2 weeks Ago By Maria Ressa
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rapplerAds.displayAd( "mobile-middle-1" );I looked around the table at the Nobel Peace laureates, and I could see the major problems the world faced through the years in each of our work — from landmines to nuclear proliferation to sex trafficking and wartime abuses to finding food and fighting diseases to climate change and now Big Tech — artificial intelligence (AI). Pope Francis’ foundation, Fratelli Tutti, asked us to convene in 2023, and our private and public discussions gave me great hope that if we keep working together, we could help prevent the worst.
That’s Pope Francis’ magic. Until the Vatican reached out to me, I would call myself a wayward Catholic: I believe in God but had studied all five major world religions in college and had been greatly disillusioned by their actual governance. But since Pope Francis brought us together, I have now been to the Vatican four times in less than two years.
In December 2023, when Tawakkol Karman (Nobel Peace Prize, 2011) and I stayed at his residence (not the more opulent Apostolic Palace, but the far more humble Domus Sanctae Marthae), I remember running into him in the hallways, continuing the conversation we had begun: about women’s rights (the word fraternity was a sticking point in our first meeting); how telling lies is against the Ten Commandments, yet our public information ecosystem controlled by social media rewards lies, fear, anger and hate. On that trip, Tawakkol and I presented our first collective declaration to Pope Francis about human fraternity. Tawakkol, Shirin Ebadi (Nobel Peace Prize, 2003), and I had brought up the idea of sexism embedded in the language: what was interesting was how open the cardinals were to the discussion.
We didn’t change fraternity then, but we did embed gender equality in the document. Our goal? To prevent war, sexual violence, forced migration, and the manipulation of AI. The man born Jorge Mario Bergoglio led by example: kind, simple, beatific — a moral giant in a world gone crazy.
As the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics, God’s representative on earth, he focused on social justice, linking economic inequality to climate change. He spoke against the sexual abuse of children by priests, and changed the tone of the Vatican on homosexuality.
He spoke against war — in Ukraine and Gaza repeatedly — and changed the power structure of the Church hierarchy, shifting it away from Europe to Latin America, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. He took a stand against the dehumanizing impact of technology and — although he didn’t say this explicitly — against the electoral manipulation on social media that brought 72% of the world today under authoritarian rule. We are electing illiberal leaders democratically, and that is transforming our world.
Pope Francis was an important conservative force against the growing inhumanity of fundamentalists around the world, both in the physical and virtual worlds.BLESSED. Maria Ressa meets Pope Francis in 2023.
Pope Francis taught me that faith is essential to surviving — and thriving — in the creative destruction we are living through. Without strong leadership of the major religions, the social media cesspool elevates cults. So now more than ever, we need to remember his lessons — of inclusivity, compassion, empathy, and our common humanity.
That was brought home to me again when — despite the critical coverage journalists have long given the Church, Pope Francis chose this journalist to kick off the year of Jubilee, normally celebrated once every 25 years. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression were important to him, and I tried to give my best summary of our challenges ahead at the Vatican last January.Rest in peace, Pope Francis.
Thank you for restoring the faith of this wayward Catholic. May more of us carry your spirit and ideals with us in the chaotic days ahead. – Rappler.
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