The world was moved by recent news that Pope Francis took 12 Muslim refugees back to Rome with him on his papal plane. A simple gesture, yet profound when you think of the message it sends to religious bigots everywhere. Those who have been brandishing their Christianity to attack Muslim refugees hopefully have paused to reflect on their actions.

A few days earlier, Pope Francis had called on the Roman Catholic Church to show more empathy and acceptance of people in “irregular” situations. This is a first opening of the door to welcome divorced, unmarried heterosexual couples, single parents, and gay people into the embrace of the church. Again simple, but profound in terms of taking the church’s support away from bigotry.

A popular refrain we hear is that something or the other is “the Christian thing to do.”However, many positions adopted by the Catholic Church and some other strands of Christianity have not been tolerant of people who look or act different than what was a stereotypical image of who/what a Christian is. Many of their actions don’t fit the label of “the Christian thing to do” since they demonstrate a complete lack of empathy. Shutting the door on the vulnerable and the suffering is hardly a good thing.

Pope Francis probably recognizes the changing demographic of Christianity. Let us look at some of the populations around the world that don’t fit the Christian stereotype:

Brazil: 180 Million; Mexico: 108 Million; Colombia: 43 Million; Peru: 25 Million

Philippines: 86 Million; China: 60 Million; Indonesia: 25 Million

Congo: 63 Million; Ethiopia: 52 Million; India: 30 Million

This may explain his recent talk about a devolution of power so that local churches can adapt their teachings to respect and incorporate local customs. What better way than tie all these disparate regions and cultures so that we create a more global brotherhood, even if it is only the Christian religion. After all, this is where Islam has been the most potent, exhibiting an ability to transcend racial and regional affiliation to a more global view of religion.

We have not seen a religious leader like Pope Francis in many decades. Perhaps going further, we have not seen a leader, religious, political, or otherwise, like this in our lifetimes. While the airwaves are dominated by hate mongering and bigotry by our presidential candidates, or at least one orange haired one, it is refreshing to see messages of tolerance and empathy. Unfortunately for our ad$$ driven media, this is one boring message. Why bother covering the pope when you could cover The Donald? Amen.