Shepherds Among the Flock

As a spiritual leader of more than one billion Catholics, Francis was conscious of the diversity of views in the Catholic Church. He celebrated this diversity of views, cultures, and traditions, arguing that the Church should be like a field hospital after battle, one whose bishops and priests need to be shepherds, among the flock, not ensconced in ivory towers and insular echo chambers. He identified clericalism and careerism as a scandal in the church.

Jorge Bergoglio was born on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1968, and in 1973 became the provincial superior in Argentina during that country’s “dirty war.” Because of his opposition to the ideas of liberation theology, which emerged following the conference of South American bishops in Medellín in 1968, Bergoglio was estranged from the Jesuits from the early 1990s, when he was chosen to serve as the auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, until his election as Pope in 2013.

Bergoglio’s leadership of the Argentinian Jesuits faced renewed scrutiny when he became Pope Francis. This is a contested part of his life and there are contradictory accounts of his leadership during this period. He readily admitted that he was a harsh disciplinarian, something that was obvious during his papacy.

He could never fully refute claims that he put two Jesuit priests at risk before they were kidnapped and tortured by the military regime. One of the kidnapped priests, Orlando Yorio, accused him of handing them over to the death squads of the junta, while the other, Francisco Jalics, said that he had also suspected Bergoglio of betraying them, but now believed those suspicions were mistaken. Francis consistently argued that he was not able to speak out against the junta at the time, despite wishing that he could.

By the time of his appointment as archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, he had become a bit more sympathetic toward liberation theology, stressing the need for a preferential option for the poor, echoing post–Vatican II Catholic social teaching, and showing a willingness to go to the peripheries of the archdiocese to celebrate mass in the slums of the city. His personal humility, establishment of parishes in the slums of Buenos Aires, and sympathy to popular forms of devotion among the poor have been well documented.

He was appointed a cardinal by John Paul II in 2001 and was soon noted as a man “open to communion and dialogue.” These characteristics became hallmarks of his papacy, one that proved to be both popular and divisive, clear and chaotic, and a reflection of his own idiosyncrasies.

Legacies

Bergoglio was already touted as a possible successor to John Paul II in the 2005 conclave that elected the man known as “God’s Rottweiler,” Joseph Ratzinger, as Benedict XVI. Upon being chosen as Pope after his predecessor’s resignation in 2013, Bergoglio chose the name Francis after the wandering holy man of the thirteenth century, Saint Francis of Assisi. It was a message to the world that his papacy was going to focus upon the poor and the marginalized and engage in dialogue with as many people as possible.

The papacy of Pope Francis could be defined as affirming the necessity of a preferential option for the poor, stressing that both lay and religious Catholics should live the gospels explicitly, with Catholic social teaching and social justice core to their values and way of being. Despite his fidelity to the magisterium and teachings of the Church, Francis provoked the ire of conservative elements to an impressive degree. Some priests and lay Catholics even argued that he was not really the legitimate Pope.

There were a number of issues on Francis’s desk when he succeeded Benedict XVI, with several controversies handed over to Francis in a “large white box.” One of the recurrent issues within the Church has been the issue of clerical child sexual abuse. Francis established the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2013. This office has faced a wall of resistance or indifference within the Vatican and among some members of the hierarchy.

A leading safeguarding expert, the German Jesuit Rev. Dr Hans Zollner, resigned from the commission, citing difficulties with the Vatican bureaucracy as well as shortcomings in “responsibility, compliance, accountability and transparency.” An Irish survivor of clerical sex abuse, Marie Collins, quit the commission for similar reasons in 2017.

One of the more high-profile alleged abusers was the Slovakian Jesuit, theologian, and mosaic artist Marko Rupnik, whose excommunication was rescinded by Francis in October 2022. The investigation against Rupnik, who was accused of spiritual and sexual abuse by several women, was reopened in October 2023. His victims felt betrayed by the slowness of the investigation against Rupnik and criticized Francis for his tardy response to allegations against an influential figure.

Overall, Francis had a mixed legacy when it came to safeguarding and confronting clerical sexual abuse. In the years ahead, there will be more allegations and state investigations across the world, and they will document further incidences of abuse, neglect, and control by members of the Church.

Savvy and Steel

Francis hid his political acumen, savvy, and self-confidence behind an avuncular persona that led many to view him as an energetic, elderly parish priest. Yet there was a steel in Francis that was already evident in his role as the young disciplinarian in Argentina. He removed a leading US conservative critic, Bishop Joseph Strickland, from the Diocese of Tyler. He also disciplined the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate for their celebration of the Latin Mass and links with sedevacantist groups, which dispute the legitimacy of all popes since the Second Vatican Council.

Earlier this year, Francis ordered the dissolution of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae based in Peru because of a culture of sexual and psychological abuse of its members. Carlo Maria Viganò, the former apostolic nuncio (ambassador) to the United States, was convicted of schism in 2024 and subsequently excommunicated. Francis laicized the charismatic US cardinal Theodore McCarrick after he was convicted of sexual misconduct in a canonical trial in 2019.

There were also moves against more liberal Catholic tendencies. Francis rebuked the German Catholic Church for their synodal pathway that set out to foster a more inclusive atmosphere for LGBTQ Catholics and discuss the idea of women priests more openly. Francis was willing to welcome LBGTQ Catholics and offer them some sort of inclusion. But there were limits to this acceptance, even if it constituted a major development in itself: for example, it did not go as far as accepting the rights of gay people to be married within the Church.

In 2013, his comment “if a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” offered hope and excitement to many LGBTQ Catholics, although they were subsequently disappointed with a much less radical response to their concerns as they sought a welcome in the Church. In 2023, the declaration Fiducia Supplicans allowed Catholic priests to bless couples who were not married in harmony with church teachings, including same-sex couples. Yet homophobia remains acceptable for many church leaders who are indifferent to the consequences of their words and actions.

This is something that Francis failed to effectively confront and change. Since we do not know at this point who will succeed him, it is unclear if the new pope will continue pushing for a church that will be more welcoming for LGBTQ Catholics, or if the progress made thus far will be rowed back.

Mold Breaker

The most important event initiated by Francis, one that is still being embedded throughout the Church, is the Synod on Synodality. This involved the discussion of a wide range of issues, including themes of concern of Francis such as the refugee crisis, climate change, and lay involvement within the Church. Members of the clergy and laity spent several years debating and listening to perspectives on a complex tapestry of topics.

Observers of the Catholic Church view the Synod as the most important event in its history since the Second Vatican Council. Five conservative cardinals expressed disquiet about the Synod in 2023: dissatisfied with the answers they received from Pope Francis, they went public with their concerns. Meanwhile, progressive voices in the Church criticized the final document for not doing more to advance the position of women or the place of LGBTQ Catholics in the Church.

While remaining a social conservative beneath the humble image of a parish priest to the world, Pope Francis was a mold breaker, showing a greater willingness to take risks than his predecessors. He visited more than sixty countries, including some of the world’s poorest, as well as others that reflected his commitment to interreligious dialogue. He offered a consistent voice of compassion and an ethical framework to deal with issues of poverty, climate change, and social marginalization.

His willingness to appoint cardinals based in places like Mongolia, the Central African Republic, Tehran, and Penang showed that he was keenly aware that the Catholic Church is a global body. It is not the preserve of the Global North with political and demographic heft shifting to Africa and Asia. Elevating the Archbishop of Tehran-Isfahan to the cardinalate in 2024 displayed an awareness of the importance of Christian–Muslim dialogue, following in the footsteps of his namesake, Francis of Assisi, who met with Sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil in 1219.

The task of choosing his successor will fall to the College of Cardinals. Following the December 2024 consistory, 110 college members have been appointed by Francis, which amounts to four-fifths of all those who can vote for the new pope, although it would be foolish to think that all of those appointees are in his image and likeness.

The LGBTQ activist Simón Cazal described Francis as “a very intelligent leader who understands the boundaries, complexities, and challenges of navigating an institution as ancient as the Catholic Church,” and his appointments reflected this understanding. Francis was a man of resolute and certain faith. He was keenly aware of his own mortality and legacy as the world enters an era of climate crisis and growing authoritarianism, bereft of an intellectual framework to move beyond these dangers into a more healthy and progressive dispensation.