The last time I contributed to this column it was around the beginning of Lent; now it is the beginning of Eastertide, both periods of forty days. Life is full of beginnings and endings by its very nature since it moves in a definite direction from womb to tomb, birth to death. This the movement which we have been commemorating in the Christian Church in recent weeks.

But this time it is a bit different as now the Catholic Church, and all the world it seems, has been suddenly struck by a momentous event, the not totally unexpected death of Pope Francis. The Media is now full of reports and interviews both looking back on his life, and so-called legacy, and then forward to what happens now to choose his successor.

Perhaps I could pick one gesture Pope Francis chose at the very beginning of his leadership in 2012 as an illustration both of the man and of his approach to his office. I believe the very first trip he took outside the Vatican was to Lampedusa, the port in Sicily where they bring in the refugees that have been picked up from the boats crossing from Africa to Europe, fleeing persecution or poverty. I would name this gesture as a movement towards and in support of the ‘losers.’ This is the characteristic which all the commentators over the last days have picked up as typical of Pope Francis, and of Jesus himself.

This is in contrast it seems to me to the approach of the politician which automatically gravitates towards the ‘winners’. Perhaps this is inevitable given the different constituencies which each is addressing. One needs the material approval of the people; the other the moral approval of the one who came not to ignore or condemn but to gather together, heal and raise up all the Father’s children.