Nine months on, and the “Francis-Effect” is still going strong.
There was a huge buzz all around St Peter's Square in the Vatican this morning on a beautiful, sunny day when 80-90,000 faithful and tourists turned out to hear Pope Francis deliver his first New Year Angelus prayer, just nine months after his election last March.
Speaking, as usual, from the window of the papal apartment in which he does not live, Pope Francis offered the by now familiar blend of homely, normal greetings mixed with serious concern about a vast range of social justice issues.
Given the extent to which Francis has been portrayed by international opinion as an innovative Pope, it is worth noting that nothing could have been more traditional and doctrinally sound that his Angelus, in which many of the prayers were recited in Latin.
Francis opened up his homily with an enthusiastic "Buon Giorno e Buon Anno" (Good Day and Happy New Year) and he concluded it with "Buona Domenica, Buon Inizio Dell'Anno e Buon Pranzo" (Have a Good Sunday, A Good Beginning To The Year and A Good Lunch).
In between times, however, the pope moved into teacher mode, reminding the faithful that Catholics place their hopes in Mary, Mother of God and then underlining the point by calling on the crowd to repeat three times with him, "Santa Madre Di Dio" (Holy Mother of God).
At one point, the pope moved from his prepared text to tell the story of a believer who had written to him in the last week.
The man, who had sought consolation and help in relation to a personal tragedy, ended his letter by acknowledging that today’s world is marked by an unending variety of tragedies, often provoked by the ambition and greed of fellow man:
“What happens to the heart of man?”, asked the letter writer, adding: “It is time to stop”
The letter offered Francis the chance to refer to this year’s papal Message for the World Day of Peace, a message that Popes have issued on every January 1st since 1968.
If Francis’s tone during his homily was both warm and normal, his World Day of Peace message is much tougher, dedicated to the thorny question of social justice worldwide: “Richer nations (are required) to assist the less developed; the duty of social justice which requires the realignment of relationships between stronger and weaker peoples in terms of greater fairness.”
Meanwhile, “Relative poverty”, the gulf between “those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs”; the corruption of organised crime; an appeal for “the non-proliferation of arms”, equality in “dignity and in fundamental rights”- are just some of the issues highlighted by Francis in yet another uncompromising document which he officially consigned to the world today in St. Peter’s Square, adding: “The fundamental reason (for this Message) is the conviction that we are all children of one heavenly father, we are all part of the same human family and we all share a common destiny”.