Pope Francis has now become the fourth Pope to visit our country since 1960, when the diplomatic relation between Turkey and the Vatican had been established. The first two visits that occurred in 1967 and 1979 were met with reactions. These reactions were based upon the “Crusaders”, without a doubt. Towards the end of the 11th century, Anatolia also got its share from the looting, pillaging and murders of the Crusader horde that were proceeding towards “Jerusalem”. Thus, Pope Benedict the 16th came together with the representatives of the Muslims in Germany, and apologized because of the Crusaders. Pope Benedict the 16th had said, “During these excursions, thousands of murders had been committed. Saying that these murders had been committed in the name of God cannot be accepted. The Crusaders are our shame.” Our topic is not the Crusaders, rather, our topic is the new expression developed by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio after he had been elected as the Pope in the name of “Francis”. The name “Francis” being given to him by the missionary fathers, who had been declared as “Saints” because of elevating simplicity, consorting with lazy people and their relations with poor people, was a sign that the Pope will be bringing an innovation to the Vatican.

For a while now, Pope Francis is drawing the attention of the Christians towards “savage capitalism”. Thus, he is attempting to pump fresh blood to the jammed veins of Christianity. Pope Francis had lived a great portion of his life in Latin America where the “Christian Salvation Divinity”, which includes the tendency of assisting the economically poor and oppressed people, had found a strong platform. Even though the growth of the “Salvation Divinity” had been lowered to some extent due to the Vatican’s discrepancy, starting from the 1960s, it continued spreading. Pope Francis is bringing forth the rising power of the “Salvation Divinity” against the destructive power of capitalism over the Christians. For example, the “Capitalism had become a new tyranny; this financial system that fuels violence and the unfair summary distribution should change” sentence belongs to Pope Francis. However, the Vatican, who is also conducting “banking”, had been accused of being included in shady financial processes for years.

Since the biggest problem of the 21st Century is “global inequality”, more or less, we can understand what Pope Francis is trying to do. Of course, Christians are not the only people who are being impoverished by means of being exposed to the speculations of financial capitalism. Also, Muslims, who possess a population more than 1.5 billion people, Hindus and the Buddhists, who possess a population of 300-400 million, are being exposed to the destructive effects of covetousness, graspingness, and the addiction of money and wealth.

Pope Francis is the “spiritual” and “material” leader of the Catholics. Will the Pope’s, who is shown “infallibility” deference and believed to speak “in the name of God”, calling towards the alteration of the financial system find a place to reflect in the Vatican? Then, will this calling have a response in the Christian world? Leaving the Christian world aside, can the Muslim world, which believes in a religion that includes the harshest ordinances against the interest, which is the engine of the financial system, show an effective resistance against this tyranny?

I wonder; if the Muslims in the world had a “Caliph”, then would he have managed to downgrade this financial tyranny? This question is caustic, and it directly appeals to the Muslim individuals’ consciousness. Can a mind, which has the “growth” sickness, be able to comprehend what would be gained in exchange for what is being lost? As long as the comprehensions are not renewed, and the consciousness is not opened, then neither the Caliph nor the Pope would be effective. Didn’t the Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid and Ottomans collapse and vanish, even though they had a Caliph? If the person or nation doesn’t change their bad behaviors in their soul, then would it be possible for them to find the path to salvation?