The cause of peace and justice and, indirectly, the campaign to overcome gun violence, took a stride forward

on March 13, 2013, with the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires as Pope. Although I am not a Catholic but an Episcopalian (Anglican), I welcome the election of this man of surpassing holiness, towering intellect, great strength of character and deep compassion as leader of the largest Christian denomination. Jorge Bergoglio is a humble, down-home sort of guy who cooks his own dinner and rides the bus. Some of that will have to change now he is Pope, but the principled inner core of the man shines out and his integrity will never let him forget where he came from. Most likely, we shall never meet this wonderful man and come to know him personally. Yet if we study the tradition he is from, that of St Francis of Assissi and St Francis Xavier, founder of the Jesuits, of which Cardinal Bergoglio was a Provincial, we shall come to understand something of him. And if we follow the example he will set as best we can in our own circumstances, we shall come to know him in our hearts. And also we shall come to know the One whom he represents. Albert Schweitzer, in famous words about Jesus, put it like this: He comes to us as One unknown, as One without a nameand sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfil for our time And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is. The new Pope has taken the name Francis to show that he will follow in the steps of two saints called Francis. St Francis of Assissi, one of the most spiritual men who ever lived was an Italian who renewed the Church through a life of simplicity, service, preaching, penance and prayer. Francis Bernardone (1181-1226) was born at Assissi, Italy. The party-loving son of a rich cloth merchant, Francis enlisted to go on the Fourth Crusade but never got farther than one day's ride from his home town. In a dream God told him to abandon his quest for knightly glory and return home. This he did, only to be humiliated, laughed at, called a coward by the village and raged at by his father for the money wasted on his armor. Undaunted, Francis reimbursed his

father, adopted a life of utter poverty and became a friar. He then begged for stones and rebuilt the church of St Damiano with his own hands. Francis practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person whether they were beggar or Pope. His love extended to all of God's creation. Francis felt that nature, all God's creations, were his brothers. The sparrow was as much his brother as the Pope. He wrote the beautiful Canticle of the Sun that expresses his brotherhood with creation in praising God. That is why he is the patron saint of ecology. But Francis was more than a mystic and poet. He was a man of action. His simplicity of life extended to ideas and deeds. If there was a simple way, no matter how impossible it seemed, Francis would take it. In that way, although he was never a priest, he got permission from the Pope to found the Franciscan Order, which survives to this day. The name Francis which the new Pope has taken, perhaps to emphasize the Orders creed of humility and evangelism, is also a reference to St Francis Xavier, a co-founder of the Jesuits in the 16th century. St Francis Xavier (15061552) was born in the family castle of Xavier, near Pamplona in the Basque region of Spanish Navarre on April 7. Sent to the University of Paris in 1525, he secured his licentiate in 1528, met Ignatius Loyola and became one of the seven who in 1534, at Montmartre, founded the Society of Jesus. In 1536 Francis Xavier left Paris to join Ignatius in Venice and was ordained there in 1537. From Rome in 1540, when the pope formally recognized the Society of Jesus, Francis was ordered to the Far East as one of the first Jesuit missionaries. After a year's voyage, six months of which were spent at Mozambique, where he preached and gave aid to the sick, Francis arrived in Goa, India in 1542. There he began preaching to the natives and attempted to reform his fellow Europeans, living among the natives and adopting their customs. During the next decade Francis converted tens of thousands to Christianity. He visited the Paravas at the tip of India in 1542, Malacca (1545), the Moluccas near New Guinea and Morotai near the Philippines (1546-47), and Japan (1549- 51). In 1551, India and the East were set up as a separate province of the Society of Jesus and Ignatius Loyola made Francis its first Provincial. In 1552 Francis set

out for China, landed on the island of Sancian within sight of his goal, but died before he reached the mainland. Working against great difficulties, language problems (contrary to legend, he had no proficiency in foreign tongues), inadequate funds, and lack of cooperation, often actual resistance, from European officials, Francis Xavier left the mark of his missionary zeal and energy on areas which have clung to Christianity for centuries. He was canonized in 1622 and proclaimed patron of all foreign missions by Pope St Pius X. Pope Francis has been called from the ends of the earth, as he put it, to deal with the Catholic Churchs serious problems, such as the child abuse committed by priests. What those priests have done is wrong, terribly wrong, and they should be punished. Those clerics who covered it up when they could have acted, and those officials who kept silent when they could have spoken, should be dismissed if they will not resign. The testing of vocations must be tightened to prevent more abusers becoming priests. Meanwhile their victims must be helped, and their abusers too, if they are able to accept help and learn to grow into mature human relationships. Pope Francis will not compromise the churchs values, teachings or disciplines, whatever pressures he may meet from capitalists, communists, secularists and their friends in the media. Christian values are not subject to the test of time which passes, the secret subterfuges of political convenience, or the prattling of focus groups. Christians believe that our behaviour is subject to the eternal judgment of God, which we shall all one day face. Meanwhile the church provides through prayer, sacraments and disciplines such as confession a way of healing and forgiveness when we fall short of our ideals as we all so sadly do from time to time. Pope Francis was a surprize election, unpredicted by the media. Like his Master, he has come among us almost unawares. Indeed in earthly terms, the wandering prophet Jesus of Nazareth was a failure. He died mocked and disgraced and would likely have been forgotten but for one man, Paul of Tarsus, a Jew, who really understood Jesus from outside Judaism and represented Jesuss teachings in ways that the Mediterranean world of the time could understand and accept. But on one mans soul it hath broken, A light that doth not depart

And his look, or a word he hath spoken Wrought flame in another mans heart. And therefore today is thrilling With a past days late fulfilling And the multitudes are enlisted In the faith that their fathers resisted.

Today, Jesus has a new leading representative who, together with other Christian leaders, will set his face towards Jerusalem, that means enter the arena of spiritual and moral conflict in which we must engage as the price of being truly human. Today, as the world faces such dreadful problems of poverty, inequality, drug abuse, and private and state violence, let us resolve ourselves to set our face towards Jerusalem in whatever sphere we are called to, remembering that in the end the love of God can never be defeated and that, within His Providence (the power of good to prevail) humanity will cross new frontiers and write better pages in the human story. With that word today still ringing in our ears (Hebrews 3:12), let us resolve once again to follow the way of the cross as the saints Francis both did and Pope Francis does. And as we pray for Gods blessing on Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis, and all who serve and support him, let us recall words associated with several American Presidents: Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee! E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me; Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.