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One of the most arresting images published this year is of Pope Francis crossing a cobbled courtyard to enter the ornate Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.
He wears the white papal vestments, accompanied by a cardinal, with a ceremonial Swiss guard nearby. He walks across red carpet from his car.
But his conveyance is out of kilter with the other finery.
After a lifetime of using public transport in South America, the Pope has yielded to the necessities of his higher office and now uses a car. His choice? A Ford Focus.
It is as stark an image of his papacy as any; forgoing fine motor vehicles the Church can comfortably afford for a cheap, small, city hatchback.
The image is spread across a double-page spread in the current issue of National Geographic magazine, real estate the Ford marketing division could only hope to buy.
And this pope is marketing something much more significant, and plenty of heathens are buying it.
Yes, the Catholic Church has skewed teachings on many things.
Its refusal to ordain women is medieval. It’s been sullied by its recalcitrant attitude to clergy abuse.
Its position on marriage equality in civil law is an attempt to inflict religious dogma on everyone, believer or not.
In many ways, Francis remains an orthodox Catholic.
Yet even on gay rights, Francis has dragged Catholicism into modern relevance. He is never going to support marriage equality, but he has done more for the dignity of gay people than his predecessors with a single “who am I to judge” quote.
The Ford Focus is a symbol of the powerful message this pope is sending at the start of what seems a papacy for the age, providing a moral message heard far beyond Catholics. Continue reading
- Tim Dick is a Sydney lawyer with Legal Aid. The article is from The Sydney Morning Herald.
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