A clean slate

Yesterday two men embarked on their respective tenures each as the leader of over a billion people. 59 year old Xi Jinping was yesterday appointed president of China with only one of the 3,000 people involved in the voting process not voting for him. His job is for ten years and will not be without its challenges. He is faced with sustaining an economic growth rate which remains alien to just about every other country in the developed world. His country has a record on Human Rights about which the less said the better. China has an economy rooted deeply in fossil fuels and steel. On the back of its unparalleled growth over the last three decades, it is also enormously cash rich which immediately sets it apart from most other countries. China still refers to itself as a communist country but actually appears to be less so with the passage of every year as the ivy-like grip of capitalism slowly takes hold. For all that, it remains the one country with any chance of bringing to order North Korea whose actions seem ever more ominous based on the events of the last few years. Whether China is still boasting annual growth rates in excess of 5 per cent ten years hence is open to conjecture but I fail to see how. As all children know only too well, even very large bubbles burst in the end.

At the tender age of 76, Pope Francis yesterday embarked on his papacy following the deciding vote of the college of cardinals. Hailing from the Argentine, he is in fact of Italian descent so should feel quite at home in the Vatican. His succession follows the surprise resignation last month of Pope Benedict who will doubtless now lurk in the shadows. While many expressed surprise at his resignation, it was entirely understandable when you stop to consider the enormity of the task with which he was faced. Granted, the Catholic Church continues to grow in the impoverished continents of Africa and South America. The problem though is elsewhere. Although he must now confront the growing issue of contraception in the face of HIV and a whole raft of other sexually transmitted diseases, his real challenge is to somehow engage his church once more with its traditional heartland of Europe. As commercialism and materialism have assumed the ascendency in recent times, the Catholic Church by contrast has receded. Allegations of child sexual abuse have come at the worst possible time and must be addressed. While the Eastern religions continue to grow, congregations within the church have become old and decrepid with little new wood growing through. It is little wonder when the church refuses to budge rather like a child playing musical chairs. The music has re-started but the church remains seated. When it learns to get up and join in, so too will the people. It is little coincidence that the fibrant evangelism of Africa boasts a healthy growing church whereas the staid, medieval church in Europe experiences the opposite. Pope Francis has made a good first impression but, like St. Francis Xavier, he will ultimately be judged more on his deeds than his words.

Ten years hence I wonder whose legacy will be the more noteworthy: Pope Francis the spiritual leader or Xi Jinping the leader of China. Either way, they both have a big job ahead of them and whether aged 59 or 76, it would test the devil himself. You can please some of the people some of the time.....