The pope's first journey

Pope Francis' first official international trip has just come to an end, and it brought Brazil more good than bad.

The pope was received with great enthusiasm, as is always the case wherever the pope travels. When we talk about the pope, we're reflecting on a public figure with more than a millennium of history. And it's almost as if it were the same person all through the ages. For Catholics, it's about the office, not the person. It is the "representative" of Christ on earth. The pope. The vicar.

The pope also represents the centrality of the Catholic faith in the world, and Brazil is the single country with the highest number of Catholics on the planet.

For non-Catholics the pope has also been something like a unitary, symbolic person across the centuries. And for those who oppose the Catholic church for religious reasons, the pope has become the target of consistent resistance and criticism over the generations.

These critics hope that some day the "prophecies" that have circulated for hundreds of years will finally be fulfilled. I'm referring to ancient prophecies about "the end of the world," especially those promulgated by the Irish bishop St. Malachy, who died in 1148AD. St. Malachy prophesied that Benedict XVI would be the penultimate pope.

Of course, I can't guarantee that Pope Francis will be the last pope. I'm not a prophet, but I am familiar with this particular prediction. And the proof will have to wait until Pope Francis walks through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, a walk that all of us mortals must take sooner or later.

For my part, I hope that Pope Francis lingers here many years.

Pope Francis is bringing a new and pleasant wave of faith and Christian renewal. For that alone I hope he stays a while. But he also speaks to youth with the resolve of an evangelist and the tone of a pastor. He projects an air of certainty of faith that springs from a personal, lively piety. He invited Brazil's youth to see for themselves that Christ is "greater than the World Cup." Only a person who knows the faith intimately would say such a thing.

Pope Francis also uses simple language that is penetrating and enlightening. His words signal and seek authentic faith in daily life. Francis is an energetic wake-up call to the stuffy, stale clerics enamored of religiosity who have provoked the mass exodus of believers from the Catholic Church toward other forms of Christianity.

Even worse, the rancid status quo has driven believers out of the Church completely and into unbelief and outright atheism. In Brazil, things have gotten so bad that the Church has shed 25% of its members.

Pope Francis is also well aware that much of his church's hemorrhaging is also due to an aggressive and active message preached by evangelical Christians, in direct critique of the "stale" Catholic church. Pope Francis is so bothered by this development that he "boxed the ears" of his bishops and priests.

In Copacabana he admitted the Church's failings, labeling them "incoherencies." He also referred to the sex scandals in the Church.

This humble and smiling man has also sent out a call to rehabilitate our politics, which are shot through with corruption that infects and corrodes everything it touches. Corrupt politics generate the bonds of poverty and misery. Indeed, he says the "avarice of the rich" has been a primary obstacle to the good functioning of politics and the wellbeing of the masses. The pope refers to the rehabilitation of politics as "the highest form of charity." And he's right.

In fact, even all of the energy and warmth that greeted the pope could not slow the mass protests in Brazil. They did not, however, put the papal visit in any danger. Brazilians are tired of corruption and tired of the country's vaunted "progress" that has not benefited all people equally. This complaint is common to almost all developing nations.

And so, plainly and in front of nearly three million people, the pope very satisfactorily wrapped up his first official papal visit.

"We can't remain cloistered in our parishes, in our community, when so many people are waiting to hear the Gospel," the pope said. "It's not enough to just open the door and receive...Instead, we have to walk out the door and seek."

The rest of us will be watching to see if this takes place. But the pope's challenge is there in plain language, and that is the heart of the matter.

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Daniel Valles is a multimedia journalist and commentator from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. He writes the weekly column El Mello del Asunto (the Heart of the Matter).

Twitter: @elmeoyodlasunto | elmeollodelasunto@gmail.com

Photo of Pope Francis is from the Catholic Church of England's Flickr account; used under Creative Commons license.