Pope Francis as Champion of Faiths

I have just finished my nnnth revision of the manuscript of my new book, and I can tell you I went through many titles while I was writing the chapters:

(1)     Gift of Release

(2)     Larger Than Life: Capturing Pope Francis

(3)     Catching Pope Francis

(4)     Did You Catch Pope Francis today?

(5)     POPE FRANCIS: Champion of Faith, Champion of Science

(6)     POPE FRANCIS: Champion of Faiths, Champion of Science.

25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

The first title was good for about 1 week; the 2nd about 4 days; the 3rd about 2 days, the 4th about 2 days – the 5th and 6th only today, this afternoon of 11 January 2015, Sunday. This is the first time that the title of my book changed so many times. There's always a first time.

The first title has to do with Chapter 7, "Gift of Release. A Pope Francis Lesson of 2013," which tells the story of the evening of 13 March 2013 when Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope, after he accepted to become Pope and was about to ascend to the balcony to show his face as the new pontiff, Vicar of Christ – the new Pope suddenly had doubts about his ability and darkness descended upon him. He sought the solace of the Pauline Chapel and prayed with his friend Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes; when he emerged from the chapel, he was a changed man; borrowing from Romans 12, he had been transformed by the renewing of his mind. He had received from God what I call the Gift of Release. As I tell in the book, I had a similar experience, if not as profound as happened to Pope Francis.

But then I decided to change that title because then I saw that it was too deep, not easy to comprehend at a glance.

As I googled for images in the Internet, I saw the photograph of Pope Francis and a girl taking a selfie with him and others, and I thought it was marvelous – so the title "Larger Than Life: Capturing Pope Francis" was born. "Capturing" – I was going to emphasize the fact that the book is about understanding – capturing the ideas of – Pope Francis. I had many font choices and changes on the title.

Then I thought that "capturing" may be a problematic word, so I changed it to "catching" – "Catching Pope Francis" – and then later I came out with a title that was also a slogan, "Did you catch Pope Francis today?"

As I revised the chapters, I got tired of the 4th title and came up with the 5th, "POPE FRANCIS: Champion of Faith, Champion of Science." That was late this morning, I think – I wasn't minding the time. But, instantly, I thought of the 6th title, "POPE FRANCIS: Champion of Faiths, Champion of Science."

Now, "Champion of Faith" is justified, because Pope Francis has been reinvigorating the Roman Catholic faith since he became Pope on 13 March 2013, or almost 2 years ago. But "Champion of Faiths" is more original and is correct, because Pope Francis is advocating to each his own faith, but to cooperate for the common good. Your faith be with you!

Now, about "Champion of Science" – I just learned today that Pope Francis is preparing an encyclical that will deal with climate change, that will try to convince the skeptic into believing and lead the believer to commit into taking action against man-made climate change. And there is an article published in the respected journal Science where scientists are calling on Pope Francis and the Roman Catholic Church to lead in mobilizing the world against climate change, whatever it takes.

I had long believed in climate change ever since I read about Al Gore and "The Inconvenient Truth" – directed by Davis Guggenheim, the documentary won an Academy Award in 2006. I had blogged many times about it, at least 35 times since 2007; perhaps the first time was in February 2007 when I wrote "The Yankee Dawdle. On Discovery Sorghum, The Great Climate Crop," 04 February 2007, iCRiSAT Watch, blogspot.com), and the last time in August 2014 when I wrote "Science with a human face, II. Sugarcane & rice, liquid assets & liabilities" (iCRiSAT Watch, blogspot.com).

My new book also contains Pope Francis' Ten Tips to Happiness:

(1)     Live and let live.

(2)     Give yourself to others.

(3)     Move quietly in the world.

(4)     Enjoy leisure.

(5)     Sunday is for families.

(6)     Find jobs for young people.

(7)     Respect nature.

(8)     Let go of negative things quickly.

(9)     Don't preach your religion too forcefully.

(10) Work for peace.

And here are his suggested Ten New Year's Resolutions:

(1)     Don't gossip.

(2)     Finish your meals.

(3)     Make time for others.

(4)     Choose the "more humble" purchase.

(5)     Meet the poor "in the flesh."

(6)     Stop judging others.

(7)     Befriend those who disagree.

(8)     Make commitments, such as marriage.

(9)     Make it a habit to "ask the Lord."

(10) Be happy.

Watch for my book and read more about those 20 tips for happiness. Or go surf the Internet yourself.

I have been writing this book since Christmas Day, Thursday; I'm now very happy with it, 11 January, Sunday, after 18 days of working on the manuscript. It's about 125 pages, almost 39,000 words. It has 13 chapters, because I like the number 13. That means I wrote an average of 2 chapters written every 3 days. I'm counting the days because I have not done anything like this before – I had first written a fast book before and it took me 3 months; when I'm going to print this one, it will be 3 weeks after; I'm planning to print the first commercial copies 14 January 2015. That's the beauty of computer printouts – you can print at the last 2 minutes and still come out with beautiful pages.

First time writing a book about Pope Francis is a beautiful feeling.