For the past almost four years I’ve been doing some translations for an international, online version of a French Catholic newspaper, La Croix. The editor, an American based in Rome, sent me three or four articles around 7p.m. from Sunday – Thursday. He needed the translations back before 9 a.m., Rome time, on the following day. I’m a night person, so, rather than putting them off until the morning, I always worked on them in the evening hours and got them back to him before going to bed (which worked out even better when I was in the US and, thanks to the time difference, received the articles around midday). I enjoyed the work a lot – and it gave me some financial freedom, since my career choices weren’t building up any bank account or assets. I also enjoyed the articles and was happily surprised at how open-minded they were. I learned a lot and had additional perspectives into current events. I also had some very beautiful “office” settings while camping and turning my cell phone into a hotspot for my laptop. 

These don't include passenger and back seat offices, or coffee shop offices, or side-of-the-road and parking lot offices, or several others where I just didn't take pictures

 

The newspaper has decided to modernize its translation practices, so since the end of 2023, my services are no longer needed. I know that, following the previous post, I had been planning to update the blog about what’s going on in the new chapter of my life in Ghana, but then I read the following from my editor and it seemed like a good way to end the year, begin the new year, end the translation chapter of my life…and then go on with my current life. He published this on Dec. 23, and even though I’m late in posting it (since it’s a take on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas), I decided to do it anyway. It relates to the pope, the world and reactions to both - and is a reflection of where my thoughts have been at this past year, thanks to these translations. I like the current pope a lot. I know there are things, and many leaders, in the Catholic Church, and in religions in general, that are troublesome and disagreeable for many people, myself included, and some of that is reflected in what’s written.

 

 

'Twas the night before Christmas and the pope was in prayer

marveling at the Christ Child from his wheelchair

He'd just come from Mass at St. Peter's next door

to the Paul VI Hall to see its creche once more

So many prayers Pope Francis has made

In this difficult year that's left many afraid

 

War rages on in dear martyred Ukraine

Where the pope's pleas for peace have all been in vain

Even in the land where Jesus was born

innocents are slaughtered, here too now war-torn

The elderly pope does often repeat:

"Wars for humanity are always defeat!"

"Think of the children and what they must see

Pray the Christ Child from wars set them free!"

 

But war is just one of the many concerns

That endanger a world for which the pope yearns

Selfishness, greed and lust for power

Are threatening our planet this very hour

The pope has not wavered in his moral crusade

To save Mother Earth from the mess that we've made

For migrants and refugees, and especially the poor

Francis still prods us to do much, much more

 

A pope so like Christ is rare to behold

But it comes with rejection if truth should be told

The opponents of Francis, and they're not just a few,

Are closed-minded and rigid and clericalist, too

The old pope contends with seminarians and priests

More outdated than him by two centuries at least!

They stubbornly refuse to answer his call

To make the Church open and welcome to all

 

There are bishops and cardinals who will also not budge

Preferring, instead, to condemn and to judge

If proof is still needed to substantiate such

See how they reject synodality so much

More than one hierarch deserted the hall

At the Synod assembly at the Vatican last fall

Some were aghast that women were there

And that they could vote, it just wasn't fair!

 

But those contestations are not even near

To the outcry that's come at the end of this year

The cause is the recent Vatican text

Allowing priests to bless couples of the same sex

Condemnation has come from the clerical ranks

While many gay Catholics are giving great thanks

The document could actually turn out to be

Like Humanae vitae, we'll just have to see

Banning the pill, an unpopular decision

Provoked in the Church ever greater divisions

Will the new text on blessings do just the same?

And if that should happen, will the pope own the blame?

 

Francis has faced other problems this year

Such as those connected to his own wear and tear

Hospital stays and a nixed foreign trip

Showed failing health and weren't just a blip

But at four score and seven the pope soldiers on

And no one quite knows when he'll finally be done

Will he retire his post like Benedict before him?

Or cling to his chair for the fans that adore him?

 

His synodality project is now underway

And for its next stage at least he may fight to stay

But the growing questions about his overall fitness

Are also connected to credibility of witness

He's told bishops before that pastors must know

In all humility and trust when it's time to let go

That's something this pope could never do

So say his critics, but that's nothing new

 

"Pray for me at the manger," the pope did ask

Of his Vatican aides after he took them to task

Once more the pope gave them a nice lump of coal

At their Christmas reception that no one found droll

So another tough year will soon come to end

But with a tougher one yet we'll have to contend

 

Despite all the problems in the Church and our world

We can't let despair destroy all that's good

Things may look dark at this moment in history

But we can draw hope from the Christmas mystery

Darkness, it tells us, can't conquer the light

And peace will not always be stifled by might

 

Pray at the manger, put aside fear

And a Merry Christmas to all and to all a blest year!

 

                                  by Robert Mickens