Pope’s TED Talk a call for inclusion
Pope Francis used a world forum dedicated to promoting cutting-edge ideas yesterday to spread his own revolutionary message: Inclusion.
“When there is an us, there begins a revolution,” the world’s most powerful religious leader told the room of scientists, academics, tech innovators and investors in a surprise videotaped message at the international TED conference.
Keeping with the intent of the week-long conference to share strategies to make the world better, Francis’ contribution was to urge the people gathered to use their influence and power to care for others.
“How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion,” he said to applause. “How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us.”
When Francis appeared on screen, the room erupted in applause, and one woman exclaimed, “No way”.
While seated at a desk at the Vatican, his speech had all the hallmarks of a TED Talk. His began with a personal narrative and wove in big ideas around hope, inclusion and starting a “revolution of tenderness”.
He shared that he often wonders “why them and not me” when he travels the world meeting with the poor and the sick — society’s “discarded people”. That question drives his belief that it is the responsibility of the fortunate to take care of those who are less so.
“First and foremost, I would love it if this meeting could help to remind us that we all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent I, separated from the other, and we can only build the future by standing together, including everyone,” the Pope said.
“People’s paths are riddled with suffering, as everything is centred around money, and things, instead of people. And often there is this habit, by people who call themselves respectable, of not taking care of the others, thus leaving behind thousands of human beings, or entire populations, on the side of the road.”
Francis has gained fans for speaking out on issues such as poverty, immigration and the environment.
A Pew Research Centre poll found that more than 70 per cent of people without a religious affiliation view him favourably.