There was a pleasing symmetry in the world's two highest profile appointments last week. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires became Pope Francis and Xi Jinping, leader of China's Communist party, became the country's president. Both men head institutions of truly global reach, each serving as leader for around 1.2 billion people, give or take 100 million or so. Although nearly 20 years separate the two men in age, both trained as chemists and both have a reputation as men of the people (at least in comparison with their peers). Bergoglio favoured public transport and a lowly apartment over chauffeured limousines and archiepiscopal palaces, whilst Xi Jinping was sent to work in a remote rural village for seven years when aged 15.
Both have the potential to be reformers. Bergoglio has criticised priests for hypocrisy and ecclesiastical vanity, and is expected, as an outsider to the Curia, to restructure the Vatican's sclerotic bureaucracy. In the case of Xi Jinping, quite apart from coming from suspect stock (his father wasremoved from the vice-premiership in 1962 and subsequently imprisoned, which appears to have delayed his son's reception into the party), the new president is known to have little tolerance for political corruption, having tackled several high-profile scandals, and telling party members, in his first speech after assuming leadership of the party, that the problems of "corruption, taking bribes, being out of touch with the people, undue emphasis on formalities and bureaucracy must be addressed with great efforts". Quite apart from anything else, the fact that these high-profile appointments were located in China and, by association, South America reminds us, as if we needed it, that history is leaving Europe and heading east and south.
Of course, there are a few differences. Xi Jinping is married to a celebrity singer, Peng Liyuan, whereas Pope Francis isn't. Xi Jinping is an atheist whereas one presumes Pope Francis isn't. However, surely the most significant difference is that one of the men has power, whereas the other has authority. The division isn't quite as clear as that, of course. Pope Francis has the power to promote and to sack within clerical ranks, whereas Xi Jinping, despite having no democratic mandate, has a certain authority in that de facto he speaks for a billion of his countrymen.
Yet, the difference is a real one. Xi Jinping could ruin your life tomorrow without even disturbing the dust on China's impressive military hardware. Were he to dump the trillion or so dollars of American debt that China owns, improbable as that might be, or even refuse to buy any more bonds, the knock-on effect for the western economy would be catastrophic. It is no exaggeration to say that Xi Jinping is the second or even the most powerful man in the world.
Pope Francis, on the other hand, isn't. There is nothing he could do that could directly affect your life and pretty much nothing that would indirectly affect you – or indeed those thousands who gathered in St Peter's Square to see him. With no military might (unless you count the Swiss Guard) and precious little financial muscle, he is "welcomed" and "respected" by world leaders, but hardly commands their unquestioned obedience – or, indeed, that of his own flock, if reports on Catholic use of contraception are to be trusted. As Stalin pondered, precisely how many divisions does the pope have?
So, why the fascination? Surely, it is because the pope's only weapons – words and example, like Christ's – speak to that in us that is more than "mere animal". The capacity to coerce may shape the world but it does not exhaust it. We are not satisfied with might.
Instead, we crave "right": the conviction that a good is being served, that an action is justified (and, therefore, just). Power may drive history, but only authority can give it meaning. Of course, there are those who will insist that history has no meaning, and is just one damn thing after another, but they do tend to cluster around comfortable, well-fed western cities. Such a view is not a widespread human trait.
For many centuries, the papal authority was little more than power with a polish of piety. No more. Thank God. Pope Francis has no more than words and example to work with. It's not much compared to the world's largest standing army, a GDP of around $7tn (£4.6tn) that is growing at nearly 10% per year, and a trillion dollars of American debt. Mind you, look what Jesus Christ achieved with words and example.
NIck Spencer
This article first appeared in The Guardian
Image from Wikimedia Commons
