In this photo provided by the Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis meets US Vice-President Joe Biden after his installation Mass at the Vatican.
By: Cubargie Joe
By Cubargie Joe
(Jos'e Manuel Pall'i)
LATINOS R US
I am old enough to remember the hullabaloo in the United States -and also among Catholics in the rest of the Americas- when John F. Kennedy ran for and won the presidency, becoming the first (and still the only) Catholic president of the United States in 1961. A great number of US voters and their Protestant ministers were deeply suspicious of Kennedy's faith. My mother in Argentina and her sisters in Miami, on the other hand, were joyous with the news of his election.
When in 1974, then Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz -who had to resign in 1976 due to another one of his off-coloured racist jokes-made a joke directed at Pope Paul VI's opposition to population control (mimicking an Italian accent he told the press corps "If you don't play-a da game, you don't make-a da rrules"), he was amply criticized for his insensitivity towards Italian-Americans, not for his disrespect towards the head of the Catholic church.
When I arrived in the United States in the late seventies, Catholicism was still very far from being mainstream -even in Miami, by then already "cubanized". I recall being handed out religious literature where Catholics were ridiculed and even demonized.
The intensive news coverage of the resignation of a Pope and the enthronization of another one has shown how much the weight and image of Catholicism in the United States has changed since Kennedy's Camelot days. And this despite the many hits that image has taken lately because of the incidence of pedophilia among Catholic priests, which has taken a heavy toll on the finances and on the moral authority of the Catholic Church.
Over the past few weeks, seldom has a day gone by without national TV newscasts spending close to twenty five per cent of their air time discussing the succession of Pope Benedict XVI. The White House's salute to the new Argie pope, Francis, was warmer and more enthusiastic than that of many countries in our region firmly imbedded in Catholic tradition (warmer than the Casa Rosada's reaction to Cardinal Bergoglio's election), and was perceived by "Latinos" in the US as a sign of a renewed commitment from the government to them and their aspirations, as well as emphasizing the increasing importance of the southern portion of our western hemisphere in the eyes of Washington. Hopefully, this time around we will move beyond mere rhetoric; though, "thinking it better", yes, you are right, I may be drifting into the same capital sin of wishful thinking I so often criticize.
Much has been said about the significance of electing the first Latin American pope, but from the perspective of a country where the efforts of the Catholic Church in the field of education is ever more appreciated, the fact Francis is a Jesuit may be even more significant.
I am personally gratified by the fact the Pope roots for the same football team I do, San Lorenzo de Almagro, also known as El Cicl'on. It would have been unseemly, (and worrisome in terms of the topic mentioned in the last paragraph below) if he had been a fan of the Red Devils from Avellaneda. In any event, this appears to settle who will be playing in the second division next year. A "football-fan pope" is also gratifying for someone who grew up being looked askance by many dear but somewhat snobbish relatives and friends who thought there was something wrong (demeaning?) in devoting Sunday afternoons to football, watching it from the stadium or the rafters to boot. Despite our love of sports in the United States, we still do not fathom the strength of the bond that ties what we call soccer to what some call "the less educated classes" around the world.
As for the many PHDs in wishful thinking who are already at work trying to establish a parallel between the fall of the Berlin Wall and their hopes for the demise of populism in Latin America, seeing in Jorge Bergoglio a later day version of Karol Wojtyla, their best hope seems to be that the Catholic Church will simply bolster its rhetoric about poverty, inequality and other social issues, as it has done in the past, without forcefully seeking any significant change. But watch out guys, this fan of El Cicl'on seems to be the real thing, and he may end up blowing strongly in a different direction than the one you wish for.
From a Miami perspective, the only thing that could have made a bigger splash among us would have been that Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino had ended up being the chosen one. Cardinal Ortega has been vilified by many of my Cuban neighbours in Miami mainly for his willingness to sit down with the Cuban government to negotiate for more space for the Church and for freedom for a number of political prisoners. Dialogue with the Castro brothers is still anathema for many US Cubans, not all of them old-timers. But still, I suspect that having a Cuban pope would have had a huge impact on US-Cuba relations, despite the resistance of those who take pride in calling themselves recalcitrant. We do not get to confirm this, but we can always hope -ten more Our Fathers when I go to confession next week, I know- that someone with Francis's background and track record may also help loosen up the deadlock in what we call US policy towards Cuba -a "policy" that for over fifty years has served only one purpose: to hide the absence of a policy-, getting us to where Pope John Paul II wanted us all to be when he said we should all open ourselves to Cuba.
Another topic frequently covered in the US media lately has been the prophecy that appears to signal that the new Pope will be the last one, in which case we may all want to heed that Juan Luis Guerra song where he urges us to get our papers in order (hay que arreglar los papeles). Another good reason to get rid of all our fears and open up to each other, before it is too late.
Jos'e Manuel Pall'i is a Cuban-born lawyer, originally trained in Argentina and has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1985.