Pope Francis Gives Surprise TED Talk, Emphasizes Inclusion

PopeTed

Pope Francis surprised a TED Talk audience last week.

The TED Talk experience is something many people hope to experience. Some people want to reach that stage in their lives where they can be the speakers, while there are those who are content to draw inspiration from it. The TED talks, which bring global leaders from many fields, is mainly centered on science and technology. To say that seeing the pope give a TED talk was surprising would be an understatement.

Pope Francis Gives Surprise TED Talk, Emphasizes Inclusion[/tweetthis]

The theme for this week’s international speeches was working toward a better future. On Tuesday, the TED Talk audience got a shock. The various managers and consultants in the crowd were waiting for another speaker to arrive when the lights went off and up popped a video of the pontiff. The video was recorded at the pope’s headquarters and broadcasted in Vancouver. Reactions from the people seated in the audience were awestruck and encouraging, a testament to the current pontiff's popularity even among those with no religious ties.

The Pope began with an icebreaker, greeting each person present in his ever-smiling way. He introduced his talk as ‘The Future You,' in line with the week's theme. He then began his lesson giving in the typical TED talk way, by giving an anecdote then going on to reiterate his message. Pope Francis made an appeal to the members of the audience in three ways. He called on them as individuals, as leaders and as business leaders, innovators, and scientists.

The first lesson Pope Francis put across is that change begins with the individual. For a human being to prosper in society, he stated, he or she must be willing to look beyond his needs to those of others. This message was an echo of the words put forth by another religious leader earlier on TED Talk, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. The pontiff added that once people learned to care for others as they would themselves, then harmony between such an individual and those around him or her would be achieved, culminating in happiness. Also, caring for each other brought unity which would promote the revolutionary change that the audience was hoping for.

Pope Francis urged the leaders in society present for the talk to use their influence for good. He gave a personal story of how his family had been destitute in the past. Every time he helped the poor or the sick, Pope Francis remarked that he was reminded that it could have been him in that situation. As such, he dedicated his life to aiding those people society ‘discarded' as he would have wanted to be helped had he been in the same situation. "You have influence and power," the Pontiff commented, “use it to care for others.”

Finally, the Pope reminded his audience to advance in their treatment of people as they advanced in science and technology. He urged them to "discover others' needs as they unveiled other planets." As scientists and innovators, he called on them to put their consumers’ needs before interest in their products. As leaders, he challenged them to be humble and to include all members of society in their endeavors. 

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