Although the subject line is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, this accompanying story is decidedly not.
Anna Romano is a 35-year-old Italian shop worker from Arezzo who recently wrote a letter to Pope Francis. In desperation, after learning that she was pregnant, and then dumped by her fiancée (a shameless cad...a married man with kids) who had demanded that she have an abortion, she became one of the thousands of persons who write personal pleas to the Pope.
Assuming that her letter would go unnoticed, she left on holiday with her family. Yet, on Sept. 3, her mobile rang…a Rome phone number that she didn’t recognize. She answered anyway.
“Hello Anna,” the kindly voice said, “This is Pope Francis.”
Recognizing his voice from radio broadcasts and stunned that he would call her, she recounted her story: divorced with a child and pregnant by a deceiving man who would have nothing to do with her or the child, who also insisted that she end the pregnancy.
In their conversation Francis “reassured me, telling me that the baby was a gift from God, a sign of Providence. He told me I would not be left alone.”
When Romano told the pope that she wanted to have the child baptized but was afraid she could not because she is divorced and on her own, the pope told her he was sure that she could find a willing pastor.
“But if not,” Francis added, “you know there’s always me.”
What words could be used to characterize this exchange?
Encouraging? Reassuring? Benevolent? Humility? Genuine? Compassionate? All of the above?
How about the simple humanity of reaching out to a person in need, and offering what one can?
I suppose that it is easy for those of us in the financial services industry who have dozens of exchanges each day, to become cynical and jaded about the power of honest, sincere conversations.
Yet, financial advisors, especially those who have built strong and close-knit relationships with their clients over the years, can find themselves in the privileged position of helping others, each and every day, by simply being available and present for those who have placed their trust in you.
[Note: These thoughts are not intended to be an endorsement of Catholicism or its tenets. They are intended to be an endorsement of the simple charity and kindness of Pope Francis, the cold-calling Pope.]
Search
