Sitting hunched forward, facing
an also-hunched-forwardUkand very intense President Zelensky of Ukraine, both
men’s unadorned chairs being surrounded by bald yet beautiful marble-floor in
St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican just before the funeral of Pope Francis, U.S.
President Trump sought to close a deal that would end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Pope Francis would have been proud. Perhaps the pope, who had tirelessly
preached an end to the militarized aggression not only in Ukraine, but also in
Gaza, would have been even more proud had Russian President Putin been there
too, hunched forward with his rivals to make peace, but that president was
wanted by the International Criminal Court on allegations of having committed
war crimes in Ukraine. Enemies making peace, and even extending in acts of
compassion are necessary to gaining access into the kingdom of God, as preached
by Jesus Christ in the Gospel faith-narratives.
The fact that both Trump and
Zelensky were staring eye-ball to eye-ball, finally getting down to real business
rather than insults and even talking points, is itself progress. That U.S. President
Trump subsequently formally shook hands with E.U. President Von der Leyen is
also something the dead pope would have liked, though he would likely have
preferred the E.U. leader to have been sitting with the two other presidents
when they had been discussing a deal for 15 minutes just before the funeral.
That the E.U.’s president had
deferred to the governors of some large states, such as France, to take the
lead for the entire E.U. left the U.S. president without the balance that the E.U.
president could have supplied concerning the value in holding onto the principle
of territorial sovereignty applied to Ukraine, lest otherwise invading another
country unprovoked could be rewarded de facto. Fortunately, Trump furnished
some balance himself in observing on the trip back to Washington, D.C., “There
was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and
towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to
stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently,
through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”[1]
To be sure, that Zelensky was willing to sign an exclusive mineral-rights
contract with the United States was not lost on the business-oriented American
president, mais sans doute, c’est la vie en les États-Unis. In spite of
the American pecuniary interest, Pope Francis would have been pleased with President
Trump for sticking up for Ukrainian civilians.
Ironically, the pope would perhaps
have been less pleased with the way the Vatican arranged the viewing of his
corpse and his funeral because of the extent of hierarchy terms of proximity of
viewership. During the three days of public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica,
ushers wearing suits kept the ordinary people moving, while ushers wearing
tuxedos greeted the line of people inside the temporary barrier as they passed
through and maybe sat on chairs for a while. By the later folks, I am not
referring to heads of state or Catholic clergy primarily, for most of the “very
important persons” were rather ordinarily dressed, and this made the suit
versus tuxedo distinction look pretentious and fake, and thus as an artifact
from a desire to put some groups of people above others beyond what merit would
legitimate. Were the deceased pope’s spirit watching and able to speak to the
living there, the recommendation would likely have been that if there has to be
a hierarchy, then give the poor parishioners of the Rome diocese the best view,
and the most connected people the worst view, with the people who had known the
pope being situated somewhere in the middle. So too at the funeral, sections
spanned out from those seating the most important people—the Cardinals and
visiting heads of state and prime ministers—to those sections seating priests
and then finally the general public in the very back. I hope some of those people
had binoculars.
That the value behind Jesus’s preachment
that (most of) the first are last and the last are first, is worthy of being
put into practice even by a pope was not lost on Pope Francis, who spoke truth
to power and on behalf of the poor and marginalized. It is unfortunate,
therefore, that power and prestige, connections and wealth, had the best seats
at that pope’s funeral and the closest viewing of the open coffin during the three
days of viewing. I think the pope would have been surprised and pleased were
the most well-dressed ushers tasked with greeting the general public passing in
front of the barricades, while other ushers, wearing mere suits, tasked with directing
the insiders.
Perhaps the fact that that having
the general public behind the smaller area of viewing better suits the larger number
of people in the public group in terms of space. This in turn indicates that hierarchy
is to some extent, absent the distinction of suits and tuxedos, natural, for
fewer people could be accommodated inside of the barriers, whereas more people would
not fit there. Also, perhaps people who had known the pope in person deserved a
chair and a longer look than, say, a tourist passing through Rome. Nietzsche considered
hierarchy to be natural for human beings. But it can also be argued that human organizations
can take the matter of differential preferences too far. The tuxedo/suit
dichotomy is a clear example of artificial rather than natural hierarchy.
That a small number of people representing marginalized groups, such as transsexuals, had been set up in front of the burial church to “greet” the arriving coffin is not enough to evince Jesus’s teaching. In fact, situating officially marginal groups at such a marginal part of the day’s events actually cements the groups’ marginal status in the public consciousness. Bringing marginalized groups, including victims of military aggression in Ukraine and Gaza, that had been particularly dear to Pope Francis to view the casket at the Vatican in front of the temporary barriers would have sent a very different message. In the case of transexuals, the Cardinal-in-charge could have practiced kindness to one's enemy and that the last are first. The combination of these two principles lies at the core of Jesus's preaching on the kingdom of God, which Jesus emphasizes in the Gospels. Faith in Jesus as God is for naught, Paul wrote, if there is not love, and he and Augustine insisted that God itself is love. I would add that agape (self-emptying) love is evinced not only metaphysically, but also in the practice of the two spiritual principles. Come on, guys, be bold; turn the world on its head; it may finally see itself for what it is, and even that an alternative paradigm is possible. In the Gospels, Jesus dies for that paradigm, and yet you still don't get it. The blind following the blind gets nowhere.
Perhaps it is to compensate for an innate human instinct to extenuate hierarchy that the Roman Catholic religious organization should attempt to apply Jesus’s teaching that recognizes the last, including the marginalized, as first, and the first as last. With compassion and peacemaking with one’s enemies, putting the last first can be said to be an excellent means to indwelling the spirit of the kingdom of God, which does not operate in the ways of the world, but as God would analogously would like to see the world. Reflecting the worldly excessiveness of hierarchy rather than instantiating a counter-example, the high-ranking Vatican clergy-officials can legitimately be accused of failing as disciples and even of hypocrisy. At least they were willing to give space for two political leaders to try to get to a deal that would end a long war that had already been so destructive of civilians in Ukraine. The deceased pope would have been proud.
1. Darlene Superville and Aamer Madhani, “Trump Expresses Doubts Putin Is Willing to
End the Ukraine War, A Day After Saying a Deal Was Close,” AP News.com, April
26, 2025.
