The Consequential, Complex and Confounding Legacy of Pope Francis

Easter Monday’s death in Rome of Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, triggers a nine-day mourning period that will be marked by solemn ritual and ceremony.

There will be prayers, Masses, processions and a funeral in St. Peter’s Square. Pope Francis will be buried in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major.

Within a few weeks, the College of Cardinals will meet, black smoke will billow from the Vatican chimney until white smoke signals the election of a new pontiff.

It’s all very predictable and traditional, but still relatively rare, too. Francis, who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, was only the 266th Pope. The apostle Peter is considered the first.

Nicknamed the “People’s Pope” for his compassion and focus on the poor, Francis’ parents were Italian immigrants. He thought he might become a chemical technician or make a career in the food industry – but ultimately felt God was calling him to the priesthood. He wasn’t ordained until he was 32 years of age.

Popes tend to take on an oversized role these days, and especially in a social media saturated world. Francis was no exception. His tweets reached tens of millions of people and were translated into various languages.

When Francis was elected, he was hailed as the first Jesuit pontiff, as well as the first from Latin America. He was called “a conservative with a common touch.”

But was he?

If by “conservative” you meant he was committed to upholding traditional teachings of the Catholic church when it came to the sanctity of life, the biblical definition of one-man, one-woman marriage and the distinctives and exclusivity of two and only two genders, male and female, then yes, Francis was largely conservative.

Over the years, Francis often referred to the church as a “field hospital” and emphasized the importance of extending Christ’s grace and mercy to sinners. Evangelicals and Catholics hold to several distinctly different theological doctrines, but they’re in agreement that we’re all sinners in desperate need of help and forgiveness.

But the late pope also had a habit of frustrating many Catholics and others by saying things that he or his surrogates would later clarify or sometimes confuse even more. In fact, at times, he seemed to invite or even encourage ambiguity.

To look at this habit charitably, perhaps he was hoping to draw people into a larger discussion and conversation.

Not everyone saw it that way. Back in 2019, over 1,000 Catholic scholars published an open letter to the College of Bishops that accused Pope Francis of heresy, including the “comprehensive rejection of Catholic teaching on marriage and sexual activity, on the moral law, and on grace and the forgiveness of sins.”

Charles J. Chaput, archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia, remembers warm interactions with Francis, but wrote in First Things on Monday that candor is necessary given the challenges of our day.

Archbishop Chaput suggested Pope Francis could be “temperamental an autocratic” as well as thin-skinned. He wrote:

In the face of deep cultural fractures on matters of sexual behavior and identity, he condemned gender ideology but seemed to downplay a compelling Christian “theology of the body.” He was impatient with canon law and proper procedure. His signature project, synodality, was heavy on process and deficient in clarity. Despite an inspiring outreach to society’s margins, his papacy lacked a confident, dynamic evangelical zeal. The intellectual excellence to sustain a salvific (and not merely ethical) Christian witness in a skeptical modern world was likewise absent.

What the Church needs going forward is a leader who can marry personal simplicity with a passion for converting the world to Jesus Christ, a leader who has a heart of courage and a keen intellect to match it. Anything less won’t work.

Many evangelicals may not take much interest in the election of the next pope, but the leader of so many Catholics matters a whole lot and not only to those who pledge their loyalty to Rome. Popes matter. They set cultural tones, can clarify or confuse, and can help shape generations to come.

Please be in prayer as these next weeks and months unfold in Rome and beyond.

Image from Getty.