Will Pope’s visit have a transformative impact?

The coming of Pope Francis will likely have much more resonance than it had in the other countries he visited. This is not only because the Philippines has the world’s third largest number of Catholics. More significant is that his healing message of hope will fill the need of a people long dispirited by the scourge of poverty, criminality, disasters and corruption afflicting our society.

Pope Francis has become the face of the mercy and compassion that he espouses. Less than two years into his papacy, the soft power of this unassuming spiritual leader has been a source of moral strength for crisis victims. He has earned recognition as an influential player in international relations. His diplomatic role in thawing US-Cuba relations was critical, and more peace-building initiatives are expected of him.

Many of us are hoping that the fervor to be ignited by his mission will endure, especially among our political leaders. A respected political analyst, Dean Julio Teehankee, thinks that “the papal visit will likely have a halo effect on the Philippine electorate and might be a factor in their choice of the next president.” Teehankee recalls that before the 1981 visit of Pope John Paul II, then President Ferdinand Marcos was forced to lift martial law. On his second visit in 1995, the midterm elections yielded professionals and reform-minded newcomers in the Senate. Teehankee believes that “the simple message and personal example of Pope Francis have rekindled the authenticity of the love of Christ in the hearts not only of his flock but also of nonbelievers.”

In his homily on New Year’s Eve, the Pope underscored that the poor and weak, when nurtured, “reveal the treasure of the Church” and of society. However, “when a society ignores the poor, persecutes them, criminalizes them, and constrains them, that society is impoverished to the point of misery…, that society ceases to be Christian.”

Directly related to the Holy Father’s passion to cast out the curse of mass poverty and social inequality is his commitment to the eradication of modern slavery. In his New Year message for the 48th World Day of Peace, he noted that despite international agreements aimed at ending slavery, “millions of people

today—children, women and men of all ages—are deprived of freedom and are forced to live in conditions akin to slavery.” He is distressed by “the living conditions of many migrants who, in their dramatic odyssey, experience hunger, are deprived of freedom, robbed of their possessions, or undergo physical and sexual abuse.”

Last December, Pope Francis and leaders of major religions signed a joint statement at the Vatican to work together for the elimination of modern slavery by the year 2020. They declared: “Modern slavery, in terms of human trafficking, forced labor and prostitution, organ trafficking, and any relationship that fails to respect the fundamental conviction that all people are equal and have the same freedom and dignity, is a crime against humanity.”

On the Pope’s strong recommendation, the theme of this year’s conference of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) is human trafficking. I endorsed Dr. Maruja Asis of the Scalibrini Migration Center as the presenter of the paper on “Repatriation and Trafficked Workers in the Philippines and Other Countries.”

Another advocacy of the Holy Father is protection of the environment. He warns against the risk of considering ourselves masters of Creation: “Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will… Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we care for it and we use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude.”

Last May, two papal think tanks—PASS and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences—held a joint session convened by their chancellor, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo. The member-academicians who delivered scientific papers on sustainable nature and transformation of human society included Nobel Laureates Warner Arber, Joachim von Braun, Paul Crutzen and Yuan-tseh Lee. Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz spoke on the price of inequality. PASS president Margaret Archer gave a presentation on “Being Trafficked to Work.”

Pope Francis will publish an encyclical on climate change and plans to convene a meeting of religious leaders on the issue ahead of two crucial summits on the environment.

He organized last October a World Summit of Popular/Grassroots Leaders. The Filipino participants were fisherman-leader Rafael Olivera, Joemedes Arienda, a farmer-inventor of low-cost technology for cleaning rivers and waterways, and Christopher Funes, an artist-promoter of environmental education. They work under programs of the Asian Social Institute headed by PASS academician Mina Ramirez.

In his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, the Holy Father laments that “our world is being torn apart by wars and violence, and wounded by a widespread individualism which divides human beings.” He cautions against increasing inequality among nations that marginalizes the peripheral economies and exacerbates poverty at the local level.

Like St. John XXIII, who prevented a nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis, and

St. John Paul II, who was instrumental in ending totalitarian rule in Eastern Europe, Pope Francis can lead us toward a new world order based on justice and love for humanity.

Dr. Wilfrido Villacorta was appointed in 1999 by St. John Paul II as an academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, an ecumenical papal think tank on social issues.