can have a significant influence on what we perceive.
For Pope Francis fans, like myself, each of those quotations, above, all taken from published sources, has an air of plausibility about it. What he has done so far on behalf of the poor, peace, and opening up the Church has been so mind altering that nothing someone claims he has done seems impossible in that context.
But, alas, two of those five reports are false.
If you haven't already guessed which ones they are, they are repeated at the bottom of this blog essay with their sources and rebuttals.
Snopes.com is a wonderful online service for checking the truth of the "urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation" that circle the global Internet each day. It was particularly useful when the anti-President-Obama forces were circulating false accusations regarding his faith, American citizenship, and anything else they could come up with. See, "Snopes and 'What We Know That Ain't So,'" Aug. 2, 2012.
Our Republican friends (yes, we have some) would pass such charges along to their e-mailing lists, believing any bad news about Obama as readily as I believe any inspiring news about Pope Francis. We'd usually check them out with Snopes, and like as not find that they were totally false. Sometimes we'd refer the sending party to the Snopes report, and other times we'd decide it was hopeless.
But the point is not about Republican assaults on our President. The point is that we're all subject to such manipulation. There is some research and data on this. Even those trained and working in the sciences are significantly more likely to make accurate mathematical calculations when the data supports their hypotheses than when it does not.
What this Pope and Snopes have shown me is that the manipulation we experience from our religious, political and ideological beliefs and convictions is not limited to our disinclination to critically evaluate assertions regarding people and things that we hate. They can also manipulate our judgment when evaluating positive assertions about the people and things we love or admire.
Now here is what Paul Harvey would have called, "the rest of the story."
"Pope Francis, celebrating his first Christmas as Roman Catholic leader, on Wednesday [Dec. 25] called on atheists to unite with believers of all religions and work for 'a homemade peace' that can spread across the world. . . . He said that people of other religions were also praying for peace, and - departing from his prepared text - he urged atheists to join forces with believers. 'I invite even non-believers to desire peace. (Join us) with your desire, a desire that widens the heart. Let us all unite, either with prayer or with desire, but everyone, for peace, he said, drawing sustained applause from the crowd.'"
-- Philip Pullella, "Atheists, work with us for peace, Pope says on Christmas," Reuters/The Gazette, Dec. 26, 2013, p. A4. There is some question as to what the Pope actually said, from the prepared text and during extemporaneous remarks, and even more question as to what he meant. But this is a relatively accurate story.
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"Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of a dozen inmates at a juvenile detention center in a Holy Thursday ritual that he celebrated for years as archbishop and is continuing now that he is pope. Two of the 12 were young women . . .."
-- Nicole Winfield,"Pope Francis washes feet of young detainees in ritual," AP/USA Today, March 28, 2013. This story seems to be entirely true.
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"Pope Francis announc[ed] that . . . 'the time has come to abandon all intolerance. . . . Even atheists acknowledge the divine. . . . The church no longer believes in a literal hell where people suffer. . . . All religions are true, because they are true in the hearts of all those who believe in them. . . . Our church is big enough for heterosexuals and homosexuals, for the pro-life and the pro-choice! For conservatives and liberals, even communists are welcome and have joined us. We all love and worship the same God. . . . [I]t is my hope that we will have a woman pope one day. . . . Racism today is the ultimate evil in the world. . . . [T]hose who would dare to turn immigrants away, be they legal or undocumented, turn their backs on Christ himself! . . . [B]ecause Muslims, Hindus and African Animists are also made in the very likeness and image of God, to . . . reject them to is to reject God and the Gospel of Christ.'"
-- The quote is taken from, "Pope Francis Condemns Racism And Declares That 'All Religions Are True,'” Diversity Chronicle, Dec. 5, 2013. This story, which went viral around the Internet, is false. See, "Pope Francis Declares All Religions Are True," Snopes.com, Dec. 22, 2013.
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"Three homeless men [who] live on the street in the Rome neighborhood just outside the Vatican's walls . . . helped Pope Francis celebrate his 77th birthday Tuesday [Dec. 24] [when they] were invited . . . to attend the Mass, which Francis celebrates daily at the hotel where he lives on Vatican City grounds. [He] also invited his household help to join him in a 'family-like' atmosphere, and he spoke of them one by one during his homily."
-- Frances D'Emilio, "Pope shares his birthday breakfast with homeless," Associated Press, Dec. 17, 2013. This appears to be a true story, unless the three men in this photo who are not the Pope are just actors. [Photo credit: L'Osservatore Romano, The Vatican.]
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In an interview with uCatholic, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, who serves as 'Almoner of His Holiness,' implied that Pope Francis may be sneaking out of the Vatican at night to personally give money and food to the homeless citizens of Rome. . . . [Krajewski commented} that Francis used to do exactly that as archbishop of Buenos Aires, before he was elected pope. . . . 'As archbishop of Buenos Aires, when he was known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future pontiff would go out at night ... to find people, talk with them, or buy them something to eat. He would sit with them and eat with them on the street.' . . . [A]n anonymous source in the church [said] that 'Swiss guards confirmed that the pope has ventured out at night, dressed as a regular priest, to meet with homeless men and women.'”
-- Eric Brown, "Is Pope Francis Sneaking Out Of The Vatican At Night To Give Money To The Homeless?," International Business Times," Dec. 3, 2013. It certainly sounds like it might be true. But see, David Gibson, "Pope Francis sneaks out of the Vatican? Maybe not, but he wouldn’t be the first," Religion News Service, Dec. 3, 2013 ("Vatican officials say reports that Pope Francis has been slipping out at night to visit the homeless in Rome are 'simply not true,' though that hasn’t stopped the stories from capturing the public imagination. That’s probably because such tales seem right in line with Francis’ unconventional and pastoral style.")
And that last line is the point of this blog essay.
1 comment:
Thanks, Nick.
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