Pope Francis and what his name might mean

Upon yesterday's news that Cardinal Bergoglio had been elected pope and taken the name Francis, a wave of speculation as to what the significance of this name is and what he intends to do as pope. Given how secretive the Vatican is, tea leaf reading is all we have to go on.


Since Bergoglio is a Jesuit, I initially thought he might have been referencing St. Francis Xavier, one of the great early figures in his order and a famed missionary. Although if he was really planning a Jesuit coup at the Vatican (which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world), he might have called himself Pope Ignatius.

It turns out that he is referencing the more well known St. Francis of Assisi. Francis is beloved around the world, even by non-Catholics and non-Christians, because of his love for the poor, his care for creation, and his zeal to reform the church. An early story about Francis is that he heard Jesus saying "rebuild my church", which he first thought meant simply the chapel in which he was praying, but later came to understand it meant the church universal.

Incidentally, it's pretty cool that a couple of seagulls were hanging out on top of the chimney that was being closely watched for white smoke while inside, right about that time, the newly elected pope was taking for himself the name of the saint who famously preached to the birds.

One significance of Francis' papal name I haven't seen referenced yet, other than briefly at the end of Thomas Reese's piece on the National Catholic Reporter, is St. Francis' role as peacemaker and pioneer of interfaith dialogue.

In 1219, in the middle of the 5th Crusade, Francis and his fellow friar, Illuminato, traveled to Damietta, Egypt, and crossed the battle lines to speak with Sultan Malik al-Kamil. While Francis did not convert the sultan or broker peace between the warring civilizations (it's debatable whether he intended to do either), he came back saying that Christians should live peacefully with Muslims and that the two faiths agree on more things than those they disagree on.

The best account of this meeting I've read is Paul Moses' The Saint and the Sultan. The link is to the hardcover edition, but it's available for Kindle, too.

The legacy of mistrust between Islam and the West that began in the era of the Crusades is still with us, so Francis of Assisi's legacy as an interfaith peace-maker is as crucial as it ever was.

Right now there is no way of knowing if Pope Francis had this in mind when he chose his name yesterday. Hopefully, he will sit down for an in depth interview soon and shed more light on which aspects of St. Francis he intends to emulate in his pontificate.

One might be more inclined to read the Christian-Muslim implication into the pope's choice if he were from Africa or South Asia, where Christians and Muslims interact frequently. Francis' homeland, Argentina, is only 2.5% Muslim, according to a 2010 Pew Center report, and South America has the sparsest Muslim population of any continent. Interfaith dialogue in South America tends to be between Catholics and other Christian groups.

Whatever the case, we need more St. Francises (Franci?) in the world. Not just in Rome, but in Nashville, New York, Bejing, and everywhere else. Perhaps this pontiff will inspire a whole new generation to discover the legacy of Francis of Assisi, and perhaps even a few to go and do likewise.

Little Town of Bethlehem Special Screening

Arlington United Methodist Church will be hosting a special screening of the documentary film, Little Town of Bethlehem on Sunday, October 9, at 6pm.

From the film's website: Little Town of Bethlehem, a documentary film, follows the story of three men of three different faiths and their lives in Israel and Palestine. The story explores each man’s choice of nonviolent action amidst a culture of overwhelming violence.


This is an extremely powerful film, and if you're in the Nashville/Middle TN area, I encourage you to attend. If you're interested, see my Project Israel posts from earlier this year to see what I experienced firsthand in this region.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment here or message me privately.

Honoring the Victims of September 11 by Blogging the Quran

In memory of those who lost their lives nine years ago today in an act of senseless violence, I feel like the best thing we can do is to witness to the hope we have in the face of evil and terror.

I've written in more detail about this previously, but I believe that if we allow hatred and fear to divide us, particularly hatred and fear of our Muslim neighbors, then the terrorists who hijacked those planes and turned them into missiles nine years ago win. Their message was loud and clear: "it's us or you. We can't live together, so one of us has to win and the other has to lose."

If, however, we refuse to accept the "us or them" argument and live in such a way that shows we can love our neighbor (something Jesus talked about repeatedly), no matter how different or strange that neighbor may be, the the men who killed thousands of people from all over the world on 9/11 will be proved wrong.

With the goal of defying the terrorists in mind, I attended Friday afternoon prayers at the Islamic Center of Clarksville yesterday. They were extraordinarily gracious in welcoming a Christian minister to pray with them and explaining how to participate in their prayers. Soon I'll post in more detail about my experience praying with my Muslim brothers, but for now I'll simply say that it was very uplifting and I look forward to getting to know them better.

I'm very encouraged by demonstrations of love like the Memphis area church that is actively building relationships with the new Islamic center next door.


At the urging of Andrew over at Tall Skinny Kiwi, I'm also participating in "Blog a Quran Day", sharing some verses from the Muslim's sacred text as a way of proclaiming that those who died in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania were not casualties of a war with winners and losers, but victims of murders who falsely believed that all of God's children cannot live together in peace. May they never be forgotten, and may our witness help end the conflict so tragedies like 9/11 will never happen again.

From Surah 10, verses 9 and 10 of the Quran (Sahih International Translation):

Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds - their Lord will guide them because of their faith. Beneath them rivers will flow in the Gardens of Pleasure. Their call therein will be, "Exalted are You, O Allah ," and their greeting therein will be, "Peace." And the last of their call will be, "Praise to Allah , Lord of the worlds!"


(For those that are wondering, Allah is simply the Arabic word for "God". Arabic speaking Christians pray to Allah, just as Spanish speaking Christians pray to Dios, Germans to Gott, etc. Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe in the same God.)

With men and women of all faiths, I pray for peace to grow in the hearts of all of God's children this day.