By Owei Lakemfa
POPE Francis, born, Jorge Mario Bergoglio and  known widely, as a pacifist, is visiting the United States, a famous  warrior nation, for six days from September 22.  Just as the hood does not make a monk, so does a papal regalia, not make a pacifist. There have been warmongering Popes like Pope Urban II who militarily, mobilised Europe in 1095 to attack parts of Europe and the Middle East in the name of a crusade. The wars  ignited  by that Pope, raged   for over two centuries leaving massive destruction, wasted lives  and horrendous massacres of Judaists, Muslims and Christians.

But Pope Francis is a pacifist who encourages political and inter-faith dialogue. The Pope’s  visit  to ‘God’s own country’ where the motto is: In God We Trust, would have been like St. Peter visiting the militarist Roman Empire. He is Head of State of the tiny Vatican State, visiting a huge country which is the economic, political    and military power house of the world. Where his hosts have a huge military; the Pope has not a single division he can command. But he is the spiritual commander of  the  estimated 1.254 billion Catholics in the world who are said to constitute 48 percent of the Christian populace and 17 percent of world population.

Pope Francis AFP PHOTO

So Pope Francis goes to America with enormous moral authority. His visit promises to take the shine off the Republican and Democrat campaigns. People like Donald Trump and Sarah Palin who love the din of their own voices, will be forced to listen  to a pacifist. This may be more frustrating  as the Pope will have no trade, arms sale agreement or Defence Pact to sign during his visit.

He will be playing an away match in the very heart of some of the world’s most infamous warmongers like former American Vice President, Dick Cheney who is releasing another poison into world peace, titled Exceptional: Why the World Needs a powerful America.

Uncle Dick  had been instrumental in manufacturing the fiction that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Under that pretext, America and its NATO allies had  destroyed  that country and transformed  it into a poor,  failed state with sectional divides, unimaginable suffering and haven for terrorists of the ISIS hue. While Pope Francis is advocating peace and a shared world, Cheney wrote that  only America can preserve “ peace and freedom”.  In the manner of a fascist, he declares that the US was born great, achieved greatness and had greatness thrust upon her.

While the Pope is likely to emphasise world peace especially when he addresses the United Nations during his visit, Cheney, talks war and  about the need for American dominance. He  argues that America has “…to be safeguarded (and) her supremacy maintained”. He then lists Iran, China, North Korea and Russia as countries posing “increasing threats” over which America  must ensure its “pre-eminence and strength”.

He wants America to repudiate the international nuclear deal with Iran and  re-impose sanctions because as he claims in his cold war mindset, Iran is “the  world’s worst state-sponsor  of terror”. If Cheney does not know that Iran is in the forefront of the war against ISIS and their like, then he must be living in the moon. His claims are a continuation of the type of fabrications he  and his business partners made against Iraq, just to get at Iraqi oil. In contrast to Cheney fanning embers of war, Pope Francis has been working hard to unite  nations for peace. His most successful so far, is the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and US after over half a century of broken  ties.

One of the most horrific acts in human history was  the  1945 dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombs killed over 105,000 people, injured at least 94,000 and destroyed 70 percent of the buildings. Cheney sees this war crime as some heroic deed which American children must be taught. He wrote: “They should  learn why America was right to end the war  by dropping the atomic bombs  on Hiroshima and Nagasaki…”.

He is so fascinated with Weapons of Mass Destruction that he attacks President Barrack Obama for allegedly not understanding “ the importance of ensuring the   supremacy of America’s  nuclear arsenal”.  This kind of mindset will surely horrify the Pope and all with human conscience.

Adolf Hitler believed that Germany was chosen by God to lead the world. So does Cheney; he believes America has the divine right to rule the world.  So he writes that after Obama, “America needs a president who recognises that everything the nation  must do requires having a US military with capabilities that are second to none-on land, in the air, at sea, in space and in cyberspace”.

I believe that human beings are changeable, but so long as men like Cheney are not held to account for their crimes against humanity especially in Iraq, they will never change. So I think, during his visit,  the Pope will need to speak above the heads of such people, directly to the American people, who like all human beings, desire peace, bread, freedom and social justice.

The Pope is not going to be intimidated by the might of his host as his guiding principle, based on the teachings of St. Ignatius, is a world vision “not to be  limited by the greatest, and yet to be contained in the tiniest”. He chose the papal name, Francis, after St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of the poor. So I expect him to speak for the poor during his visit. He is likely to espouse his position that unbridled capitalism  makes people miserable; that market forces, is tyranny and that the imposition of austerity measures by international institutions is “new colonialism”. He may reiterate his submission that the poor should have the ‘sacred “ rights of labour and shelter and that “Poverty is at the centre of the Gospel”. He is likely to reject homosexuality, make a case for environmental protection and refugees, condemn pedophile priests, defend celibacy  and demand a better world. God Bless the Pope. Amen!