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It was a brand of humanity that typified his papacy that Pope Francis appeared in public to deliver blessings of Easter and travel the Plaza de San Pedro when his voice and body were clearly failing, less than 24 hours before his death. Only a few weeks after he approached death at the hospital with double pneumonia, the Pope was able to finish his ministry when he began: among the people. Catholics and many non -Catholics will cry A compassionate reformer who tried to modernize his church, even if the results did not reach what his most progressive supporters expected.
His modesty and determination of being a voice for the poor and marginalized was one of several things that marked it of many predecessors. The first non -European Pope for more than 1,000 years, and first of the Americas, decided to live not in the luxurious papal apartment but in a two -room Vatican guest house. Not for nothing he took the name of San Francisco de Asís, known for his humility.
While Francis did not change the doctrine in matters of sexuality, faith and marriage, the tone and language of discussion changed to emphasize the need for tolerance and understanding. His early comment in response to a question about the presence of homosexual priests in the Church, “Who am I to judge?” He opened the way to his approval of 2023 of informal blessings for same -sex couples. Its 2016 exhortation, Amoris LaetitiaHe raised the possibility of allowing some divorced and married Catholics to receive communion. After a world consultation, Francis threw himself with the faithful, to the resentment of the traditionalists, the final document recommended expanding the role of women and secular in the Church.
In a church that struggles for relevance in the modern world, Francis also tried to make more a moral voice on issues beyond family and bedroom. In a 2015 encyclical, he sought to redefine climate change in terms of religion and faith, warning that it was the product of the addiction of the world developed to consumption while disproportionately affected the poor people of the world. He made open interventions in support of migrants, amid American and European attitudes against irregular migration, and spoke of his anguish for conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
However, ultimately, Francis could not translate his personal magnetism into reforms that resolved key questions such as the ordination of married women or priests, or that arrested the decline of the Church in Europe and North America. He made some mistakes of people, including some accused of serious crimes such as Financial maintenance Or sexual abuse in the church: a scourge that some will feel that he did not do enough to rest. The Church also left facing significant financial strains that must be addressed.
The Pope achieved irk to both liberals, not offering a decisive change, and the conservatives who accused him, however, of undermining traditional teachings. These divisions will lead to what becomes a lag Contest for your succession. The Catholic Church of today is increasingly, in terms of membership, one from the global south, and the cardinals will face pressure to choose another Pope beyond Europe, and one sensitive to poverty problems and the environment. However, many church leaders and adherents of the Global South are also socially conservative, in contrast to some more liberal followers in richer countries.
The next Pope, whatever his background or talents, can find little easier to solve the deep questions facing Catholicism. But Pope Francis must be remembered for the modernizing progress he made and for trying to live the teachings of the Gospel by standing with those in need and the oppressed. His personal example was perhaps his most powerful legacy.