Is our LORD trying to tell us something via here? Maybe Pope Francis is the False Prophet of Revelation 13?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/the-pope/11354191/Pope-Francis-is-a-man-of-peace-and-immense-political-power.htmlPope Francis is a man of peace - and immense political power
The first non-European pontiff in almost 1,300 years is showing he has the capacity to be a truly global force for good in our time6:15AM GMT 19 Jan 2015
It was probably the largest papal Mass in history. On Sunday, an estimated six million Filipinos went to Manila to witness Pope Francis celebrate communion – the crowning event of an astonishing tour. Over four days, His Holiness condemned corruption, visited a slum, and said Mass in a yellow cagoule, lashed by the driving rain.
“I saw God in his eyes,” said one 13-year-old boy.The success of the Philippines “show” tells us two things. First, that outside Western Europe a lot of people still believe in God. Here, we tend to regard religion as passé – something they did centuries ago, when unenlightened Europeans took the advice of burning bushes. But out beyond the EU, millions of people stubbornly continue to put their faith in the Almighty. The West may enjoy comparative power and wealth, but our attachment to secular liberalism is a minority opinion.
Europe’s loss of faith makes it harder for us to comprehend the wider world and contributes to cultural misunderstanding.
Luckily, we have the Roman Catholic Church to act as interpreter. For the second thing that the crowds in Manila show is that Pope Francis is one of the most important diplomats of his era. He is a bridge between the West and the rest.Of course, that’s always been the case. By historical accident the leadership of Catholicism is located in Rome, but its Christian origins were in the Middle East and many of its early saints and theologians were African. Today, it is a uniquely global Church, with around 1.2 billion members.
As its official face, the papacy has always enjoyed diplomatic clout. In the early 1800s, the Pope pressured heads of state to suppress the slave trade. In the Eighties, Pope John Paul II united Christians in opposition to communism. And Benedict XVI made overtures to the Eastern Orthodox – something that his intellectualism and love of liturgy made him especially well placed to do. The personality of the pontiff helps define his mission.
As such, Francis is especially suited to the challenge of reaching out to the developing world. He is the first non-European Pope in nearly 1,300 years, coming from a country – Argentina – whose history touches upon relevant themes of colonialism and struggle for democracy.
His emphasis is, sometimes regrettably, not upon liturgical richness but, happily, upon straightforward themes of love and compassion that resonate widely. In the Philippines, former street children asked him why God allowed suffering. When one girl broke down in tears, the Pope told her that crying cleansed the soul and asked why so few other women had been invited to speak. This is a cleric who is prepared to talk frankly and humanely about issues of injustice.
His simplicity appeals, too – although it can have a whiff of stage management. Often, the Pope is seen boarding a plane carrying his own bag. Why does he need a bag on a short flight? What’s in it? Paperwork? A toothbrush? One suspects that this is ostentatious modesty. But when talking to the press mid-flight, he displays a rugged kind of faith that, again, citizens of the developing world would appreciate more than “cosmopolitan” Europeans.
His Holiness decried the killings in Paris but noted that when people love God like a father, you take a risk when you insult Him.For perhaps the first time, many Western liberals were disappointed with Francis – for questioning the wisdom of blasphemy. But those who truly want to understand how Muslims feel about Mohammed could learn a lot from what he had to say. And those who routinely gripe about the moral conservatism of poorer peoples should understand that Francis’s blunt traditionalism also goes down well with those struggling to get by. Gay rights just aren’t as far up the political agenda in a country like the Philippines, where a quarter of the country lives on 60 cents a day and takes spiritual sustenance from a Church to which some 80 per cent of them belong.
The practical effects of having a Pope who can speak to two very different cultures was shown in the rapprochement of Cuba and America. We now know that the Vatican hosted secret talks between officials and that the pontiff wrote to both Barack Obama and Raul Castro.President Obama said that Francis led through “moral example, showing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is”. Which is a very neat summary of Christianity in action, of being the change that one wants to see.
So we live in the age of a new super-pope. Forbes magazine called Francis the fourth most powerful man in the world; he has been tipped for a Nobel Peace Prize. There are downsides to that. Disappointment often trails promise, and we mustn’t forget that the Church is bigger than just the Pope.
Nevertheless, as the West slowly surrenders its claim to leadership over the world, it is fortunate there is a charismatic transitional figure telling of peace, rather than seeking votes.
