In the Shadow of Pope Francis

Here's a story from an Italian source which shows Pope Francis doing his "simple, humble Pope Francis" routine, charming everyone with his blah, blah, blah.

Read it first.

The common response is to ooh and ahh at his egalitarian kindness.

Perhaps this is a therapist's bias, but my response is to notice, once again, his self-assertion, his infantilization of the other to serve his position of parental benevolence, and his use of his power make it look as if he doesn't have any (although here, he had to use it to create the momentary illusion of equal brotherhood.)

Rather than letting the Swiss Guard do his duty, a livelihood he volunteered for, trained for and which is an honor; rather than honoring the man as another man who does his duty and thanking him for it, Francis has to alter the situation to suit his personal compulsions about benevolence and fraternity, so that he can be the star of yet another theatrical rule-breaking performance in which he is the star.  The Guard is not part of that great crowd of "the poor, the vulnerable, the marginalized" that Francis is always talking about. But that does not suit His Holiness' script.

If you honor a soldier for being a soldier, for doing his duty, you recognize him for who he is, one man honoring another. But Francis has to turn him into a needy, put-upon someone, some poor tired peasant conscript upon whom he can bestow his priestly benevolence. He takes away the man's pride in himself for performing his task so that he can mother him as if he were a dependent child.

And of course he uses his personal hierarchical power to denigrate the power of other men --the captain-- and play this game of faux-equals.

Color me continuingly unimpressed.
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PS. He reminds me of another Argentinian priest I knew in Rome, whose Vatican II humility and love of "the simple people" made him refuse to walk in procession with the other priests for the celebration of Mass because it was a show of power over others by the sacerdotal caste. He threw his vestments on rather helter skelter and marched up the side aisle on his own. Disrupting the ritual and making himself the complete center of attention. A part of humility is doing what is expected of you, letting other people do what is expected of them and not making a scene.