"PEOPLE´S POPE" CONNECTS WITH BRAZIL´S POOR / THE FINANCIAL TIMES GLOBAL INSIGHT

Global Insight

July 25, 2013 6:42 pm

 

‘People’s Pope’ connects with Brazil’s poor

 

By John Paul Rathbone

 

By shunning Church opulence, Francis is walking the walk

 

©Reuters

 

Two unusual events took place in Brazil this week. First, it has been snowing, and second, Pope Francis was mobbed when he rode through Rio de Janeiro in an open-sided car. Event number one is uncommon in a country better known for tropical beaches; number two is noteworthy as the Catholic Church is better known for keeping its distance from crowds. Pope Francis’ predecesor, Benedict XVI, toured in a bulletproof Mercedes-Benz. Francis, by contrast, is in a Fiat, a “people’s car”.

 

His choice of ride is significant. Brazil’s “World Youth Day”, a week-long jamboree of the faithful, is Francis’ first trip abroad. Although scheduled long before he became Pope four months ago, the event marks a fortuitous return by the 76-year old Argentine pontiff to his “beloved Latin America”. It is a timely opportunity for the “slum Pope” to re-emphasise his central message: the need to serve the poor.

 

This is a message which also mirrors the challenges faced by Brazil, one of the most unequal societies on the planet, lately wracked by street protests, sometimes a million strong.

Like the country Francis is visiting, the Church is wrestling with practical problems of many kinds. These range from sex-abuse scandals to corruption, a self-entitled central bureaucracy and shrinking congregations. With over 120m Catholics, Brazil may have more believers than anywhere else. But only two-thirds of Brazilians consider themselves Catholic today, compared to 90 per cent 30 years ago.

Brazil has secular counterparts to these problems. Despite its many successes, its police forces are thuggish, reflecting broader social violence; Brazil’s homicide rate is comparable to drug-torn Mexico’s. Corruption is rife, especially in Congress. Political approval of the government has plummeted since protests over poor public services erupted last month. President Dilma Rousseff enjoyed ratings over 80 per cent two years ago. Now they stand at 30 per cent.

Moreover, Brazil shares these problems with many countries in South America, despite a decade-long economic boom. Chilean students have rioted over exorbitant university fees. Protesters have taken to the streets in fast-growing Peru, and unions have gone on strike in Colombia.

In Argentina, riven by massive pot-banging demonstrations, and in Venezuela, where the opposition has clashed with government supporters in street marches, protests have quietened. But only for now.

In all cases, a common theme is constituencies that feel left behind or ignored, even as governments laud their success at meeting society’s needs. Eventually, the disconnect between rhetoric and reality galls voters to protest.

 

This is another theme echoed within the Church. Despite the Christian mission, it is the less well-off rather than the rich who have left the Church. In Rio, fewer than 5 per cent of slums are organised into Catholic parishes, even though a quarter of the city’s 6m population live in favelas. Protestant evangelicals have moved actively into poor areas – that is why they have taken spiritual market share.

Francis is moving fast to try to change this, alongside his other priority of taking on the interests of the Vatican’s Curia, the Holy See’s administrative body. (It is surely no coincidence that the cleric he appointed to head the Vatican bank, and perhaps wind it down, was quickly smeared by media leaks.) Thus, when the Pontiff spoke at a Wednesday mass of the importance of “hopefulness, openness to being surprised by God, and living in joy”, his words were sincere. So, too, was the concern he showed on a Thursday visit to Rio’s Varginha favela, a slum that was once so violent it was known as the Gaza Strip.

This is the singular advantage the Pope has over political leaders. Even if they face comparable problems, their methods of overcoming them are different. As Christopher Caldwell, an FT columnist, has pointed out, unlike governments the Church works through charisma, not logistics or public relations. Its most effective argument – that society should “take up the cross” – is in doing so itself. By shunning traditional Church opulence, Francis is walking the walk.

 

It is hard to imagine Brazilian congressmen doing the same – washing the feet of Aids sufferers or taking the bus to work, as Francis has done. So although Ms Rousseff’s government has sought to make political capital from Francis’ visit, the pontiff’s position is closer to the protesters than the government.

The humility of the Pope has inspired many people. In Latin America, it should be making many others uncomfortable, too.

 

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013.