Yes!

It can happen, I kept thinking this morning, as I was putting away the breakfast dishes and heard on the news that Pope Francis I has refused the sumptuous  papal apartments commenting:" You can fit 300 people in here. I'll live in the guest house." Next the news showed pictures of the pontiff kneeling and washing and kissing the feet of prisoners, most of whom were Muslim and atheist. I sighed with happiness. Finally, after so long and so much corruption and cowardice in the Catholic Church, finally, a man after Christ's heart, a man of true courage and integrity who just shrugs off all the ridiculous protocol of the Vatican. How wonderful, how uplifting for the millions of downtrodden across the globe, whether they be Catholic or not, to see that in a world that is eating itself alive with greed and selfishness, a man of high status, of high power can stand up to one of the largest institutions in the world, and simply, boldly, emphatically say, no, I will not be part of this. Enough already. This is not what Christ was all about, this is not how He lived. He did not live in a palace, or sleep in a huge expensive bed. This is ridiculous, I am not doing this. How uplifting for all of us who have had struggles, who struggle still, for a chance at happiness, at dignity, belonging, hope. I am not in prison, I am not living through a horrible war, in a refugee camp, I am not hungry, or cold, or homeless. I do have a good husband, and a wonderful son. I do know what it feels like to be betrayed, to be hurt, to be cast out of my own family, to have had a mother who loved herself above all others, and who corrupted her daughters and wounded them deeply, one badly enough for her to take her own life. This new Pope, Pope Francis I gives me hope, in my daily struggles, to believe in the dignity of my life in spite of all the broken dreams, to keep believing in love, in compassion, in family, even though my family sold me out. To keep trying to be a good wife, in spite of having had to overcome a mother who did everything to convince us that affairs were the way to handle marriage, to try to be a good mother, even though our mother sacrificed her children to pay all her attention to her many lovers and ridiculed and abused our father endlessly. Francis I gives me joy in trying each day to humbly be a better person, in spite of the shame and guilt of the past, to keep believing in kindness even though I went without it myself often, to keep believing in my dreams, as an animal rights person, as a poet, a memoir writer, as a human being trying to make sense of life. Yes! I am so happy with this Pope, to me he feels like a miracle, a touch of mercy in a lot of darkness, here in our own country, and abroad. Good still exists, thank God ! Yes! Yes!!