When Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a migrant child from Argentina with Italian roots, took office in 2013 as the successor of the resigned German Pope Benedict, he was immediately received as a great reformer of the Catholic Church. On Monday morning, Easter Monday, he died, announced the Vatican. Bergoglio knew the real world outside the Vatican, and knew which needs were lived there. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had already founded new parishes and stirs for a church that would be more present in the slums.
As an archbishop, he went to live more modestly, a line that he continued as a pope. He found the apostolic palace in Vatican City much too big for him, and that is why he moved into a much more sober room in Casa Santa Marta, a residence for Cardinals and Bishops visiting the Vatican in particular. As Jesuit, he had already become used to life in a religious community, and he also thought it was more pleasant with other people around him.
His election as pope was groundbreaking. For the first time the choice fell on a spiritual who did not come from the West, but from Latin America. Two in three Catholics do not live in Europe or North America, and against the middle of this century that will be three out of four. For Bergoglio, the choice of a poorer, but also more vital church from the south.
The name he chose, Francis, after the saint of Assisi, was an entire program, says the Belgian theologian and philosopher Emmanuel van Lierde. “The Poverello of Assisi stood for the reconstruction of a derelict church, for a poor church for the poor, for simplicity, for care for creation, and for peace and inter -religious dialogue.”
In times of the Crusades, for example, Francis of Assisi visited the Sultan van Egypt. With that example in mind, Pope Francis would regularly travel to Muslim countries, and defend the fraternity with Muslims. Love for creation, in turn translated into a special attention to ecology. Francis became the first pope to emphasize climate change so strongly. He wrote with Laudato Si ‘ The first encyclical about the issue.
Other accents
There were other, new accents under his board. “His pastoral attitude towards others became the core of this pontificate,” said Angelo Spadaro, just like Francis a Jesuit and an important adviser to the Pope, against in 2023 NRC. Values such as understanding, charity and compassion would always be more important for Francis than to constantly insist on doctrine and the Catholic doctrine. That is why his first trip outside of Rome brought him to Lampedusa in 2013, the Sicilian island that has received many boat refugees for many years. As a migrant son, Bergoglio particularly attracted the fate of migrants.
The Pope during a visit to a shelter in the Italian city of Assisi and during a visit to war victims in the Congolese capital Kinshasa.
Photos Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis and Simone Risoluti/Getty Images
He showed more openness to the LGBTI community than many a predecessor. His statement “When someone is gay, seeks God and lives honestly, who am I to express a judgment?” became a historical quote, and his rejection of discriminatory laws against LGBTI people was also very important. “Homosexuality is not a crime,” said this pope. This example of compassion and charity was such a concrete example of the pastoral aspect of his pontificate.
Many saw Bergoglio as a ecclesiastical leader who spoke their language and who was pragmatic. He would certainly not argue for the use of contraceptives, but reminded of the natural way of family planning by pointing out that “Catholics do not have to behave like rabbits.” Francis was also the first pope to be allowed to go to communion that determined that divorced and bourgeois remarried Catholics.
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No change Catholic doctrine
At the same time, this pope hardly changed anything about the Catholic doctrine. When the bishops explicitly argued after a synod about the Amazon that married men could also be dedicated to a priest in such a remote area, Francis did not follow them.
The position of women in the Catholic Church would not fundamentally change under this pope. Under Francis, more women went to work in the Vatican, sometimes even in important and managerial positions. But the consecration remained reserved for men, and often such an office is accompanied by power in the church. Women are not even allowed to become a deacon. Twice, Francis dedicated a committee to study the female diaconate, but he kept it. Nothing changed afterwards.
The original conservative way in which he spoke about the social role of women during a visit to Belgium, in September 2024, also fell in very bad earth. At the French-speaking Catholic University UCL (Université Catholique de Louvain) he said in the presence of university rector Françoise Smets-the first woman in that position-that “femininity speaks to us with fertile welcome, care and life-giving dedication”. For Franciscus, or ‘voker was’ virgin, or ‘voker for God’ Apparently not in the list.
During the same visit, Francis announced that he would initiate the beatification of the late King Baudouin. The deceased Belgian king was known as a pious Catholic, who temporarily gave up his throne so that he did not have to sign the Belgian Abortion Act. By honoring Boudewijn, Francis wanted to underline his own resistance to abortion again.
The Belgian newspaper The standard However, then quickly reminded that that pious Boudewijn had not been such a saint with life. The darkest episode was at the time of the murder of Patrice Lumumba, in 1960 the first prime minister of the newly independent Congo (a former Belgian colony). Western countries and their security services saw Lumumba as a threat to their influence in Africa. After a coup by Mobutu, Lumumba ended up in jail. The plan came about to kill him. American and Belgian intelligence services were aware of this. Boudewijn even got a letter about it, but did not intervene.
Pope Francis while pronouncing the traditional Christmas message Urbi et Orbi In 2024 and the Pope during Christmas in 2015.
Photos Isabella Bonotto/Getty Images and Alessandro di Meo/EPA
Conservative
Despite his highly conservative attitude on ethical issues such as Abortion, Pope Francis decided to strongly restrain the Tridentine Rite-or the primal traditional mis celebration in Latin. That fed the conservative resistance against the more social more progressive Argentinian. At the same time, John Allen, a prominent American Vaticanist, believes that that conservative resistance should not be exaggerated.
“Francis was confronted with a conservative opposition, just like his predecessors Benedictus and John Paul II had to take into account resistance from more progressive angle,” said all, in a conversation with NRC. The Catholic World Church comprises around 1.3 billion believers, he recalls. “It is impossible that everyone thinks the same thing about everything.” Pope Francis was certainly not isolated.
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Clean ship
Although at the start of his pontificate, in 2013, he was considered the great reformer, his inheritance on reforms was mixed. He still achieved the most success on financial level. The Institute for Religious Works, say the ‘Bank of the Vatican’, which in the past was associated with corruption and other shady practices, was reformed to a healthy savings bank for church staff.
But the largest shadow side remains that Francis did not really succeed in taking great sexual abuse in the church, by enforcing a cultural change from the top. Although the Pope announced a policy of Zero Tolerance in this area, abusers remained the dance, also in his immediate area.
The special court who had to speak justice about bishops who abused their office died a silent death. There was a child protection committee, but with an unclear status. ,, And if a bishop receives his resignation before retirement age, it will happen without explanation. There is still no transparency, “says the Belgian theologian and Pope connoisseur Emmanuel van Lierde.
During the visit to Belgium in September last year, the Pope did receive the gratitude of abuse victims. After a meeting with the church leader, who had lasted twice as long than planned, it turned out that Francis had apologized several times and had promised extra reparations. “Also during the great final celebration of his papal visit, Francis Sexual Abuse convicted, although apologies ‘of himself on behalf of the entire church’ then left, something he did during a visit to Ireland, in 2018,” Van Lierde notes.
Pope Francis during a visit to Cartagena, a city in Colombia, where he was slightly injured by his head against his pope mobile, and the turnout in South Korea during a visit from the Pope in 2014.
Photos Alessandro di Meo/EPA and Handout of the Vatican
Moral leadership
Francis’ moral leadership also received a tick after the Russian invasion in Ukraine. When the pope certainly seemed to hesitate to condemn Putin during the first months of that war, he confused many Catholics. His statement that “NATO started barking at the gates of Russia” gave him the reproach to copying at least partly the Kremlinretoric. Instead of proactively acting as a peace -envoy, the Pope stated that “Putin knew he was available” if he wanted to negotiate. Gradually Franciscus would clearly highlight the role of aggressor and victim by speaking of “the tortured Ukrainian people.”
With regard to the Israeli war in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, Francis regularly proved to be sharp for the Israeli government, which he accused of ‘cruelty’ with the air attacks on Gaza. He called the humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘extremely serious’ and wrote in a book that must be meticulously studied whether Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza. This position resulted in Franciscus biting criticism and incomprehension in Israel.
At the same time, the Argentinian pope remained loved, especially in the south. Franciscus wanted to remove priests from their ivory tower, in favor of the periphery. Already struggling with his health, he still traveled to South Sudan and Congo at the beginning of 2023, where he was welcomed as a folk hero. But traveling and public meetings became an increasing challenge for the very old pope due to health problems. During the papal jubilation year, in 2025, he was increasingly led in a wheelchair.
Although abandoning the pontificate was no longer a taboo because of the decision of his predecessor Benedict, yet Francis decided to brave the physical discomfort for as long as possible to continue to serve the church and its believers. After all, he once joked himself, “you don’t manage with your knees, but with your head.”
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