The ‘Pope Francis List’

T-shirts, posters, calendars, booklets, busts and even life-sized tarpaulin standees—all these have made it to the market for sale in time for the visit of Pope Francis. Some of them are official, sanctioned by Church authorities, others have been denounced by no less than the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines for their allegedly misleading messages, while the majority are the fruit of the entrepreneurial drive of Filipinos.

But all are the result of the growing public interest in the Pope’s coming presence in the country, and the desire of individuals and institutions to cash in on his perceived popularity.

Indeed, if one needed proof of public opinion support for a personality, cause or calling, one need not pay for an expensive public opinion poll. Perhaps a most effective and easy means of accomplishing the same goal is to count the sales of “souvenir” or “commemorative” items, for which supposed devotees or fans shell out hard-earned cash in exchange for items that would express their devotion.

I remember a friend who sought to cash in on the then-growing sentiment to boycott the 1986 snap election on the grounds that a still-powerful, though aging and sickly, Ferdinand Marcos could not allow free or credible elections. “But I should have seen the futility of this stance,” he would say later. “Filipinos wanted to go to the polls,” he added, citing the fact that his “boycott” T-shirts, pins, fans, caps and other items sold miserably, if at all.

So, how well will the papal souvenirs sell? How many millions of pesos will their makers and marketers make in profits? More important, what lessons will they teach the buyers, what messages will they impart?

Perhaps we’ll know only after Pope Francis boards the plane that will bring him back to Rome. Only then can we tote up the sales figures and, more importantly, measure the impact that his presence—his words, his actions, his being—will have on this Catholic bastion in the Pacific.

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ONE way to spread the presence of the Pope, who cannot be in all places at all times to all 100 million plus Pinoys, is to convey his ideas and thoughts by way of books, pamphlets, or prayer guides.

I received one such pamphlet during a Jimenez clan get-together on New Year’s Day when an aunt gave away a small booklet called “The Pope Francis List,” a sort of guide to believers seeking to make their New Year resolutions for a year blessed with the presence of a Pope on our soil just as the year is beginning.

“Look at No. 1,” exhorted my Tita Chulia Azarcon, who smilingly pointed to the first item on the list: “Don’t gossip.” “This is so apt for us!” she said with a laugh.

But it was No. 2 that drew hearty laughter from us. “Finish your meals… No leftovers, please.” Certainly not a problem for us with our hearty appetites, but it bears noting that, to quote Pope Francis: “We should all remember… that throwing food away is like stealing from the table of the poor, the hungry. I encourage everyone to reflect on the problem of thrown away and wasted food, to identify ways and means to seriously address this issue as a vehicle of solidarity and sharing with the needy.”

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COMMENTATORS have noted the lynchpins of the Pontiff’s message to the faithful: mercy and compassion.

And part of that call to reach out to the less fortunate, to be understanding and giving, is the exhortation to “Stop judging others.”

“In the same way he denounces gossip, Francis rejects prejudice,” says exhortation No. 6. “He reminds ‘intolerant’ Catholics, for one, to respect atheists.” “If we, each doing our own part, do good to others, if we meet them doing good, and we do so slowly, gently, little by little—we will make that culture of encounters that we need so much. We must meet one another doing good.”

Of course, we have heard of the Pope’s famous reply when asked about gays: “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?” Indeed, if the Pope himself is willing to accept and understand gay people, as well as atheists and people of other faiths, who are we—fallible and ordinary, humble and unsung—to judge others?

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THE last item on the list is “Be Happy.” “The true Christian exudes great joy, the Pope says. Keeping this joy to ourselves ‘will make us sick in the end.’ So important is joy to him that his first apostolic exhortation, the first major document he wrote on his own is entitled Evangelium Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).”

In a homily, Pope Francis noted humorously that “sometimes these melancholy Christians’ faces have more in common with pickled peppers than the joy of living a beautiful life.”

Instead, he admonished, to paraphrase the song from “Frozen,” let it go. “Joy cannot be held at heel—it must be let go. Joy is a pilgrim value. It is a gift that walks, walks on the path of life, walks with Jesus: preaching, proclaiming.

“And in proclaiming Jesus, lengthens and widens that path… The Christian sings with joy, walks and carries this joy.”

A note: the “New Year Resolutions List of Pope Francis” was provided by Fr. Jess V. Fernandez, SJ, who for 47 years had been the chaplain of the Christian Family Movement unit to which Tito and Bimba Fajardo belong. It was the Fajardos who designed and printed and distributed the List as their own way of celebrating Pope Francis’ visit this year, 2015, The Year of the Lord.