The new Pope Francis I, will be identified not by his physical majesticity but by his practical humility associated with the sense of forgiveness and sympathy for the poor. If all the earlier Popes had these qualities the Catholic World would attain lot of good which could have been easily shared with others too to make this whole world a blissful place to live.
If during his time Gallileo was blessed with the sensisble and knowledgeable Pope, Gallileo would have been spared of the punishment the then ignorant Pope meted out to him for speaking the truth saying, "it is earth that moves round the sun and not the other way round". Even if Gallileo was wrong the present Pope true to his genuine sense of forgiveness would have forgiven Gallileo and spared him from the harsh punishment the then Pope wrongly meted out to Gallileo.
If the present Pope Francis I, had to rule Vatican when Martin Luther issued his protest against Pope’s actions, the present Pope Francis I, true to his nature would have forgiven Martin Luther and allowed him to reconcile with the Vatican instead of provoking Martin Luther to flee from Rome for safety of his life. If the reconciliation with Martin Luther was effected with humility by the then Pope, today Catholicism would have been stronger sparing from having one more Lutheran denomination. The then Pope lacked humility as the current Pope and hence the split in the Catholicism.
Humility in words and in deeds is performed by very few Catholic leaders. The ex Bishop of Kuwait, Mnsg. Frances Mechallef, a Maltese citizen was one of them. He and me we had sometime difference of opinions and at moments he did not agree with my views but that should not deter me from accepting the fact that he was a very humble Bishop and a true sympathiser of the poor. He was the only Bishop that I saw who stooped so low to lead a very humble way of life. Feudality and pompousness normally associated with the Bishops and in many arrogant priests was not existing in Bishop Frances Mechallef. One could many times see him in the Church compound with Broom and Basket in his hands cleaning the Church Compound along with other hired Cleaners and sometimme even cleaning public Toilets in the Church Compound. He was a true missionary having no dislike for doing ordinary manual jobs normally meant for the lowest persons.
As a lover of poor Bishop Frances Mechallef never liked to tax the poor especially the Catholics residing in Kuwait from Indian subcontinent. Neither had he liked priests coming from the mentioned region to collect funds in Kuwait from the poor faithful. His contention was that the expatriates from subcontinent are not as rich as they are depicted and that they are undergoing lot of sacrifices to fulfil their own obligations. And since this is the case these expatriates according to Bishop mechallef should not be taxed.
Bishop Frances Mechallef was such a genius economist that without asking any donation from the faithful openly, he raised thru his own sources such a huge amount of money to renovate the Cathedral and to build such a magnificent edifice in the Church compound. This renovated Cathedral in Kuwait city and the beautiful edifice he constructed in the Church Compound should remain as monument of his in Kuwait.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
