Papal visit

The contrast between the tragic events in Mecca and the historic visit of Pope Francis to the United States is striking.

While performing the fifth pillar of Islam, many Muslims lost their lives in a mob-like stampede.

On the other hand, millions of believers crowded the streets of Washington, New York and Philadelphia to get a glimpse of Pope Francis or to hear his sermons, but all was orderly and not an incident was reported.

Naturally, there are differences between the two events. In Mecca, more than 2 million Hajj seekers must be accommodated and moved within a meticulous schedule.

All Hajj rituals have to be performed at specific places and specific times.

Every person performing Hajj is fully engrossed in a way to reach God in order to be cleansed of sins.

In the US cities, the Pope’s entourage had the luxury of choosing the time to travel on the roads. The spectators gathered are mostly pious, but many are just curious.

Yet, Pope Francis has managed very well to project the image of a people’s Pope in the minds of billions of world inhabitants, Catholics or not.

He laughs, cracks jokes, expresses opinions with humility and loves to talk to people.

He is mindful of what he says and does. In his speeches to the joint session of the Congress and at the UN’s General Assembly, he said what he wanted to say with maximum couth and minimal patronage.

His themes are people’s themes. He defends the rights of the poor, the dispossessed the underprivileged and immigrants (whether refugees or economic migrants).

He empathised with the relatives of the Muslims trampled in Mecca and admits the Catholic Church’s lethargy in dealing with sexual abuse of children.

He defends the environment and by doing that he lends this issue a great moral support.

The irony in that while he is saying all that, officials of Catholic countries like Hungary, Poland and opposition leaders in France are revealing bigotry and racism.

While the Pope was referring to Prophet Moses in his speech at the US Congress, Israeli bigots were attacking Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place for Muslims, in the name of Moses.

Pope Francis is not to blame for any of these acts. 

The world actually needs his message of peace, cooperation and sufficiency to hold its grips on humanity’s behaviour.

Another Catholic of fame in the US who passed away last week has a famous quotation that can shed some light on the difference between what Pope Francis promotes and what some of the Catholic Church followers believe.

Yogi Berra, the famous American baseball player, said: “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”

Muslims must accept this principle and adopt the theory that things are relative.

If so, does this apply to the Catholics who denigrate Muslims because a minority of them goes astray?

Pope Francis presents the opportunity for Muslims and Christians to make amends for any differences that may exist between them.

The writer, a former Royal Court chief and deputy prime minister, is a member of the Senate. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.