So many people love Pope Francis so much. Pope Francis this and Pope Francis that, they frequently say. They bandy his name and his quotes here, there and everywhere. Alas, the only things that some of them read about Pope Francis are newspaper headlines.
They judge and misjudge so many things, basing themselves on selective understanding of the headlines they read or the snippets they grab from television news bulletins. From time to time, the same people compare the Church in Malta to the model of the Church preached by Pope Francis and they find it to be abysmally wanting.
Given this universal respect and reverence for the good Argentine Pontiff, it would not be a bad idea to examine a bit what he says about the state of certain states to see whether or not our own national state would be found or not found wanting.
Take for example a November 2013 homily where he decried corruption. Francis said the corrupt should be tied to a rock and thrown into the sea. He added that those who earned through bribes or corrupt practices had “lost their dignity”, and fed their children “unclean bread”.
Strong words indeed.
The corrupt are envied by some but they should not be as they traded their dignity for money. Prostitutes do something similar.
Francis said these people who have lost their dignity “in the habit of bribes take with them not the money they have earned, but only their lack of dignity”.
He compared receiving bribes to “ taking a drug” as people become “dependent” on the habit of bribes.
The Pope then challenged a common ‘justification’ used by the corrupt: if I don’t do it, someone else will.
He emphatically retorts:
“But no, not everyone! Some company administrators, some public administrators, some government administrators… perhaps there are not even very many. But it’s that attitude of the shortcut, of the most comfortable way to earn a living.”
Mincing words is not Pope Francis’s forte. As if his condemnation of corruption through these harsh words was not enough, he ups the ante. The corrupt life is a “varnished putrefaction”.
He is not afraid to denounce corruption even when facing leaders of countries whose reputation is nothing to boast of. In February he told President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico that “experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all, sooner or later the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption”.
The corrupt are envied by some but they should not be as they traded their dignity for money
In March last year Pope Francis visited Scampia, an impoverished neighbourhood close to Naples. During one of the events organised for the occasion, the Pope listened to questions and appeals by different people. Speaking on behalf of the Prosecutors of Naples, Antonio Bonajuto, president of the Court of Appeal of Naples, addressed the Pope describing the effects of corruption in society there, saying: “It invalidates public ethics and generates juvenile delinquency, despair and death.”
The response is riveting.
“How much corruption there is in the world! It is a word that if we study it a bit, is bad, no? Because corruption is a dirty thing! If we find a dead animal and is corrupted, it’s ugly. But it also ‘stinks’, corruption ‘stinks’! A corrupt society stinks! A Christian who allows corruption to enter is not Christian, they stink! Got It?”
Pope Francis feels so strongly against corruption that he became the first Pope to write about corruption in the document (technically called the Bull of Indiction) announcing a Holy Year.
In paragraph 19 of that document he describes corruption as a “festering wound” and “a grave sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance, because it threatens the very foundations of personal and social life”.
The evils of corruption are legion. Francis numbers some of them:
“Corruption prevents us from looking to the future with hope, because its tyrannical greed shatters the plans of the weak and tramples upon the poorest of the poor. It is an evil that embeds itself into the actions of everyday life and spreads, causing great public scandal. Corruption… replaces God with the illusion that money is a form of power. It is a work of darkness, fed by suspicion and intrigue.”
Corruption is a malady that can be driven away. To do this, Francis says, “we need prudence, vigilance, loyalty, transparency, together with the courage to denounce any wrongdoing. If it is not combated openly, sooner or later everyone will become an accomplice to it, and it will end up destroying our very existence.”
The bishops of Panama commented on this document just a few weeks after its publication. In their estimation the fight against corruption needs the formation of consciences and leadership training, culture of honesty and transparency, of what is ethical and legal, in order to contribute to the common good. Besides, they say, it is imperative that the institutions of justice must do their jobs.
They are not alone. A look at the website of Catholic World News shows that just in the past 10 days the bishops of three different countries – Dominican Republic, Indonesia and Nigeria – released strongly-worded documents denouncing corruption and proposing remedies against it.
Last Wednesday Pope Francis once more condemned different forms of corruption promising a strong stand by the Church which should not accept dirty money. But probably the best enemy of corruption he ever mentioned is good politics. During his speech in Scampia, the Pope described good politics as “one of the highest expressions of charity, service, and love”.
If we want to eradicate corruption the advice of the Pope is ever relevant: “Do good politics! Good politics depends on you all.” Isn’t it high time for the many honest politicians that militate on all sides of the spectrum to stand up to be counted by taking a clear and public stance for good politics and against corruption before the stink becomes unbearable?
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt