OPINION: Pope Francis: a true man of God, a man I admire, a man to respect

Last Updated on Monday, 21 April 2025, 18:10 by Writer

By GHK Lall

Pope Francis was that rarest of men who walked this earthly vale. A man of extraordinary grace, one who brought grace to his time, tried for a different Church, a different world. A leader of humility: no palace, no pageantry for me. What with all this heraldry? Why, when the Good Shepherd walked with the lame and blind, the despised and the forgotten. Few are the ones who walk in such a state of grace. Fewer are the ones that I make me pause, study, and admire. Pope Francis was one such vicar of Christ on earth. A pope for the people, the common man, the distressed woman, the land of war, the refugee that no one wants to own, the poor that has no champion. And all the other outcasts forced into the outer darkness of nonexistence. When a leader can make those his priority, he is more than a leader, he is a restorer of faith, an instrument of will. God’s will, not that of weak and calculating men.

Who am I to condemn, had a certain transcendence to its mere utterance? The garments of his office, which I frown upon, brought him closer to those who hurt, the multitudes of hopeless that spill all over, but from which so many turn their faces. I can relate to a leader who humbles himself, deals with humility, have little interest, and less patience, with rituals and their rigid demands. I can laud him or her, too. Not because of what he can give to me, but for what he has brought to the world in which we live. When men are bent on raising swords, his was the role of hauling ploughshares, carrying others on his back. A Good Samaritan in a time of disinterest and quick distancing, and when one was most needed. When the divorced and the differently-oriented were lambasted and banned, brutalized in so many destructive words, his was of peace and of brotherhood.

There were some issues that I thought he could have come down harder on, draw a tougher, more unyielding, line. I chalk up his lack of progress to the grinding and tricky bureaucracy in the Vatican. The Kremlin has its cardinals, and so does the Vatican of the Roman Catholic Church. Of that, let there be no mistake, no misplaced honoring. Other pontiffs didn’t even try, so intimidating and comprehensive the power of the men wearing red hats and flowing garments, and so full of themselves. Predator priests represented the one issue where there is so much left untouched, so much more still undone. Though the wagons circled, Pope Francis tried, and then had to come to a standstill, when one brick wall and one barbed wire fence were encountered. Even in the realm of religion, there are those that bedevil the world and make it into a place worse than it should be. At least, he raised a voice; perhaps a stronger finger could have gone farther, undo some of the harrowing damage done by trusted shepherds.

There is much to commend a man who made the barrios of Argentina his ministry, only to find himself by some mysterious force catapulted from Buenos Aires to the halls of the Holy See in Rome. The Romans had their legions. Pope Francis had his God, and that divine force was more than enough for the work entrusted to him.

To him he goes, and even his passing is a testimony to his rising with the Risen Christ. The timing could not have been more immaculate. In the season of Easter of all times. It is a fitting for a man who was a leader in his time, in his season in the light. I am the way, the truth, and the light. It might be inspiration for many. Pope Francis made those three elements his devotion, his lifework. How I wish I could say that about a few more. In this Church of God and of mine. In this Guyana of ours. And in that America that once used to be held high in my mind, still is, only a lower now. Because of the example of Pope Francis, the learnings I gleaned from him, there is no giving up. Others have that luxury, but not I. There can only be continuing along the road chosen, while searching for high, then higher, ground, come what may.

Though the times can be tough, blighted, and dismal, the next step must still be braved. Wherever it leads, on whatever rough tide that must be traveled. In Pope Francis, there was that most inexplicable of combinations. A man of God, who actually walked with the teachings of God in him, then tried his best to live them. He was a man to respect, will remain so for a long time. Eternal rest be granted thee, servant of God, friend of heaven.