Sawt Falasteen - Pope Francis saw clergy's lack of humility as a 'cancer': author

Javier Cercas, a journalist and novelist who was raised in a devout Catholic household but is himself an atheist, was invited to join Francis on the first visit by a pope to Mongolia in August-September 2023.

The visit gave rise to a book -- translated as "God's Madman at the End of the World" -- that is part travelogue, part memoir, part historical exploration.

Published in Spanish earlier this year, and translated into Italian, it has been flying off the shelves since Francis's death on April 21 at the age of 88.

In an interview in Bogota on Tuesday, Cercas said that during the trip, he discovered he had several things in common with the pontiff.

They both liked to take naps, enjoyed the works of Argentine literary great Jorge Luis Borges, and were "deeply anticlerical."

Cercas, 63, said that Francis viewed "the perverse idea that the priest is above the faithful" as "a cancer within the Church."

Throughout his papacy, the so-called "pope of the poor" had excoriated the clergy for putting themselves above the flock and becoming smitten by symbols of power.

In a speech to a church synod in October 2023, he called it a "scandal" to see young priests buying lace vestments from Rome tailors.

Cercas -- who rose to fame in 2001 with "Soldiers of Salamina," a novel set during the Spanish Civil War that was later made into a film -- said he agreed to accompany the pope to Mongolia on one condition.

He wanted Francis to answer a question for his devout mother: would she be reunited with Cercas's father at the end of her days?

The question of whether Heaven exists was the subject of much discussion between the writer and the pope -- and became a recurring theme in the book.

Cercas sent the pope a signed copy of the work two weeks before his death but believes the pontiff, who was already very unwell, never got around to reading it.

- The 'Antichrist' pope -

Cercas said he found Francis to be a "very ambitious man" with a "very strong" character who staunchly defended his right to crack jokes, even when faced with adversity or delicate subjects.

He described the Argentine pontiff as a "revolutionary" who espoused a "primitive Christianity" that gave pride of place to the "destitute, the poor, the prostitutes."

But he also acknowledged that Francis had failed to significantly reform the Church, blaming "brutal resistance" from the Catholic hierarchy who, he said, treated Francis as the "Antichrist."

Cercas believes that the cardinals who will convene in Rome next week to choose Francis's successor will opt for "a timid reformer, or someone who appears as a reformer, but behaves like a conservative."

W.Mansour--SF-PST