��ѿ��ý

Available for over a year

While Pope Francis has gained many admirers during the first few months of his papacy, it seems he hasn’t been taking entirely as scripture Dale Carnegie’s famous leadership handbook How to Win Friends and Influence People. For yesterday, it was reported that one of Italy’s best known anti-mafia prosecutors, Nicola Gratteri, has said that the Pope has angered mafia bosses for attempting to clean up ‘corruption and cronyism’ within the Catholic church. “Those who have up until now profited from the power and wealth deriving from the Church are nervous and agitated,” he told one Italian newspaper. He later clarified that “Pope Francis is saying clearly that there can be no compromises with mafias that extort and murder.” It’s inspiring when anyone takes a stand, and does the right thing; but it’s only inspiring because they’re willing to pay a price, if they must - which is scary, and presumably why so many of us stick less inspiringly to courting affirmation in life instead of opposition. I’m sure Pope Francis doesn’t want to make enemies. He is a man of peace, after all. But he seems willing to - just as Martin Luther King was, for example. And Gandhi. And Jesus, who said that the peacemakers would inherit the earth, but who made enough enemies to get himself killed in the process. Not that this, by the way, is to celebrate any kind of religious masochistic tendency towards martyrdom. We know that martyrdom is used as quite the wrong kind of weapon by extremists of all sorts - and those of us who pray should pray that Francis flourishes in safety and peace as he leads the Catholic church. But if you truly stand for what you believe is right, it means also standing fearlessly against what - or whom - you believe is wrong, when the time comes. Which is a challenge for any of us - to consider what we think could possibly be worth making enemies over. The 28 Greenpeace activists still being held in Russia since protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic sea must believe their cause worth such a risk, for example. Whistle blowers, whatever you think of Edward Snowden, know they will make enemies. The teenager Malala Yousafazai, hailed at another awards ceremony this week, was brave enough to oppose the Taleban by going to school. The next spiritual step beyond being willing to make an enemy is, as Christians are taught, to be willing to love them, too. And that’s a challenge even the most saintly of popes, let alone the rest of us, may have to keep working on till kingdom come.