When Pope Benedict XVI abdicated the Papacy in March 2013 and Francis took the throne of St Peter, Fr Desmond de Sousa was commissioned to write a few articles on the Popes and papacy. It was then that he thought why should he not write about his favourite Pope and so came an article on Pope Paul VI. As the number of articles grew, on the politics behind the election of the popes and other topics, the collection had to be put together and out of it all came a book – Glimpses Into The Uniqueness Of Recent Popes – that was released recently by Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao.
The blurb on the back cover says, “The ‘Glimpses Into The Uniqueness Of Recent Popes’ over the last more than 100 years reveals the dynamic tension and oscillating priority between the institutional element of stability at one time and the liberating creativity of the charismatic element at other times.”
While this is true about the book, former All India Catholic Union president Chottebhai, while speaking at the release of the book, humourously underlined the fact that the title of the book is wrong. Wrong, said he because this is not a mere glimpse into the uniqueness of recent popes, but much more. “This book is not a glimpse, it is a deep experience. And secondly this book is not about Popes, this book is a deep experience of ecclesiology,” said Chottebhai.
And the book surely is unique. So unique that Archbishop Ferrao pointed out that it begins with the unmaking of the Pope. “Being a book about Popes, I expected that the first chapter would be about the making of the Pope. What do I see on the page of contents? The book has four sections and the very first one is titled, the unmaking of a Pope. You see what I mean,” said Archbishop Ferrao. But then it is so because the first chapter in on the resignation of Benedict XVI.
Fr Desmond has talked about the popes of his lifetime. Being a priest he has followed their papacy and interacted with some. Talking about the popes of his lifetime he said, “The popes of my lifetime are already saints or becoming saints. There are two who are still alive, Pope Francis I am sure will very soon become a saint. Pope Benedict… I don’t know,” says Fr Desmond.
He brings out some interesting facts about popes and sainthood. “Researching for this book, I discovered that till the 800s or 9th century, the majority of the Popes were canonized. But after the 9th century only one Pope was canonized – Pope St Celestine V in 1294, the last pope to resign as pope before Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Pius V, who played a crucial role in the Council of Trent and the Counter Reformation period that followed, When Pope Pius X was declared a saint in 1954 he was the first Pope after Pius V, which is after 242 years, to be declared a saint,” writes Fr Desmond.
Stating that Pope Francis is like a breath of fresh air after Benedict though he has not yet made any substantial compromise regarding doctrine, Fr Desmond says, “The Church is in need of radical reform. Pope Francis knows the Church is in strife and needs to become a more effective institution to proclaim the Gospel and serve God’s people. Many of the changes required are pastoral and cultural as well as administrative changes of a global organization. This necessary change is the slowest in coming.”
Fr Desmond is well known in Goa and belongs to the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists. Ordained a little after Vatican II, Fr Desmond has been the Executive Secretary of the Office of Human Development of the Federation of Asian Bishops for 10 years in the 1980s and coordinated the Asia-Pacific national offices of Caritas International.
He has been in Goa for long, and even been involved in activist movements, having courted arrest in 1978 during the ramponkar struggle. To his bishop who feared he was getting into politics, he gave a quote from Pope Paul’s Call to Action. “Our involvement was based on faith in catholic social teachings; we were not stooges of any politicians or political parties, but were trying to live the words of the Pope,” writes Fr Desmond.
And he’s lived it, still active in social movements and often an inspiration to the All India Catholic Union.
