Dear friends,
I have to confess to being excited and enthused by the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as the new Pope of the Catholic Church.
Our troubled world needs a positive authoritative voice just now,
And hopefully Pope Leo XIV will be the right voice at the right time.
It seems that the idea of electing a person born in the US was against all the odds as far as Vatican watchers are concerned.
But when we consider the influence of the US in world affairs,
We realise that this might just have been an inspired choice for our time.
And Pope Leo XIV is not arriving directly from Chicago to Rome.
He has served a valuable apprenticeship working for marginalised communities in Peru.
The new Pope's choice of name also gives us reason for hope.
His predecessor in name,
Pope Leo XIII,
Was the head of the Catholic Church from 1878 until 1903.
In his 1891 encyclical,
Rerum Novarum,
Pope Leo XIII outlined the rights of workers to a just wage,
Reasonable working hours,
Safe working conditions,
And he advocated for the rights of workers to form trade unions.
The Pope sought to offer an alternative to both unrestrained capitalism and radical socialism.
Has there ever been a time since when we had a greater need to look afresh at these questions?
We see a growing discrepancy between the very rich and the very poor.
We see the enormous potential attached to artificial intelligence.
But we need to carefully examine its implications in terms of the general well-being of humanity.
And most important in these troubled times is the need for an influential voice to be raised,
Calling for peace and an end to war.
The very first words issued by the new Pope,
From the balcony at St.
Peter's Square,
Peace be with you.
And he has pleaded for an end to global conflicts,
Which he likened to a third world war in pieces.
Echoing pleas for peace by his predecessor,
Pope Francis,
He said,
I too address the world's great powers by repeating the ever-present call,
Never again war.
In his first address to journalists,
He said,
Let us disarm wars and we will help to disarm the world.
He called for us to pay more attention to how we communicate,
Saying,
Peace begins with each one of us in the way we look at others,
Listen to others and speak about others.
The way we communicate is of fundamental importance.
We have seen over the years and centuries how one individual can influence a country or the world for better or worse.
Over the years we have examples of individuals who have brought about extraordinary good and whose lives are examples to all of us.
The likes of Mahatma Gandhi,
Nelson Mandela,
Rosa Parks,
Martin Luther King Jr,
Vaclav Havel,
Desmond Tutu and so many more.
I hope and pray that Pope Leo XIV will be one of these voices for good and that his words,
His actions,
His meetings,
His urgings and his prayers will bring about a better world than we know today.
May each of us in our own lives be voices for peace and harmony,
Always encouraging others and always using our influence to persuade people to act for the common good of all humanity.
Namaste.
