The Pope has returned to Rome after a successful pastoral visit to the US. If anything, the trip has confirmed that Pope Francis is indeed “the people’s pope”. At the same time that the Pope was in the US, Chinese President Xi Jinping was on his first official visit to Washington to discuss with President Barack Obama various issues, amongst which was the thorniest of all – growing US complaints about Chinese hacking of US government and corporate databases.

The meeting between the presidents of the two largest economies in the world was, undoubtedly, of geat global interest. However, to the chagrin of US and Chinese officials who considered the Pope’s visit as of limited value, mostly of Catholic interest, the Pope for the duration of his stay in the US stole American and world headlines pushing the Chinese president’s visit into secondary place.

Wherever the Pope went he was met by enthusiastic large crowds. Thousands gathered to hear the ‘Mass on the grass’ outside the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. At Central Park in New York thousands more gathered to welcome him on his way to Madison Garden. Hundreds of thousands welcomed him in the huge Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Why was all this happening? There have been nine papal visits to the US, one by Paul VI, seven by John Paul II, and one by Benedict XVI, but nothing like what was seen during Francis’s tour was ever experienced before.

Has the Pope steered away from controversy during his stay in the US in this season of political jostlings as the presidential election gathers momentum? He has not. Facing what was perhaps the largest gathering of world leaders in the history of the United Nations HQ in New York, the Pope spoke as the peacemaker – about poverty, war, the arms trade, immigrants and refugees. He was listened to with silence, deep respect and given a standing ovation at the end. He has become a moral figure of almost unprecedent international stature.

Clearly Pope Francis through his US visit was sending messages which sometimes seemed contradictory in anticipation of round two of the Synod of Bishops on the Family this month

From the Catholic viewpoint, he has gone several steps further. His unscheduled visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor, who in Washington care for the elderly, was a demonstration of encouragement and support towards their stand in defying the Obama administration through a lawsuit over the provision of coverage by employers for birth control and abortifacient drugs in their health insurance plans.

Catholic teaching forbids the use of these drugs. In Kentucky the Pope met Kim Davis, the clerk who went to jail for six days for refusing to issue a marriage licence to a same-sex couple. The Pope is reported to have clasped her hands in his and told her “be strong.” On the plane taking him back to Italy, the Pope remarked that following one’s conscience in such a situation is a “human right” that also belongs to government officials.

In New York’s iconic St Patrick’s Cathedral (recently renovated at great cost to the Pope’s annoyance), Francis addressed the American nuns who have been ostracised by previous popes for years for promoting militant feminist themes. The group represents almost 80 per cent of American nuns. Pope Benedict accused the nuns of deviating from Church doctrine by their radical views. On his part, Pope Francis praised these same nuns for their efforts by telling them: “To you, religious women, sisters and mothers of this people, I wish to say thank you, a big thank you... and to tell you I love you very much.”

These nuns are very popular in the US and have general support for their commitment and activities with the dispossessed. The olive branch extended by Francis brought tears to the eyes of many of them who were in the cathedral listening eagerly to his soft words in hesitant English.

Clearly Pope Francis through his US visit was sending messages which sometimes seemed contradictory in anticipation of round two of the Synod of Bishops on the Family this month. Pope Francis believes in dialogue and in building bridges between opposing forces. In doing so, he is aware that he risks creating new storms in the Church which in the last years of John Paul II’s papacy and that of Benedict XVI saw the Church veer firmly back to traditional doctrine mainly by giving appointments to hard conservatives who now occupy key positions in the Vatican and around the world. The US bishops are particularly entrenched in tradition.

Francis does not have faith in inflexible attitudes – his world is a rainbow of many colours but with a main purpose of unity through help, charity and understanding of other people’s problems. Much like the way of Christ who abhored religious hypocrisy as practised in His time by the Pharisees: “You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions” (Mark. 7:9).

“Who am I to judge,” Francis said of gay people. Time only will tell if he will succeed. Perhaps, with the help of God and our prayers, he will. He has frequently asked the most humble around him: “Pray for me.”

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