Hope, encouragement, objectification, interconnectedness, Plato, Aristotle – these were just some of the words that struck Conservative MEP Vicky Ford during Pope Francis’ address to the European Parliament last Tuesday.
Her notes taken during his address, a mind-map of important phrases and keywords linked by arrows, reveals the impact Francis’ words had on the Anglican MEP.
The landscape page, which afterwards she shared with The Tablet, noted the importance of the common good in his speech and linked it to the complicit silence of many in the face of the persecution of Christians.
“Forgetfulness of God gives rise to violence,” she observed.
“Keep democracy alive for the people,” she wrote, underlining alive, before writing beneath, “ALIVE – not mere words.”
Afterwards she told The Tablet that the notes and issues Francis raised were “for sharing and remembering”.
Pope Francis received a standing ovation for his at times hard-hitting address to MEPs who at several points burst into applause. He addressed the Council of Europe shortly afterwards as the second part of his whistle-stop trip to Strasbourg.
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