In March 2013, former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina delivered his first blessing and message to the world from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. He was dressed in simple white robes instead of the regal ermine-trimmer cape worn by newly elected pontiffs.
As he stood before the Catholics, he asked that his journey with the Church of Rome may be fruitful for the evangelization of the beautiful city.
The day after his election, the first pontiff from the Americas chose a name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Italian mystic and saint who renounced a life of luxury to dedicate his life to the poor. Mirroring the humble life lived by the latter, Pope Francis led the Roman Catholic Church with simplicity and acceptance for the outcasts of society.
“Who am I to judge?”
In 2023, Pope Francis formally signed a declaration allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples. According to the declaration, those seeking a blessing “should not be required to have prior moral perfection.”
"A blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God. The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy and the closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live," the declaration stated.
Francis frequently reiterated his acceptance of the members of the LGBTQIA+ community, from his election as Pope to his last few years on earth. He welcomed the community as his own and said that homosexuality is not a crime.
Additionally, the pontiff criticized laws that criminalized homosexuality, stating that God loves all his children as they are. This is a huge contrast compared to the previous figureheads of the Holy See, who describe homosexuality as “an intrinsic moral evil.”
Although rigid in his beliefs on gays and lesbians at first, Francis constantly made efforts to listen and initiate conversations with the members of the LGBTQ+ community. His openness towards them evolved into an unthinkable level of compassion and acceptance, which has somehow shifted the church’s relationship to the LGBTQ+ community.
During his first foreign trip as pope in 2013, Francis posed a question that shifted the Catholic Church’s treatment of the LGBTQ+ community.
A journalist asked Francis at a press conference for his opinion on gay priests, a divisive issue affecting the church, to which he simply replied, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
In the Margins
Pope Francis was 21 when he boarded a ship to South America, during the emergence of Italian fascism.
Since then, Francis has often reminded people that he is a son of immigrants. He raised his voice on behalf of the voiceless, emphasizing that migrants and refugees are “not pawns on the chessboard of humanity.”
“They are children, women, and men who leave or are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being more,” his 2013 message for the Vatican’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees indicated.
Recently, Francis rebuked U.S. President Donald Trump’s order for mass deportation in the country. In his letter, the pope asked people to look at the reality of our time, pointing out similarities in the Book of Exodus.
“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations. The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,’ the letter read.
Moreover, Francis wrote that nations have a right to defend themselves and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or before arrival.
“That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” it said.
In 2019, Pope Francis donated $500,000 to migrants on the U.S. border, providing 75,000 migrants with basic necessities such as housing and clothing.
Women and the Church
Pope Francis did not just listen to the outcasts of society, but also broke into other important conversations, such as the role of women in the church. What seemed like a small step in the changes within the church turned into huge leaps for women who sought bigger roles in the workforce.
Earlier this year, Pope Francis appointed the first female leader of a Vatican department. Apart from this, he also appointed the first female president of the office that governs the Vatican City State. During his papacy, women were allowed to sit in offices where conversations were happening.
In 2024, he traveled to a female prison in Rome and washed the feet of 12 women prisoners, marking the first time that a pontiff had washed the feet of women during the annual ritual on Holy Thursday.
Although women were given top Vatican positions, Francis’ legacy on the place of women in the Church remains complex. The report by Reuters indicated that the pontiff has included women in higher positions of authority within existing parameters. However, most of the changes made were lacking in terms of responding to the injustices and imbalance between the roles of men and women in the church.
Despite the shortcomings, Francis often came to women’s defense when addressing social issues like human trafficking and economic exploitation. He won the public’s admiration with his commitment to speak for and about the welfare of women.
Bridging the Past and Seeking Forgiveness
During his visit to Chile in 2018, Pope Francis sought forgiveness for the child sexual abuse that stained the church’s legacy over the years. Critics then believed this would negatively affect his papacy. Contrary to the former belief, this action carved a path for the Catholic church towards accountability for the sexual abuse that children had suffered from.
Initially, Francis had defended the bishop, citing the lack of proof, striking a nerve in Chile. However, instead of brushing it off, Francis commissioned an investigation.
Upon uncovering the sexual abuse and cover-up cases, the pope began purging the entire Chilean hierarchy. This also resulted in the resignation of the bishop who is at the center of the scandal, including two others.
Following this, Francis admitted to his mistakes and apologized to the victims.
In that same year, Francis stripped Theodore McCarrick of his cardinal title following the allegations of sexual abuse. According to reports, investigators found that several former seminarians and priests had been abused or harassed by McCarrick as adults. Moreover, they said that he groped a teenage altar boy in the 1970s.
On a separate note, Francis moved to abolish the rule of “pontifical secrecy,’ which was believed to have protected pedophiles, silenced victims, and prevented authorities from investigating such crimes.
Just Like Francis
When Argentina’s Jorge Bergoglio chose the papal name Francis, he remained committed to honoring the patron saint of ecology, Saint Francis of Assisi. Apart from the latter’s devotion to the poor, he was also known for dedicating his life to caring for nature and animals.
In the 2015 papal letter or encyclical, Laudato Si’ ("Praise Be to You”), Francis called for actions to confront climate change. Like other Vatican officials, Francis campaigned for world leaders to enact laws to cut emissions that cause global warming.
His encyclical called for leaders to look at the relationship between humans, God, and the natural world differently, prompting the public to pay attention to the planet. According to him, the Earth is beginning to look like an immense pile of filth.
The pope believed that developed countries should help poorer nations and craft policies and programmes on sustainable development.
His “Final Earthly Journey”
Francis previously expressed that our inability to look beyond individual interests has resulted in so many conflicts and divisions. To him, the cornerstones of the church’s social teaching rely greatly on recalling the common good.
For years, the Catholic church was known for its structured ideals and beliefs toward society. A set of rules that had often contradicted previous teachings. Despite this, Francis walked through all this with a different take, always willing to accept differing stances.
Pope Francis was laid to rest at the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major on April 26, days after his passing. Before this, thousands of mourners from around the globe gathered at St. Peter's Basilica to pay their final respects to the beloved Pope.
His 12-year papacy, marked by progressive ideals, earned him the title of the “People’s Pope.” For Catholics and non-Catholics, he remains a notable figure who led with humility and had an eye for those standing on the edge of society.
Learning to Weep
During his visit to the Philippines in 2015, an orphan girl was unable to finish her message to the pope, as she was overwhelmed with emotions. Although the girl was speaking in Filipino, a language Francis could not understand, he looked at the child as though he had understood her message.
His response, “Let us learn how to weep as she has shown us today. Let us not forget this lesson. The great question of why so many children suffer, she did this crying. The response we can make today is, let us learn, really learn, how to weep, how to cry.”
Perhaps one of the most significant moments in his life is his perspective on children. His words were never difficult to understand, yet they carried the burden of wanting to ease children from suffering.
In trying to stoop down to the children’s level of perception, Francis understood that crying is never a sign of weakness, but a chance to recognize another person’s challenges.
“Jesus wept, and by weeping he understood our tragedies. I try to understand too. Yes, if I could perform a miracle, I would heal every child,” Francis said in response to a boy’s letter on what kind of miracle he’d perform if given the chance.
A well-known Roman proverb says, “When a pope dies, another one is made,” but for people who have witnessed his good intentions, Francis will remain steps away from the once structured walls of the church.
Even in his death, the pontiff broke tradition and asked that his tomb be “simple, without particular decoration.” The only inscription, he specified, would be Franciscus.
As the pope-mobile approached St. Mary Major on Saturday afternoon, thousands gathered to take a glimpse of Francis, the People’s Pope. "Ciao Francesco," the people of Rome uttered, as they now hope that his successor would be as grounded and firm in his ideals as he was.
