From St. Peter to Pope Francis

CEBU, Philippines - Roman Catholics look upon St. Peter as the first Pope. Applying my “Analogy of the Table” in a previous article (cfr. T.F., Sept. 21, p. 16), theirs is not the only view of reality. As a matter of fact, a Roman Catholic priest who got married like this writer. Dr. Anthony B. Pezzotta, published in 1976 a book entitled “Truth Encounter: Catholicism and the Holy Scriptures,” wherein he devoted three chapters on the truth about the Pope. (12, 13, 14) Being open to truth wherever it comes from, I do not want to argue with this Italian Salesian priest who married an American Baptist Sunday School teacher, left his Roman Catholic religion, and both of them were appointed by CB International as missionaries to the Philippines.

Fr. Pezzota has his reasons for changing his religious convictions, and I respect him for them. Although both of us have something in common (being Reverend Fathers-turned-real fathers), I was born a Roman Catholic and I would like to die as one. I too was exposed to many religions here and abroad. As matter of fact, one of the subjects I used to teach in the University of an Carlos was “Comparative Religion.” Just as my travels around the world made me appreciate our own country, so also my encounter with various world religions made me love our own Christian religion.

At the end of our stay on earth, we will not be judged as to whether we accept the infallibility of the Pope or not. The only question will be whether we behaved according to the doctrine common to all religions, which is: Do good; avoid evil.

There have been 276 Popes at the helm of the Roman Catholic Church from St. Peter to Pope Francis. 75 of them have been canonized, which means only 30 percent have been officially declared to be surely in heaven. Blessed Pope Paul VI has recently been beatified, which means that he needs one more miracle and the lapse of 50 years from his death before he will be canonized.

What Pope Francis had just done by canonizing two of his not-so-distant predecessors and beatifying another one qualifies him to be described with the phrase he introduced to our vocabulary that Yahweh is a “God of surprises.” We can expect some more surprises from him soon. The first one is his “hailing Benedict XVI amid church divisions” (T.F., Oct 29, p. 32). We should really not be so surprised because nobody knows those three Popes better than he does. And Pope Francis is a Jesuit! I heard while studying in Rome that “only God knows what’s in the mind of Jesuit!”

Another cause for surprise is why these recent Popes have been extensively travelling around the world. We get an inkling of the reason for this from what we read in the previous issue of The Freeman (September 22, p. 17): “In 1978, the pope died a solidary death. 65-year-old Albino Luciani had been in good health when he was elected as John Paul I only 33 days before his untimely death. Known to be cheerful and gregarious, he seemed overwhelmed by the loneliness of his office, and told one foreign cardinal. ‘I am in a place where everyone comes to complain about something. I don’t know who I can have friendly conversation with.’ His secretary, Father Magee, found him dead in bed in the morning, his reading light still on and a copy of Thomas Kempis’s ‘Imitation of Christ’ open before him. Doctors estimated he’d died about six and a half hours earlier – alone on his room, without receiving the last rites.”

Lest the same fate befall them, Pope John Paul I’s successors except Pope Benedict XVI who is too old to travel around the world have been visiting many countries. It could also be an application of the saying, “If Mohammed (say, the Roman Catholics around the world) cannot go to the mountain, Rome, due to the expenses involved), then let the mountain (the Pope) go to Mohammed.” That is precisely what Pope Francis does when he visits our country next year.