On his first visit as pope to the US, Pope Francis, also the leader of a community numbering more than one billion, is cementing a reputation for doing and saying the right thing - in that order. His arrival in the US came after a visit to Cuba, underlining once again that he believes that smaller countries on the periphery be treated just like superpowers; he has been credited with engineering the rapprochement between Cuba and the USA by President Barack Obama, but downplays his contribution. Pope Francis has persuasively argued for a new approach to capitalist economics after the financial crisis of 2008 and attacked environmental destruction, suggesting the world take climate change seriously.
If Pope Francis has displayed a grasp of the big picture problems facing the world that is far superior to that of his predecessor, who had infamously criticised offshoring to developing countries as damaging the fabric of the developed world, it is the humility with which he lives his life that has been most endearing. Just as he did as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis has given up his official papal residence, opting instead for three rooms in a Vatican guesthouse. Within days of becoming pope, he held a service, not for grandly attired cardinals as is the tradition, but for janitors, gardeners and the other support staff of the Vatican. While his predecessor commissioned a signature perfume and was driven around in a Mercedes, Pope Francis famously drives a humble 30-year-old Renault hatchback on weekends that has done 200,000 km already.
This is all of a piece with his record in Argentina where he founded a group of priests working in the slums of Buenos Aires. There he rarely spoke to the media, but as pope he has completely disarmed journalists with his candour. A mid-air press conference on Alitalia on his return from long international trips has become a tradition. In 2013, returning from his first overseas trip as pope, he was asked about his views on homosexuality. "Who am I to judge," was his humble - and humbling - reply. This summer, he acknowledged that he had neglected to craft a message for the middle class around the world: "It's an error of mine not to think about this." Pope Francis has not proved as liberal as might have been hoped in allowing the ordination of women priests, but he has restored a lustre to the papacy and the Catholic church generally after years of damaging scandals involving child abuse by priests and inaction or cover-ups by higher-ups. Asked this summer how he seemed so energetic at the age of 78, Pope Francis replied with a laugh, "'What is your drug?' is what he (the reporter) means. That's the question." It would be sacrilegious to suggest that drugs explain his vitality and wisdom, but whatever Pope Francis' elixir is, the world's leaders need more of it.