蜜芽传媒

It will come as no surprise to anyone that the papal conclave which is meeting today to elect a new pope is meeting in Rome. The pope belongs to Rome and Rome to the pope just as surely - even more surely - than the King belongs in London and the President of the United States in Washington.

But that the pope should find his home in Rome is in fact, a turn up for the books. Christianity grew up in a world dominated by Rome, and the apparatus of Roman imperialism - soldiers, prefects, centurions and governors - is the backdrop to Christ's life and death just as surely as are fishermen, donkeys and palm trees. Later Christians would find in the achievements of Rome something of divine providence - the peace that Roman authority maintained allowed, for example, the travels of the first apostles and missionaries, such as Peter and Paul, taking them and their message even to Rome and the very heart of the empire. But the sense we get from Christ's life that the Roman presence is a rather dark and ominous drum beat in the story, doesn't just go away. The less than favourable references to Babylon in the Book of Revelation for example, are generally taken to be cryptic references to Rome itself, 'drunk on the blood of the saints'. Early Christians were certainly not running the city back then, but more likely trembling in the catacombs on account of persecution.

What a turn around then, that the leader of the worldwide Catholic church, should have his seat here, and now preside over a realm greater in extent, and of longer duration, that the Roman Empire. But even in this story, a story of Christian triumph you might think, an ominous drumbeat can still be heard. 'My kingdom is not of this world' says Jesus at his trial before that most prominent of Romans from the New Testament, Pontius Pilate. And yet once Christ's followers, not just in Rome, but just as much in Canterbury or Constantinople, had gained success the early Christians could barely have imagined, all the snares and temptations of worldly power were there to trip them up. Jesus was a king who threw off his robes to wash his disciples' feet. Many of Christ's official representatives have found that sort of servile kingship less than enticing.

All Christians, I believe, not just Roman Catholics, had cause to be grateful for the work and witness of Pope Francis. Francis seemed to find a way of embodying and representing something of Christ's conception of leadership as a form of service to all people, but especially to the powerless - and I think we can all join today in hoping that the conclave will elect someone who, like Francis, will speak to worldly empires and rulers of such a radically different kingdom and a radically different kingship.

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