Pope Francis attracted both admiration and criticism during his tenure, with some criticising him because he disrupted the foundations of their sense of security — which are their empires.
Pope Francis attracted both admiration and criticism during his tenure, with some criticising him because he disrupted the foundations of their sense of security — which are their empires.
One of the signs of the times during his pontificate was the growth in the Western world of movements with aspirations to empire-building, a return to the former glory when Western countries had empires and the Catholic Church was an integral part of these empires.
For Pope Francis, beyond the empires based on nationalism, such as the American empire, there existed a more significant empire, namely the system of unfettered global capitalism that has evolved into an empire, a global imperial design that is not confined to one country or one region.
Pope Francis was strong in his denunciation of both trajectories of empire-building, as they are grounded on the worship of wealth, environmental degradation, escalation of wars worldwide, indifference to struggling nations and disregard for society’s marginalised — all contrary to the values of God’s kingdom.
Both trajectories of empire-building have displayed a tendency to absorb everything in their path into their worldview and structures of power. When Francis advocated for the voiceless of the world, he did so with a vision of a church that refused to be absorbed into the worldviews of empires.
He performed this against the backdrop of a vision of a new evangelisation, a vision of the gospel, where believers begin to see themselves primarily as citizens of the empire of God, and not citizens of the secular empires. His chosen name reveals this purpose, as Saint Francis saw himself as a citizen of a heavenly empire, rather than earthly empires.
Ironically, Francis was in some cases criticised for compromising church doctrines in favour of the worldview of the empire and for behaving more like an activist than a defender of the faith and the doctrines of the Catholic Church. In some cases, this accusation of compromising the gospel was a result of Francis embracing the prodigal son, and then being caught by the anger of the first son, who sees the offer of mercy as a betrayal of fidelity.
The tension between the church and the empire have always existed in the history of the Body of Christ and will never disappear. While Francis has not managed to disentangle the church completely from the worldview and the power structures of the empire, he has succeeded in reminding the church that it should protect the most vulnerable in the society against the greed and violence of those building their empires. Those building such empires can be the superpowers, the multinational corporations, the international financial institutions, as well as our political parties in the developing world.
The empires will seek greatness — or to be great again — and they will define this greatness in terms of accumulation: accumulation of wealth, territories, power and control.
In contrast, the citizens in God’s empire will need to remind the world that true greatness as a country comes from living the values that Jesus preached in the gospel. True progress and greatness as a country is measured, not only through gross domestic product GDP, but also in terms of the extent to which the country is excelling in living out the qualities of the Holy Spirit — love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Empires will operate under the assumption that the only way to achieve their desired greatness is through violence, corruption and exploitation of the most vulnerable in a country or in the world. In such a world, we require citizens of the kingdom who refuse to be co-opted into this assumption and are active in living out the parable of the Good Samaritan, binding the wounds of those harmed by the greed and violence of the empire, and speaking truth to power on behalf of the voiceless (Luke 10:25-37).
Empires will perceive their vulnerability as weakness and become brutal during decline. We then need kingdom citizens who will remind the world to see vulnerability as an opportunity to rediscover a life of total surrender to God. In this way, those who place their trust in God while they are in a vulnerable situation are blessed: those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are hungry, those who are persecuted for their faith (Luke 6:20-26).
Pope Francis died on Easter Monday — during a season when we celebrate Christ, who was persecuted by an empire. Perhaps this was to remind us that the greed and violence of our earthly empire do not have the last word. The resurrection of Christ is that which has the last word.
Father Stan Muyebe is the director of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.