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Pope's lesson in humility for SA leaders

THIS week Pope Francis, after visiting United States and Latin America earlier this year, turned his attention to Africa.
I mention his visit to this continent because the media is going to give this visit a political tone and character.

Always happy to discuss ideological clashes, the media will give publicity to whatever he says about divorce, abortion, global warming and gay marriage.

However, this visit is also a spiritual and an educational occasion. Millions of Africans will show their faith in shared public spaces.

An enormous present, however, will be the man himself — his method, the way he carries himself.  

The world has reacted to Pope Francis with gusto because of his warm-heartedness, humility, naturalness and the tendency of going off-script as far as the doctrines of his church are concerned.

However, Pope Francis is also a shrewd and clever operator. This less publicised side of him can be seen in the way he is methodically restructuring the corrupt, inflated Vatican civil service and fixing its suspect lender.

This week the pope visited the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, and appointed Gian Franco Mammi as its new director general.

This was during his visit to the institution, where he met with the board of superintendents for about 20 minutes. Previous pontiffs seemed to struggle to fix enormous problems faced by the Vatican.

His three-legged Africa expedition has the potential to be one of the most crucial moments of what has already been a remarkable three-year (almost) papacy.

He is visiting the troubled Central African Republic, Uganda, the east African country which recently discovered oil reserves, and Kenya, east Africa’s fastest-growing economy.

He landed in Kenya on Wednesday this week, at the beginning of this three-nation tour of Africa.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and ululating throngs of people received him at the airport in Nairobi.

As soon as he alighted from his flight to Kenya's capital on his first trip to Africa, he sent a powerful message of humility and equality.

The Pope shocked Kenyans by riding in an ordinary grey Honda through Nairobi's streets. He also travelled with the windows down, waving to onlookers. He avoided the fancy cars and dark tinted windows favoured by Kenyan politicians.

I hope this will be a lesson for South African politicians who drive cars worth millions, yet have constituencies which suffer untold misery because of unemployment. But I digress.

Anyway, you can’t but admire both Pope Francis’s empathy and tactical ability.

He is a remarkable learner and listener. The finest part of this week will be viewing him connect with people, listening deeply and learning from them as he views his flock in their immense sinfulness with endless mercy and love.

Mzwandile Jacks is a freelance journalist. Opinions expressed are his own. 

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