Pope Francis Visits Assisi on St. Francis' Feast Day

Instead of bombs and hatred, on this 4th of October, let's talk about love. Today is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. The best-known of all saints in the Christian church, Francis (1181-1226) was the son of a prosperous cloth merchant in Assisi, but Francis felt himself called by God to preach to the poor, reform the church and live a life of total poverty as a way to glorify God's smallest gifts to man...food, natural beauty, animals. Francis convinced the Pope to let him found a religious order of men dressed in simple brown robes tied by rope belts who would beg for their daily needs and preach to the poor people in villages all over Europe. There was some concern about releasing a large number of church-approved beggars into society, but finally Francis was allowed to form the order of Friars. Soon there were 5,000 brothers wandering all over the known world preaching the good news of God's love and showing how mankind could stay close to nature, a great gift from God. ~~~~~ Today, on the feast of St. Francis, Pope Francis - the first Pope to take his name because it was always thought that there was only one Francis and no one could copy him - traveled to the hometown of his namesake Saint Francis of Assisi. While previous pontiffs have visited Assisi, for the current pope, Friday's trip to the town about 100 miles north of the Vatican was not just a religious pilgrimage, it was a mission statement. CBS News reported that an outdoor mass was the centerpiece of his visit, but for Pope Francis, Assisi was a highly symbolic place to stress, once again, how he's trying to remake the Catholic Church in the image of the man who made the Italian hillside town famous. Eight-hundred years later, Pope Francis has made it clear he wants the Church to start following Saint Francis' example. Earlier this week, Francis assembled an international panel of Cardinals to begin the process of reforming the too-large and too self-serving Vatican bureaucracy, not just fixing it but rebuilding it from the ground up. Behind the religious pageantry of the day, there are other early signs of reform. The Vatican bank - a center of secrecy, scandal and corruption - issued its first-ever annual report this week. The bank said it was now committed to transparency, but acknowledged an ongoing investigation by Italian prosecutors into money laundering allegations. Pope Francis has been in office just six months, but already he has begun to redefine the Papacy, publicly rejecting some of its more ostentatious trappings from Day One. The Pope called recently for the church to put its focus beyond "small-minded rules." Francis has openly discussed topics historically controversial for the Catholic Church, even suggesting homosexuals should not be marginalized by church leaders. When questioned what his response would be upon learning that a cleric was gay though not sexually active, the Argentinean-born pontiff said he wouldn't judge them. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" he said. Pope Francis has spoken often without notes, and about real events. The tragedy of the sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of African refugees off the Italian coast on Thursday was the latest example. The death toll was still rising Friday, and could reach more than 300 when all the victims are found or the search is called off. Francis, who has been urging more international action to help migrants, called the disaster a disgrace. On Friday, he blamed it on an uncaring world. In just a short time, Pope Francis has changed the style of the Papacy. Now, he's attacking the very structure of the Church. He was elected to be a different kind of pope, but he may be even more different than the Cardinals who selected him initially thought. ~~~~~ Dear readers, a legend tells the story of St. Francis misunderstanding what God wanted him to do in reforming the church. St. Francis thought he was being asked to repair his own parish church. He did that. But the message kept coming to him in prayer - reform the church. Finally, St. Francis understood and set out to bring the church closer to the poor and uneducated, to take away the princely pomp and turn the church toward caring for and preaching simply to its people. St. Francis was a renowned preacher who brought thousands out to hear about God's love for them and the world. Pope Francis seems to have chosen his name carefully, with the intention of following in the footsteps of the man whom many consider to be the greatest saint. On the feast of St. Francis, and every day, people of good will of every religion and sect should think of St. Francis and his namesake, Pope Francis - and try to help make the world, in the little corner where each one lives, a more loving and people-friendly place.