With the U.N. having “denounced the murder, rape and
pillaging of the Rohingya in western Myanmar as ethnic cleansing,” Pope Francis
had to “strike a careful balance” during his visit to the country in late 2017 “by
maintaining his moral authority without endangering his tiny local flock.[1]
Even the decision to meet first with Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of the
military that had “driven more than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims out of the country”
could be taken as a compromise of the Pope’s moral authority because Francis would met with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and de facto leader of the government,
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the next day.[2]
That the local Cardinal had urged the Pope not to even use the word Rohingya
during the visit pointed in the direction away from the Pope acting as a moral
compass and thus to a hit to his reputation as a leader of principle rather than expediency.
Considering the salience of agape, or self-emptying love, in Christianity, the spiritual virtue
should be in the Pope’s leadership even in the context of national and global
politics, especially if on behalf of a persecuted group. Was not Christ himself
persecuted? Furthermore, a history of Christian martyrs suggests that
compromising for the sake of one’s self or organization enjoys little
legitimacy. To gain the whole world and yet to compromise or lose an
opportunity for spiritual leadership in a secular, sordid context—evading talking
truth to power—has an anti-Christian resonance that can deplete a Christian leader’s
reputational capital.
The institutional self-protection that an organization tends
to engage in can rationalize all sorts of antithetical conduct, including
protecting clerics who rape children. Are not such children worthy of
protection even if the institution itself bears the brunt? What then of a
persecuted religious and ethnic minority? If Christ evinced love where it is
not convenient, then Christian leaders should be protecting other religions even more than
Christianity itself. Paradoxically, only in such a way can Christianity really
thrive, for being true to itself—being authentic rather than self-serving—is
true strength, whereas expediency evinces weakness.
[1]
Jason Horowitz, “Pope
Francis Arrives in a Myanmar Tarnished by Rohingya Crackdown,” The New York Times, November 27, 2017.
[2]
Ibid.
