Obama and Francis: A precious meeting of minds

The two men appear to think alike when it comes to social and economic issues.

Tokyo:  The speech given by President Barack Obama in Hiroshima on May 27 resonated deeply in people’s hearts.

I, too, felt as if I had come in touch with the "soul" of President Obama, who had no doubt spent many hours crafting the speech.

The speech, which touched on a variety of important issues, has already been widely critiqued both in Japan and abroad.

These critiques have covered most of the major perspectives, such as Japan-US relations, de-nuclearization, and civilizational and human history.

Here, I would like to focus on some perspectives that — in my understanding — have not yet been addressed.

In his historic speech, Obama stressed the importance of giving full thought to the individual victims of the Hiroshima bombing.

"We stand here, in the middle of this city, and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell. We force ourselves to feel the dread of children confused by what they see. We listen to a silent cry. We remember all the innocents killed. ...

"We can ... know that those same precious moments took place here 71 years ago. Those who died — they are like us."

In short, Obama called on us to put ourselves in the victims’ shoes and look squarely at the reality of war, complete with the faces and stories of victims.

Reading between the lines, Obama presumably had this message to convey: Past wars were predicated on massive casualties, and the human cost has been disregarded by those responsible for formulating national strategies and military operations.

It is immoral, however, to design strategies and operations without giving thought to the countless victims. When planning an operation, one must have the imagination to foresee whether it will take a large human toll and refrain from executing immoral operations.

"We must change our mindset about war itself," the president said, concluding that the international community should begin a "moral awakening."

As he gave his address, Obama’s demeanor evoked the image of a civil society activist or a post-modernistic thinker, rather than the commander-in-chief of his country’s armed forces.

There is another super-leader who has been remarking along similar lines: none other than Pope Francis. The pope urges politicians and bureaucrats to be "constantly conscious of the fact that [they] are dealing with real men and women who live, struggle and suffer" when dealing with political and economic programs.

He points out that acts of destruction are never abstract. "They always have a face, a concrete story, names."

Pope Francis is equally outspoken about his views on such issues as economic disparity and poverty.

"[Poverty] has a face! It has the face of a child, it has the face of a family. … It has the face of forced migrations. … Without faces and stories, human lives become statistics and we run the risk of bureaucratizing the sufferings of others"

In a speech he gave two and a half years ago, President Obama quoted a remark by the pope that had struck a chord with him: "How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?"

Obama further described the pope as an "extraordinarily thoughtful and soulful messenger of peace and justice," according to a Los Angeles Times article.

When the man who holds the highest seat of power in the secular world finds himself on the same wavelength as the highest authority in the spiritual world, that is a rare and precious meeting of minds.

Although the president has tended to stand at odds with the conservative Catholic Church on issues relating to life and family ethics, the two men appear to think alike when it comes to social and economic issues.

This is no coincidence. Look at their careers. They reveal that both are strongly field-oriented, committed to protecting the weak: Obama possesses a hands-on perspective stemming from his experience as a civil society activist, while Pope Francis comes from the "front lines of the church."

Two super-leaders with the most clout in the world, both of whom came from the field, repeat the message that we must think of the weak and the victims, sounding the alarm that strategies and plans formulated by state bureaucrats at times overlook those in the "field" — the weak.

This "collaboration" is an "asset" to the international community — a point deserving more attention — that the international community should capitalize on.

Kagefumi Ueno is a Professor of the Kyorin University, and an essayist. He was former Ambassador to the Holy See.

This is an edited version of the article that also appeared in The English-Speaking Union of Japan.

Source: UCAN