pope Francis died in the year of the Jubilee, on the second day of Easter (Giorno di Pasquetta), leaving behind his legacy which is already being extensively unwrapped and summarized these days, not without polemical approaches and different assessments.
Everyone agrees on one thing: that he was an original personality with strong individuality, sometimes radical rhetoric, especially in matters of geopolitical crises and wars, and finally a person with his own vision of the role of the church in society. Views that often differed from the positions of the political and even church mainstream.
He is also considered a reformer of the Catholic Church because, at a rather difficult moment, he began reforms of the internal structure, as well as those of a doctrinal character. Since he started many reforms, but did not complete them, it remains uncertain whether they will continue and have a final result or will be stopped in some way. It is no secret that Pope Francis had many opponents in the church itself during his pontificate and that some cardinals publicly announced their distance, expressing critical assessments of some of his public actions and statements. In any case, since his election in 2013. as the head of the Catholic Church, also the Bishop of Rome in the tradition of Saint Peter, the appearance of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Cardinal from Buenos Aires, has been unusual in many ways.
He is the first pope in history to have lived with another pope (Racing driver). He is the first pope to come from Latin America. The first pope to meet with a leading Russian cleric (Patriarch Kirill). He was also the first pope with the name Francis (Francisco) with direct allusions to Francis of Assisi from the 13th century, founder of the Franciscan order, considered the protector of the humble and poor.
Pope Francis was not an extremely refined and doctrinaire clergyman like Pope Ratzinger, nor was he primarily a "geopolitical pope" as it was, not without reason, attributed. priest Wojtyła. So, very different from his two predecessors, Bergoglio managed to do something different and important. To gain the epithet of the people's pope. The Pope of the periphery. The Pope protector of refugees and the unfortunate in countries and regions affected by war fires and other disasters.
The Pope's first public mission of 2013 was to the island of Lampedusa, the southernmost point of Italy, where refugees from the Middle East and North Africa were disembarking in dramatic conditions. The Pope described the refugees and their fate as "invisible faces of Christ repelled by white gloves."
The Pope's last visit a week ago, despite his health, was to prisoners at the Regina Coeli prison in Rome. His Easter message to the prisoners was: "I wanted to be close to you. I pray for you and your families."
Upon his release from prison, the pope told reporters: "I don't know why they are there and not me."
Bergoglio was called the "pope of the periphery" for several reasons, including doctrinal ones. He sought a unique twist - that the periphery, in the most complex sense of the term, should not be viewed from the center, that the center should actually be viewed and judged from the life of the periphery. Orbi is more primary than Urbic and that is the message of the Pope's blessing, confirmed by his life's missions. That is why some consider him the Pope of the “Global South”.
He was particularly committed to human rights, even in matters that were sensitive to the church. When asked about homosexuals, he replied: "Who am I to judge the intimacy of an individual?"
Despite certain controversies that expressed his loyalty to church postulates and dogmas, for example regarding the right to abortion, the pope fought in other segments for greater rights for women. In particular, for greater inclusion of women in church affairs. He reminded that "the word church is not only feminine, but the church is actually a woman."
The Pope was also labeled as an opponent of Romanocentrism, and even more so Eurocentrism, due to the appointment of new cardinals, which has been called the "Asianization" of the Catholic Church's leadership. According to the Pope, the concentration of the Catholic population in a given area is not a crucial criterion for the selection of cardinals.
So today, for example, countries with a Catholic population and tradition like Austria and Ireland do not have cardinals, while they exist in countries with small Catholic populations like Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand. That is why the new, today's structure of the conclave, that college of clergy, the council of cardinals, that microcosm that will, at the same time according to the rules and mysteriously, locked in the Sistine Chapel, elect a new pope, is very specific.
Probably, in an attempt to describe the mission of Pope Francis, the fact that he is an Argentine with the characteristics of his national temperament should be introduced.
The leftist Pope, some say a Borges supporter, regularly toured the poorest areas of Catholic Argentina by bus, especially the outskirts of Buenos Aires, during his visits. He tried, among other things, to show that he remained what he was, a "neighborhood priest" close to the common man and his problems.
The meeting in 1965 between the then young Jesuit Bergoglio and the writer was also recorded. Borges when they gave a lecture together to curious students.
A special chapter of the Pope's activity concerns the topic of ecumenism. He is the successor of the well-known aspiration of Pope Wojtyła expressed in the sentence "that Christian Europe should breathe with full lungs, with both lungs, Western and Eastern, Catholicism and Orthodoxy". In this regard, the meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in 2016 in Havana remains a historical event. It was figuratively a meeting of the First and Third Rome, both with long and great histories. True, the Third Rome, that is, Moscow, had a very short historical pause, becoming the headquarters of the Third International with completely new, not at all spiritual, but very materialistic ideas. But that is another story.
Pope Francis has made a significant opening towards Islam through many statements, gestures, and finally meetings with Muslim leaders.
Pope Francis' visit to devastated Iraq in 2021 remains in the memory and chronicles. While others came to Iraq to visit military troops, Pope Bergoglio visited the devastated country, including the areas of Christian refugees fleeing to neighboring Syria. In the next round of war adventures and madness, they fled Syria, again as refugees, most often towards European soil.
Pope Francis's harshest words were probably about the war in the Middle East, especially the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. A sharp duel opened with the Israeli government, which for its part did not spare the pope and his mission in the world, considering it hypocritical.
As a direct witness to many of the absurdities of war, the Pope uttered a phrase that has since been often quoted: "A Third World War is underway in pieces (in pieces). "
The war in Ukraine, Pope Francis' peacekeeping engagement and his public appearances are a special chapter, not without controversy and fierce polemics, including with Ukrainian officials.
Two statements by the Pope, later toned down, caused considerable reactions. The first, in May 2022, was highly critical of NATO expansion towards Russia's borders, with these words: "When dogs come and bark under your window, you have to react somehow."
The second in March 2024 “that it is an act of courage to raise the white flag when losing and that it is better to negotiate than to continue a losing war.” Both statements were met with criticism, especially in Kiev.
It should be said that such statements, which some even interpreted as the Pope's understanding of Russia's reasons for the war in Ukraine, were soon stopped, taking a completely opposite direction, after the Great Rapprochement between America and Russia, more precisely Putin i Trampa.
On the other hand, Pope Francis's engagement did not end with public appeals. Namely, the Pope's close associate Cardinal Mateo Zupi, now one of the frequently mentioned candidates for the new pope, has been persistently trying to launch peace initiatives in Ukraine itself for a long time.
In any case, Trump and Zelensky will be in Rome today, along with some 160 heads of state, for the funeral of Pope Francis.
Is this also a chance for so-called funeral diplomacy, that is, an opportunity for meetings and even negotiations on a peace solution in Ukraine? Perhaps in the spiritual ambiance of the Pope's funeral, the gods of war present will experience a sudden metamorphosis, revealing the secret of the miracle of peace.
The pacifist spirit of Pope Francis can only help them in this.
Another missionary departs with his spiritual and earthly baggage to a time that will objectively evaluate his achievements.
And all the controversies that followed him. One in particular.
How a Jesuit with the name of a saint from Assisi became highly respected in lay circles and much less so in church settings.
Another miracle - perhaps providence, which needs to be explained.
Bonus video:
