How does he do it? I mean…its hard enough to get one 5-year-old to change his eating habits and switch preference from lollies to veggies. It borders the impossible. So changing a cult with millions of followers is like convincing consumers to dump the brand they had been using for generations?! No way, Jose…
Until Jorge Maria Bergoglio stepped into the picture. Some of you may know him better as Pope Francis the First. Yep, “First” because he is the first Pope in history to choose Francis as his papal name since 1555 and it was a clear statement of his intent for the Papacy. (For curiosity’s sake I can also report 13 Popes had previously chosen the name ‘Innocent’, in an improbable PR move that no doubt led to some raised eyebrows and disparaging mummers about defensive strategies, and another past Pope had chosen ‘Telesphorus’, the reason for which remains particularly unclear – but did subsequently grant him naming rights to Saint-Télesphore, a town in the southwestern part of Canada’s Quebec province).
Now, as a disclaimer, I am not chanting the merits of the Catholic Church and its leader, nor am I disparaging them. I am what they call a Casual Catholic. That is, I choose to choose and neglect a lot of the things my “birth” faith advocates for or against. And I have chosen to respect all beliefs and faiths and despise from the bottom of my heart and soul, religious extremists, past and present. A class in which our hero of the day does not belong.
Back to Pope Francis… on March 2013, he emerged on the balcony on Saint Peter’s place in the Vatican and… fast forward a year…. he is Man of the Year in Time Magazine (in fact just 9 month after – even Barrack did not get the Nobel Prize that fast!), so many people who hated / despised the Catholic Church or bluntly ignored it are now finding the new Pope “cool” and posting online about it (don’t check, just trust me). And interestingly, it is no longer totally shameful to claim to be a Catholic… The Church has somehow changed – its image – in no time. And what’s amazing is that an Argentinian Jesuit with the charisma of a Chilean cueca dancer achieved this feat.
How did he pull it off? First of all, he acted swiftly to establish the core message of his mandate through:
• His name and its associated values (a man who choses to live in poverty and is the patron saint of animals and the environment) – he obviously must have chosen this beforehand.
• Choosing his closest allies: it only took him one month to form a group of 8 like-minded bishops around the world to tackle the most pressing issues (including the catastrophic management of the Vatican bank) thus bypassing the synods of bishops his predecessors heavily relied on.
• Using lines and mottos which are easily memorable and relatable, but that also deftly sum up his attitude towards his mandate: “Who am I to judge” (on homosexuality)
• Letting his acts precede his words: kissing the face of a disfigured man, cleaning the feet of a Muslim woman, retiring the Mercedes for the Ford Focus, paying his own hotel bill, sporting an iron cross and not a gilded one,….
All these happened in the first few months of the papacy and made the headlines globally. After which, it was easier to deliver the underlying programmes and also share the hard truths
Second…he has been very selective and consistent in defining his priorities:
• His focus is external, not theological: his approach to the core theological questions (frankly no real change on female priests, little progress on acceptance of homosexuality in the Church – but we can talk more of tolerance these days…) is relatively conservative but he has publicly declared that whilst he affirmed the traditional teachings on sexuality, he warned that the Church has become distracted by them… so don’t expect him to please anyone here…Instead, he decided to go after social inequality and it is starting to show.
• He refused to change his character and decided to work with what put him there in the first place: there will be so many other changes, but changing yourself to please others would only be a distraction.
• “On a battlefield, the first duty is to tend to the wounded in the proper way. You don’t ask a bleeding man for his cholesterol level”…so it seems theology is taking a back seat!
Third, he is prepared to upset some of his core constituents: whilst Pope Francis is the first non-European Pope since 772 , 75% of Catholics today are outside of Europe . Still, lapsed Catholics and atheists are predominant in the ‘Old World’. Pope Francis does not target them… Right now, his church followers, liberals and conservatives, face the choice to listen to a new voice of conscience or stay on the side of the Church preachings.
In essence, he did not change the words but he changed the music and the narrative: do things differently to get different results: The Church ‘service’ is a spiritual one: Pope Francis wants to elevate the healing mission of the Church above the doctrinal police work. A church focused on its own right and righteousness is not the Church he wants to lead and he manages it that way. Amongst other things, Bishops who disagreed with his line of thoughts are now progressively retired or retiring by themselves. His newly acquired popularity actually probably helps him get away with the cleansing of the Church rank and file… as he is also savvy enough to use this fame and awareness to his advantages.
Quick, focused, ready to upset…and street smart… this is what defines his change method and his first year in the big velvety chair.
As I am about to call my wife (my closest ally) to let her know I will replace all lollies ( focused, hamburgers still survive) with veggie chips, effective immediately ( fast to act), I will soon see if that method works on my 5-year-old.
And I suspect I may even use this strategy in the office one day.
Good night and good luck. Share the love and my posts.
