ASIA
UCA News
Fr William Grimm, Tokyo
International
November 18, 2014
When I was a boy, a European Jesuit priest temporarily staying at our parish befriended the altar servers. As he explained to my parents, “The boys will correct my English; you adults are too polite.” It was a bit of wisdom that I verified when my own time came to learn a new language.
Only after he returned to his homeland did I learn that Father was a world-famous mathematician. For us altar servers, he was more important than that. He let us lose. We were at that age when children begin to suspect that the reason they win games with adults is that the adults are losing intentionally. The Jesuit did not condescend to us. He respected us enough to beat us.
One of our after-school activities was to go to the church basement, where Father would have six or so chessboards lined up for us. We kids would then try to stay on the board for more than a few minutes. A Jesuit at the chessboard can be a formidable opponent.
The more I observe Pope Francis in action, the more I wonder if he might be a Jesuit chess player.
He has been Bishop of Rome for just over a year and a half, and in that time has both raised and disappointed expectations. Certainly his humility in asking for prayers from the crowd when he was elected, his friendliness in posing for selfies and his non-judgmental attitude epitomized in his “who am I to judge” response to a question about homosexuals all heartened Catholics and others who hungered for a pastoral papacy.
On the other hand, many observers have been disappointed that he seemed slow to move against bishops who have covered up and even facilitated sexual abuse by priests. During the recent Synod for the Family an interim report indicated new directions in dealing with pastoral problems, but the backlash against that seemed to cause a pullback. The question arises: What is Francis going to do?
Perhaps chess might give some idea of what is happening.
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