This blog is being written shortly after Pope Francis concluded his visit to Philadelphia. During his two days in our city, everything else ground to a halt. Center City has been closed to vehicular traffic. My office and all other outpatient offices at the medical school and hospital where I work have been closed as have been most other offices and businesses throughout much of the city. Instead throngs of people behaving in an orderly fashion have been filling the streets – especially those streets that offered the possibility of a “Pope citing.”
As a non-Catholic and a psychologist, I’ve been asking myself why so many people, including me, have looked upon his visit with excitement and joy. And I think that I have an answer.
Aside from his position and personal charisma, Pope Francis conveys an attitude of acceptance of all and a sense of hope for the future. His unique ability to draw such large and enthusiastic crowds in Philadelphia (and before that in Havana, Washington, and New York) seems to be more tied to his positive outlook and accepting nature than to his position.
In other words, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof, so many people wanted to see him because so many believe in the same things he does. The size of the crowds that came out to see him is a refection of the fact that – despite some of the lousy things we hear on the news on a daily basis – most of us want a world filled with happy, caring, cooperative, and positive-oriented people.
The Pope’s visit, and the crowds that he drew, was a reminder to me that we are the majority. So let’s not be afraid to show encouragement appreciation, support, and love in our interactions with others. If we each do our part to be proactive and positive in dealing with challenges, we are likely to enlist the support of others in helping to make the world a better place.
Isolated negative stories might make for good television, but those stories do not make the world a better place and they do not represent the motivations or actions of the majority.
WE ARE THE MAJORITY! Let’s act like it!