"Human history is nothing but a long catalogue of calamities"
Candide (Voltaire)
We have witnessed one of the great human spectacles in the name of God. Great institutions survive, in part, thanks to the inaccessible aura of power, and if any of them excels in the mystery and codes that emanate from (divine) authority, it is the Catholic Church. The great Vatican buildings, the cardinal's purple, and the symbols of crucifixion and piety fill life and death with ritual and give transcendence to trembling human nature.
With messages of humility requested by Francis, the Vatican machinery has buried a pope who in life was closer to the periphery and pain than to the pomp and immobility of the Roman Curia.
There is a Church that distances and another that comforts. One that speaks Latin and one that embraces human inclemency, and the latter was that of the dead pope. Francis made progress against sexual abuse committed by the clergy and supported immigrants, but he didn't complete the work of bringing the Church into step with its times. Neither regarding the role of women nor the acceptance of others considered straying. However, Francis actively supported all those who have taken up the work on the ground, many of them militant nuns, those who "they create a mess"in favor of immigrants, Ukrainians, the LGBTI community, or the poor. These disinherited people are the ones who welcomed him on his final journey to the tomb of Santa María Mayor.
God and Caesar
The farewell was an extraordinary gathering of earthly and ecclesiastical power before a humble coffin, bringing Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky face to face in the final stretch of negotiations in which Ukraine and Europe are not good candidates for the US-Russia partnership. In our country, the reaction to Bergoglio's death has gone beyond Catholicism, and the political reaction has crossed the threshold of a secular state. Why has this level of consternation occurred, and also, of communion between religion and politics? It has been lost to boasting, abuse of power, and brutality. Francis has represented basic Christian values that can also be shared by other religions and the secular world. Since then, whether in secular or secular states, a distinction has been made between the power of God and that of humans.Candide or optimism,A philosophical satire about a naive young man educated by the philosopher Pangloss, who teaches him that "we live in the best of all possible worlds." Poor Candide sees naive optimism, religious hypocrisy, the brutality of war, and other societal ills traveling around the world, and witnesses wars, earthquakes, fanaticism, misery, slavery, inquisitions, shipwrecks, murder, rape, and human decadence in all its forms. Despite the misfortunes, Pangloss continues to defend his absurd optimism and is crushed by reality, but Candide concludes that the best thing to do is to work and tend to one's own garden. Be practical and realistic instead of getting lost in metaphysics and embrace the value of work and personal responsibility. Candide ends by arguing that "we must cultivate our garden." as an antidote to naive optimism and hopelessness. Candide ultimately opts for work and modesty: for the garden.
Today, in an extremely diverse society like ours, I'm reminded of Candide's lessons. Everyone has their own beliefs in the intimate and private sphere, but together we water a common space of shared values and a prosperous future built on common pillars in the public sphere. Francis has been an inspiration to many, but we don't know if his successor will keep the ship of the Catholic Church on course. This is the next unknown, and the answer will be as political as in the most starkly secularized world.
