Pope Francis did, of course, wait until the day after Easter to leave this earth. Before a crowd of 35,000 people, Francis made his last public appearance yesterday on the holiest day of the Church calendar, and he died this morning after a lengthy battle with several illnesses. He was 88.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Argentina in 1936. He was the oldest of five siblings. After a circuitous route to becoming a priest, he was ordained as a Jesuit in 1969, was named archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001. On March 13, 2013, Bergoglio was selected by the conclave to replace Pope Benedict XVI, who became the first pope to retire since 1415. Bergoglio was the first Jesuit elected pope, the first non-European since 741, the first pope from the Americas or the Southern Hemisphere, and the only pope to choose the name Francis. He later became the first pope to address the U.S. Congress.
We’ve had our differences with Francis over the years, primarily over his left-wing politics. The Jesuits are considered “progressive” for their emphasis on social justice. The Washington Post says he “did not adhere to the radical liberation theology that led many idealistic young priests of his era to adopt sharply left-wing views,” but that’s misleading.
Francis may not have expressly embraced liberation theology, but it certainly influenced his thinking. From economics to climate change to marriage and sexuality, Francis was a man of the Left. He certainly didn’t go as far left as the media wanted him to on sexuality — for example, he said homosexual priests should leave the priesthood and he condemned “transgenderism” and surrogacy — but he also was less than clear on same-sex unions.
It’s somewhat ironic that Vice President JD Vance was among the last people to meet with the pontiff on Easter Sunday before he died. That visit will be forever poignant for Vance, a Catholic. Yet Vance is, of course, Republican and America First, whereas the pope was not always, let’s say, an admirer of America or Donald Trump’s two administrations — especially when it came to enforcing immigration law and “building walls.”
In a recent letter to U.S. bishops, Francis wrote, “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.”
However, unlike the left-wingers who care more about power than the poor, Francis lived out what he said he believed. He actually cared for the poor, and he lived as meekly and humbly as a pope could get away with living. He chose a small boardinghouse instead of the opulent 10-room apartment in the Vatican. He cared more about connecting with “the sheep” than doctrinal clarity, and he opposed corruption in the Vatican’s bureaucracy.
In many ways, his legacy will be determined by the choice of his successor. Will the Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion worldwide members continue on the course he set?
