(RNS) — The whole world is mourning the death of Pope Francis, who passed away on Monday (April 21), during the 13th year of his papacy.
He may have disappointed liberals who wanted him to change the church’s teaching on birth control, gay marriage, married clergy and women priests.
He may have scandalized conservatives who wanted him to be more like John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who cracked down on dissenters and condemned the things progressives wanted.
But he was loved by ordinary Catholics who saw in him a compassionate pastor who cared about people, especially the poor and the marginalized. The Pew Research Center found that 75% of U.S. Catholics viewed Pope Francis favorably in 2024. Although his conflicts with Donald Trump affected his ratings, even 63% of Republicans had a favorable opinion of the pope. American politicians would kill for these numbers.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was a little-known Argentine cardinal when he was chosen to be pope, and much of what we thought we knew about him then was wrong.
When Bergoglio was elected as pope, I was sitting in front of a BBC camera preparing to be interviewed and uttered a word I cannot print in my column. Luckily, my mic was off. All I knew about Bergoglio was that my friends in Latin America, liberation theologians and Jesuits, did not like him, calling him conservative and authoritarian.
Pope Francis leaves the morning session of the Amazon synod, at the Vatican, Oct. 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
I was not alone in my ignorance. George Weigel, the conservative Catholic commentator and biographer of Pope John Paul II, opined in a column shortly after Francis’ election that the sole disappointment in John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI for many cardinals was that these popes had not reformed the Jesuits. According to Weigel, the cardinals had decided the only way to reform the Jesuits was to elect a conservative one as pope.
Weigel claimed to know the mind of Bergoglio because he had spent time talking with him in Buenos Aires about the Jesuits and the church. My guess is that Weigel did most of the talking while Bergoglio sat poker-faced, leading Weigel to think the archbishop agreed with everything he said.
Within a couple of weeks, we learned how wrong we both were. The cardinals had elected as pope a man who would change the style of being pope, attack clericalism, empower the laity, open the church to conversation and debate and change the pastoral and public priorities of the church.
Although Pope Francis did not change doctrine, he was revolutionary in every other way.
The stylistic change was immediately evident when, appearing from the balcony of St. Peter’s for the first time, Francis, in a simple white cassock, greeted the people informally and asked them to pray over him before he blessed them.
His simple style was linked to a full-throated attack on clericalism. He told cardinals and bishops not to act like princes. Leadership means service, he told them. Shepherds should smell like their sheep, he advised. Clergy were to be “gentle, patient and merciful,” he said, with an “outward simplicity and austerity of life.”
Pope Francis, background center, walks with his pastoral staff as he arrives to celebrate a canonization Mass for 35 new saints in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct. 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Although Francis became known for his compassion and kindness, this did not apply to the clergy, with whom he could be very tough. Here he sounded like the authoritarian director of novices and Jesuit provincial that he once was. This became especially true in the manner he removed bishops who had not dealt forthrightly with sexual abuse.
Linked to this attack on clericalism was his desire to empower the laity. Do we give the laity “the freedom to continue discerning, in a way befitting their growth as disciples, the mission which the Lord has entrusted to them?” he asked the bishops. “Do we support them and accompany them, overcoming the temptation to manipulate them or infantilize them?”
He practiced what he preached by opening high-ranking positions in the Vatican to laymen and women. He made laypeople full participants in the synod.
Francis also opened the church to conversation and debate in a way that had not been seen in the church since the Second Vatican Council. Fearing the church had become too chaotic, John Paul had used Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to clamp down on priests and theologians who wanted to continue discussing doctrinal issues in the wake of Vatican II.
Francis, on the other hand, held that “open and fraternal debate makes theological and pastoral thought grow. That doesn’t frighten me. What’s more, I look for it.” This freed theologians to talk about how the church could present the gospel message in a way that is understandable in the 21st century.
Pope Francis, top, greets cardinals at the end of the opening Mass for the Synod of Bishops on Young People, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Oct. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Francis was also critical of the Curia’s control over what happened at the synod of bishops. He recalled being told what could and could not be discussed at a synod he was involved in leading. He believed the synods had become not forums for advising the pope but places for participants to show their loyalty to the pontiff and the Vatican.
At his first synod as pope, Francis told the participants: “Speak clearly. Let no one say, ‘This can’t be said’. … Everything we feel must be said, with parrhesia (boldness).” He used the Greek word “parrhesia,” describing how St. Paul addressed St. Peter at what could be called the first synod in Jerusalem, when the disciples discussed the obligation of gentile Christians to follow traditional Jewish practices.
In other words, Francis was telling the synod participants, “treat me the way St. Paul treated St. Peter.”
Ironically, conservatives used this new freedom to attack the pope for allowing free debate. They had labeled as dissenters anyone who questioned the actions or teachings of John Paul and Benedict, but now they became vocal in their dissent. “Loyalists” became rebels, showing that their true loyalty was not to the papacy but to their own opinions.
In the Synod on Synodality (2023 and 2024), Francis initiated a process of discerning where the Spirit is leading the church that began with praying together and listening to one another. This was opposite of the clericalism that had infected the church for so long.
Pope Francis, center, poses with participants to the second session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
For Francis, the synodal process was more important than any decisions that come out of a synod. His hope was that the process would transform the church into a synodal church. This was disappointing for progressive Catholics who wanted results: married priests, women priests and changes in church teaching on sex and gender. It was also scary to conservatives who feared the hierarchy was losing control.
Francis also changed the pastoral priorities of the church. He wanted a poor church for the poor, one that would serve, accompany and defend the poor. He described the church as a field hospital for the wounded, not a country club for the rich and beautiful. He stressed compassion, mercy and reconciliation.
He felt the church’s message was too complicated. “We lose people because they don’t understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity,” he said. This led conservatives to see him as an intellectual lightweight in comparison with John Paul and Benedict.
And while others blamed the faithful or the culture for the exodus from the church, Francis feared people saw the church as “too weak, … distant from their needs, … cold, … caught up with itself, … a prisoner of its own rigid formulas, … a relic of the past, unfit for new questions.”
For Francis, the first words of evangelization are about God’s love and compassion. We should preach the gospel, not the catechism or a rule book. As the Gospel of Matthew teaches us in Chapter 25, living the faith (orthopraxis) is more important than how we talk about faith (orthodoxy).
Pope Francis speaks to migrants, wearing white caps, during his visit to the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, July 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
Francis also changed the public priorities of the church. In an interview during his first year in office, he said he would not obsess over abortion, gay marriage and birth control since everyone knows what the church teaches on these topics. Rather, he attacked unregulated capitalism and globalization. He criticized war and called for peace. In words and actions, he defended migrants, refugees and the marginalized.
This interview encouraged progressives but angered conservatives, who argue the church needs to combat today’s culture, which rejects traditional values on sex and family. Francis never changed church teaching on these topics, but he was less condemnatory and more welcoming to those who did not accept the church’s teaching.
Francis continued and advanced the work of John Paul in interreligious dialogue, meeting and issuing joint statements with the top Shiite leader in Iraq and the top Sunni leader in Egypt.
Finally, in his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’” he wholeheartedly embraced the environmental movement and called on the church and the world to deal with global warming.
Although I loved and supported Francis, he was not perfect. His language about women drove First-World feminists nuts. One might call him a Third-World feminist because he was concerned about human trafficking and poverty, not language. He promoted women to positions of power in the church bureaucracy but would not ordain them priests.
Pope Francis, in pictures
By Thomas Reese · April 21, 2025
The life and papacy of Pope Francis, in pictures.
Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Oct. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope John Paul II greets the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, at the Vatican on June 29, 1998. (AP Photo/Sambucetti)
Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio celebrates a Mass in honor of Pope John Paul II at the Buenos Aires Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 4, 2005. Bergoglio, who took the name of Pope Francis, was elected on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, as the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, file)
FILE - Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, March 13, 2013. When Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina became Pope Francis, much of his home country celebrated as if it had just won a soccer World Cup championship. A decade later, the first Latin American leader of the Catholic Church generates divided opinions. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
Pope Francis approaches priests with an Argentine flag as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for his inaugural Mass at the Vatican on March 19, 2013. (Photo by Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)
St. Peter's Square during Pope Francis' inaugural Mass on Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at the Vatican. (RNS photo/Andrea Sabbadini)
Pope Francis, surrounded by shells of destroyed churches, leads a prayer for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square, in Mosul, Iraq, once the de-facto capital of IS, Sunday, March 7, 2021. The long 2014-2017 war to drive IS out left ransacked homes and charred or pulverized buildings around the north of Iraq, all sites Francis visited on Sunday. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis talks to the Curia in the Clementina Hall at the Vatican on Dec. 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Andreas Solaro, Pool)
FILE - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, left, greets Pope Francis prior to the start of the beatification ceremony of Pope Paul VI and a mass for the closing of a two-week synod on family issues, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
Pope Francis prays at the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, in the old city of Jerusalem, Israel, Monday, May 26, 2014. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, Pool)
Filipino Cardinal Luis Tagle, left, shows Pope Francis how to give the popular hand sign for "I love you" at the Mall of Asia arena in Manila, Philippines, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
President Barack Obama and Pope Francis walk along the White House Colonnade on Sept. 23, 2015. (Photo by Pete Souza/The White House)
A nun reflects during a solemn moment as Pope Francis leads a Holy Mass for the Martyrs of Uganda at the area of the Catholic Sanctuary in the Namugongo area of Kampala, Uganda, on Nov. 28, 2015. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Pope Francis shares a reflection during an evening prayer service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, Sept. 24, 2015. Pope Francis was on a five-day trip to the USA, which included stops in Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia, after a three-day stay in Cuba. (Photo by Mary Altaffer/Reuters)
Pope Francis embraces two good friends of his traveling with him, Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka, left, and Omar Abboud, leader of Argentina's Muslim community, partially seen behind the pope, as he visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, Israel, Monday, May 26, 2014. Both friends joined the pontiff's official delegation for the trip in a sign of interfaith friendship. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, Pool)
Pope Francis speaks in front the Basilica of Saint Mary Ausiliatrice (Mary Help of Christians) during a two-day pastoral visit in Turin, Italy, on June 21, 2015. (Photo by Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters)
Pope Francis, left, is escorted by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, during a visit to the Greek island of Lesbos on April 16, 2016. (Andrea Bonetti/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP)
Pope Francis attends his general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican, on November 16, 2016. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)
Pope Francis kisses a child as he visits the refugee camp of Saint Sauveur in the capital Bangui, Central African Republic, on November 29, 2015. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini
*Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-JUBILEE-AFRICA, originally transmitted on December 21, 2015.
Pope Francis greets migrants and refugees at the Moria refugee camp near the port of Mytilene, on the Greek island of Lesbos, April 16, 2016. (Filippo Monteforte/Pool Photo via AP)
President Donald Trump stands next to Pope Francis during a private audience at the Vatican on May 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
In this June 28, 2017, file photo, Pope Francis, left, and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI meet each other on the occasion of the elevation of five new cardinals at the Vatican. (L'Osservatore Romano/Pool photo via AP, File)
Pope Francis is greeted by youth during an audience for middle schools belonging to the "Cavalieri" group, which promotes Christian life for youth, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, on June 2, 2017. (L' Osservatore Romano via AP, Pool)
Pope Francis speaks to the crew aboard the International Space Station from the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017. Pope Francis' hookup Thursday will mark the second papal phone call to space: Pope Benedict XVI rang the space station in 2011, and peppered its residents with questions about the future of the planet and the environmental risks it faced. (L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP)
Pope Francis tries on a cap he was offered as he leaves at the end of his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis blows out a candle atop of a cake he was offered on the eve of his 82nd birthday during an audience with children and family from the dispensary of Santa Marta, a Vatican charity that offers special help to mothers and children in need, in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, on Dec. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis, lower center, leaves at the end of a canonization ceremony in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Oct. 14, 2018. Pope Francis has praised two of the towering figures of the 20th-century Catholic Church as prophets who shunned wealth and looked out for the poor as he canonized the modernizing Pope Paul VI and martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. Francis declared the two men saints at a Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands of pilgrims, a handful of presidents and some 5,000 Salvadoran pilgrims who traveled to Rome. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis arrives in his popemobile for a Holy Mass at the Shrine of the Mother of God, in Aglona, Latvia, on Sept. 24, 2018. Francis visited Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to mark their 100th anniversaries of independence and to encourage the faith in the Baltics, which saw five decades of Soviet-imposed religious repression and state-sponsored atheism. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
Pope Francis smiles during services at Croke Park, Dublin on Aug. 25, 2018, during the World Meeting of Families 2018. (Photo by Maxwell Photography/WMOF2018)
Pope Francis washes the feet of inmates during his visit to the Regina Coeli detention center in Rome, Thursday, March 29, 2018, where he celebrated the "Missa in Coena Domini". Pope Francis visit to a prison on Holy Thursday to wash the feet of some inmates, stresses in a pre-Easter ritual that a pope must serve society's marginalized and give them hope. (Vatican Media via AP)
Pope Francis arrives on the pope mobile to celebrate Mass at the Las Palmas Air Base in Lima, Peru, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis lies down in prayer during the Good Friday Passion of Christ Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on March 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis is silhouetted during a private audience at the Vatican on Dec. 14, 2019. (Yara Nardi/Pool photo via AP)
Students practice flipping boards with photos to reveal a full-mosaic portrait of Pope Francis before a Holy Mass at National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Pope Francis leaves the morning session of the Amazon synod, at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. Pope Francis is holding a three-week meeting on preserving the rainforest and ministering to its native people as he fended off attacks from conservatives who are opposed to his ecological agenda. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
A man lifts a giant mask of Pope Francis off his head as he waits outside the Apostolic Nunciature Embassy of the Holy See in Bangkok on Nov. 20, 2019. Pope Francis toured Thailand and Japan on a trip, part of a mission to boost the morale of those countries’ tiny minority Catholic communities. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis prays during his weekly general audience, at the Vatican, on Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis speaks to indigenous groups in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, on Jan. 19, 2018. Standing with thousands of indigenous Peruvians, Francis declared the Amazon the "heart of the church" and called for a three-fold defense of its life, land and cultures. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis is framed by cellphones as he arrives for his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on Jan. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis greets Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar, after an interreligious meeting at the Founder's Memorial in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 4, 2019. Pope Francis has asserted in the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula that religious leaders have a duty to reject all war and commit themselves to dialogue. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Flanked by Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela, right, and first lady Lorena Castillo, Pope Francis arrives at the foreign ministry headquarters Palacio Bolivar, in Panama City, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
In this Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020 file photo, Pope Francis puts on his face mask as he attends an inter-religious ceremony for peace in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, in Rome. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
Pope Francis delivers his blessing from inside the Apostolic library at the Vatican on March 15, 2020, to an empty St. Peter’s Square. The pope praised people who could risk contagion to help the poor and the homeless even as fears of coronavirus spread prompts ever more countries to restrict ways of everyday life. (Vatican News via AP)
The Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, second from left, the head of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Aram I, third from left, Pope Francis, fourth from left, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, firfth from left, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East for the Syriac Catholic Church, Ignatius Youssef III Younan, right, arrive in St. Peter's Basilica to attend a prayer for Lebanon at the Vatican, Thursday, July 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis meets Spider-Man, who presents him with his mask, at the end of his weekly general audience with a limited number of faithful in the San Damaso Courtyard at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. The masked man works with sick children in hospitals. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
President Joe Biden, left, shakes hands with Pope Francis as they meet at the Vatican, Friday, Oct. 29, 2021. (Photo by Vatican Media)
Pope Francis celebrates the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica as coronavirus pandemic restrictions stay in place for a second year running, at the Vatican, Saturday, April 3, 2021. (Remo Casilli/Pool photo via AP)
Pope Francis arrives to open the Holy Door of St. Mary in Collemaggio Basilica and start the jubilee of forgiveness, in L'Aquila, central Italy, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. Pope Francis will be the first pope since Celestine V to open this Holy Door, the first in history, established with the Bull of Forgiveness of 29 September 1294 by Pope Celestine V. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
Pope Francis shows a flag that was brought to him from Bucha, Ukraine, during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, April 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
FILE - Pope Francis meets a group of nuns during his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, on Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
Pope Francis puts on an Indigenous headdress during a meeting with Indigenous communities, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit, at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Catholic Church in Maskwacis, near Edmonton, Canada, Monday, July 25, 2022. Pope Francis had a "penitential" visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country's residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the "cultural genocide" of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions. Francis visited the cemetery at the former residential school in Maskwacis. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Pope Francis presides over the First Vespers and Te Deum, the rite of thanksgiving for the end of the year, in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
A priest holds a sacrament bowl showing a photograph of Pope Francis at a Holy Mass at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Pope Francis, right, presides over the funeral Mass of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Jan. 5, 2023. (Vatican Media)
Pope Francis prays in front of a Nativity scene crafted in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, as he arrives for a meeting with the donors of the fir tree set up in St. Peter's Square as a Christmas tree and those who have crafted the life-size Nativity scene at the tree's feet, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis is greeted by gondoliers upon his arrival in Venice, Italy, Sunday, April 28, 2024. The Pontiff arrived for his first-ever visit to the lagoon town including the Vatican pavilion at the 60th Biennal of Arts. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Cardinals attend a Mass presided by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
East Timorese crowd Tasitolu park for Pope Francis' Mass in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
Pope Francis looks at American comedians Stephen Colbert, Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon, among others, as he meets with more than 100 comedians from around the world at the Vatican on June 14, 2024, encouraging them to cheer people up and help people see reality with all its contradictions. (Photo by Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media)
Pope Francis washes and kisses the feet of 12 women inmates of the Rebibbia prison in the outskirts of Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024, a ritual meant to emphasize his vocation of service and humility. (Photo by Vatican Media)
Pope Francis waves to the faithful from his popemobile at the end of a weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis is joined by children dressed with costumes inspired by nativity characters during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on New Year's Day, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A woman kneels at the foot of a statue of St. John Paul II outside the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Feb. 16, 2025, where Pope Francis was hospitalized Friday after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened. Francis is receiving drug therapy for a respiratory tract infection that made impossible for him to attend the traditional Sunday public blessing after the noon Angelus prayer. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis leaves the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, March 23, 2025, where he was admitted on Feb. 14 for bilateral pneumonia. (AP Photo/Marco Ravagli)
Pope Francis arrives at the end of the Mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis tours St. Peter's Square in his popemobile after bestowing the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for to the city and to the world) blessing at the end of the Easter Mass, which was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A photograph of the late Pope Francis is placed at Saint Anthony Catholic Church in Istanbul, Turkey, after the announcement of his death, Monday, April 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
And although be began holding bishops accountable for not dealing with sexual abuse, he was not perfect in addressing abuse. He was also slow in appointing bishops who supported his policies.
Nor did he complete the work of Curial reform. Rather than firing people who were incompetent or disloyal, he called them to conversion. The church is terrible at human resource management. It tends to be either authoritarian or too gentle, paternalistic or bureaucratic.
Nor was he willing to spend the money on the lay expertise necessary to reform Vatican finances. Cleaning up the Vatican bank cost over a million dollars in accounting fees. Cleaning up the rest of the Vatican finances will have similar costs. Forensic accountants are not cheap.
Francis was not a miracle worker. His impact was limited because many bishops and clergy did not share his vision for the church. People loved Francis, but they often did not see him in those leading their parishes or dioceses.
Francis was attacked from the right and the left. Conservatives are plotting to make sure there is a return to something like the papacies of Benedict and John Paul. There are even rumors that “opposition research” has been done to dig up dirt on cardinals who might continue down Francis’ path.
And yet the odds are still in favor of continuity between this pope and the next; Francis appointed 80% of the 135 cardinal electors who will choose his successor. The cardinals will not reject him by electing someone who does not respect his legacy.
No matter who is elected, the impact of Francis on the papacy will be long-lasting. Like Vatican II, he has opened windows that are difficult to close.
Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Oct. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
(This column updates and adds to my 2023 column “The legacy of a decade of Pope Francis.”)
