As I write this article, I’m very conscious that the health of Pope Francis, seems to be seriously declining. Pope Francis has led the Catholic Church with a deep sense of integrity and humility. A prophet, who not just talks a good talk, but more importantly, walks the walk. Throughout life, his pathway has been informed by Jesus Christ. The Gospels, repeatedly highlight, that Christ, deliberately embraced those who found themselves on the periphery. Pope Francis is indeed shepherd to those on the periphery. He is universally recognized as perhaps the most significant world leader. In a turbulent and often polemical world, Francis voice always brings a sense of reason and balance. Whatever will be regarding his current situation, I have no doubt that his pontificate historically will be significant.
Francis’s pontificate was tagged as surprising from the start. In February 2013, Benedict resigned, the first Pope to step aside in nearly six hundred years. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected the next month: the first Jesuit Pope, the first Pope from the Americas, and the first to take the name Francis—in emulation of Francis of Assisi, the medieval Italian saint known for “holy poverty.” Once the new Pope assumed office, he lived in the Vatican guesthouse rather than the Apostolic Palace, often rode to papal events in a Fiat instead of a Mercedes-Benz and brought an anything-goes playfulness to the regular audience outside St. Peter’s. His rapport with the public suggested that he had been changed by his election—that a man known to many Argentinians as dour and circumspect had been infused with what he calls “the joy of the gospel.”
Since then, Francis has made the unexpected seem obvious again and again. The Pope began confessing his sins before hearing the confessions of others; wade into a crowd outside St. Peter’s and embrace a man whose illness had left his face marred; visit a camp for migrants and refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos (and bring some refugees back on the papal plane to settle in Italy); go to a mosque in the Central African Republic in the midst of a civil war fuelled by Christian-Muslim strife; and admit that he was wrong to have defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up priestly sexual abuse. (Though the bishop, Juan Barros, has denied these allegations, the Pope accepted his resignation and averred, “I was part of the problem.”)
Francis has also brought his knack for the unconventional to the everyday workings of the Vatican. He assembled a council of advisory cardinals, making it clear that he would consult with others; launched an investigation of the Vatican Bank, which was long suspected of corruption and money laundering; made efforts to streamline the Vatican administration, called the Roman Curia; and appointed a woman, Sister Nathalie Becquart, of France, to a key role in the Dicastery for Bishops, one of the most influential Curial offices. These were not giant steps, but they were steps beyond those that his two predecessors had taken during their combined thirty-four years in office.
At the same time, Francis has purposefully directed the papacy outward: devoting his second encyclical letter, “Laudato si” to the Climate Crisis as a result of our failure to care for the environment. Pope Francis has travelled to about a dozen predominantly Muslim countries; opening the Secret Archive of documents pertaining to the Vatican’s diplomatic machinations during the Second World War; and speaking to the press with an offhand ease that is rare for any public figure. In July, 2013, during his first press conference aboard the papal plane, he compassionately reached out to the LGBT community “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has a good will, then who am I to judge him?”—and set the tone for a pontificate whose aims he has spelled out in interviews and discussions as much as through encyclicals and other formal documents.
Throughout his life Francis has been passionately concerned about the poor, and he knows that poverty in the 21st century takes many forms. It can be found in the grinding material poverty of his native Buenos Aires, caused by decades of corruption, indifference, and the church’s failures to catechize Argentina’s economic and political leaders. But poverty can also be found in the soul-withering spiritual desert of those who measure their humanity by what they have rather than who they are, and who judge others by the same materialist yardstick. Then there is the ethical impoverishment of moral relativism, which dumbs down human aspiration, impedes common work for the common good in society, and inevitably leads to social fragmentation and personal unhappiness.
Pope Francis is a revolutionary. The revolution he proposes, however, is not a matter of economic or political prescription, but a revolution in the self-understanding of the Catholic Church: a re-energizing return to the Pentecostal fervour and evangelical passion from which the church was born two millennia ago, and a summons to mission that accelerates the great historical transition from institutional-maintenance Catholicism to the Church of the New Evangelization.
What happens if the Pope dies or resigns? After a short period of time a conclave will take place. This is a most intriguing process. In his pontificate lasting just 13 years, Pope Francis has appointed the majority of Cardinals who will elect his successor. The appointment of these cardinal electors has been very prophetic. Reaching out to the periphery, Francis has created a College of Cardinals that truly represent the universal church. I pray, in this uncertain time, that the Spirit of God, who guided and prompted Pope Francis to lead with such courage and example will now be very close to him personally. Pope Francis has both challenged and inspired. I see him as a Christ like compassionate shepherd. Who “Brings good news to the poor” May the Lord be close to all who are sick and may we all be inspired by the Joy and compassion of Francis.
Prayer for Pope Francis
Loving and Merciful God,
We come before You in prayer, lifting up Your servant, Pope Francis, in his time of need. You are the Source of all healing, and we ask You to surround him with Your loving presence, granting him strength and recovery. May Your divine grace rest upon him, restoring his health and filling him with renewed vigor to continue leading Your Church with compassion and wisdom.
“But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 30:17) Amen.