Pope Francis, leader of the dignity revolution
Photo by Special Olympics. Used by permission.
Tim Shriver
Pope Francis, who died just hours after he celebrated the great feast of Easter with believers all over the world, was a man who inspired many of us who believe in the power of dignity.
I had the enormous privilege to see him up close as he greeted Special Olympics athletes at the Vatican, as he welcomed sports enthusiasts from around the world to Rome, and as he celebrated mass in Washington, DC. I will always count it as one of the great blessings of my life to have lived when he lived. He will always be my role model.
I was nonetheless surprised when I asked my colleague Tom Rosshirt if he could find moments when Pope Francis mentioned “dignity” — I was curious to see if he’d spoken on the topic. Within a day Tom came back with 3 pages of quotes and said he had to stop there! As it turns out, Pope Francis was a leader of the dignity revolution, and I’m not sure many of us ever noticed!
But the more I read his words, the more it became clear to me that many of us might have missed what he seemed to want to teach over and over again: that life — all life — is graced with dignity. Dignity is a gift we’ve all been given — no exceptions. In his 2020 book, “Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future,” Francis wrote:
“When I speak of the dignity of the people, I mean this awareness that arises from the people’s ‘soul,’ from its way of looking at the world. Where does that dignity come from? Does it stem from a people’s wealth, its victories in war? Such achievements may be the source of pride, or even arrogance. But the dignity of a people — even the poorest, most wretched, enslaved people — comes from God’s closeness. It is God’s love and closeness that confer dignity, and always raise up a people, offering it a horizon of hope.”
Photo by Special Olympics. Used by permission.
To me, there’s no conservative or liberal politics in that statement — only a spirit that we’re all hungering to believe in and live from. If we’re trapped in debates about conservative and progressive politics, we risk missing his message altogether. In my view, Francis wasn’t trying to change the politics of religion; in fact, he disappointed both conservatives and liberals on political matters.
But maybe that’s because his primary agenda was trying to awaken a sense of dignity within our hearts. That’s a new spirit, not an old political debate.
Pope Francis wasn’t trying to change the politics of religion; in fact, he disappointed both conservatives and liberals on political matters. Maybe that’s because his primary agenda was trying to awaken a sense of dignity within our hearts. That’s a new spirit, not an old political debate.
And that new spirit can produce a new way of doing politics too. Francis wrote, “Politics can once again be an expression of love through service. By making the restoration of our peoples’ dignity the central objective of the post-Covid world, we make everyone’s dignity the key to our actions. To guarantee a world where dignity is valued and respected through concrete actions is not just a dream but a path to a better future.” Politics as love in service to human dignity? Why not?
Over the last few days, we’ve seen little dignity miracles all around us. We saw President Trump meet quietly with President Zelensky — in St. Peter’s no less. Maybe something will happen that isn’t a dream but a path to the dignity of people suffering through unbearable war. We’ve seen Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania rise from a vicious attack on his residence to proclaim his faith more boldly than before — even as he vowed to offer space for the celebrations of other faiths too. We’ve seen educator colleagues at Harvard University welcome our team from the Dignity Index to teach dignity, not as a tool for a fight but as a mindset for transforming the fight.
All of us who support the work of dignity are often asked if treating people with dignity is really possible. And even more, we’re asked if it’s possible to treat people with dignity while still upholding our principles. When we share quotes that score seven or eight on the Dignity Index from people like Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., people often shrug: “Of course those people treated others with dignity, but I’m living in the here and now.”
As we celebrate Francis and the millions who loved him, we celebrate him not because he was the Pope or because he was a Christian, but because he saw dignity in all. He taught from the Christian perspective, but he taught a universal hunger.
“The people always hold in their hearts a promise: an invitation that leads them toward what they desire, despite the exclusion they suffer,” Pope Francis wrote. “Jesus’s preaching evoked in them ancient promises they carried in their guts, in their blood: an ancestral awareness of God’s closeness and of their own dignity. By bringing to them that closeness in the way He spoke and touched and healed, Jesus showed that awareness was real. He opened for them a path of hope into the future, a path of liberation that was not merely political but something more: a human liberation, that conferred that dignity that only the Lord can give us. That’s why they followed Jesus. He gave them dignity.”
That’s a beautiful way to see. May we all — religious and non-religious alike — seek the eyes to see the dignity in each other. If we do, the potential for healing and creating anew is unbounded.
Tim Shriver is CEO and founder of Unite, co-creator of the Dignity Index, and chairman of Special Olympics International. First published by Unite. Used by permission.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
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