Pope Francis United a Fractured Church with Compassion

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, as though he and his doctors had willed that his death not mar Easter celebrations. He had been ailing and seemed near death several times over the previous few weeks, but was able to give the Easter blessing from his balcony on a wheelchair, and briefly met US Vice-President JD Vance to give him gifts, including chocolates for the Vance children.Despite his poor health, Pope Francis stood tall over the past year and a half in opposition to the genocide in Gaza, remaining in daily pastoral touch with Roman Catholics in Palestine, and repeatedly calling for a ceasefire. This bold stand, which included him referring to the genocide as “a slaughter,” distinguished him from American, British, German, and European Union (EU) leaders, who acquiesced to Zionist aggression.Along with ecological concern, an emphasis on dialogue and peacemaking is his legacy in relation to the world beyond the Catholic Church. Within the Church, he focused on areas beyond Europe, creating many more cardinals from the Global South, especially from oft-forgotten areas and communities—such as the first Dalit cardinal in India.A conservative fringe in the Catholic Church saw his emphasis on economic, social, and environmental justice as ‘too liberal,’ but most recognised that, despite his empathetic stances, he changed nothing significant regarding Catholic doctrine. For instance, he categorically rejected the idea of ordaining Catholic women as priests.No one could call Pope Francis conservative, especially in his praxis. Indeed, he stood firmly for the poor, unions, refugees, and wealth distribution. “If I see the Gospel in a sociological way, yes, I am a Communist, and so too is Jesus,” he reportedly said. He rejected the trickle-down theory, saying that “the glass magically grows” as it fills.Francis, the People's Pope: A Pontiff Who Modernised the Catholic ChurchFor most of his reign, he stood out for austerity, insisting on sparse quarters, simple food, and dispensing with formality when he could. As Archbishop in his native Argentina, he used to work in the slums, walking long distances through the streets, cheerily talking to those he met along the way. Francis brought his earthy simplicity to the Vatican, telling the cardinals who had elected him, deadpan at dinner that night, “May God forgive you for what you have done.”After becoming Pope, he went to the hotel counter where he stayed before the conclave to pay the bill himself. His smile was infectious, he dealt kindly with autistic children, and would interrupt what he was saying to welcome a child who strayed toward his throne.As a leader, he was inclusive. He largely united the Roman Catholic Church, after the sordid controversies and sometimes divisive ideological wrenches of the past 60 years. Pope John XXIII opened the door for a refreshing wind to soothe the lives of the deprived, and sweep in gusts of hope.That transformation happened through the radical changes that the Second Vatican Council, which Pope John called together. It allowed worship to be in local languages and rooted in local culture, and gave space for radical theological interpretations, including Liberation Theology, which thrived under John’s successor, Pope Paul VI.That led to a priest, the Jesuit Ernesto Cardenal, becoming a minister in the revolutionary Sandinista government of Nicaragua during the 1980s. By then, however, the winds of Liberation were being shut out. After the hugely hope-filled reign of Pope John Paul ended mysteriously in 33 days in 1978, conservatives took charge.The new Pope, who took the name John Paul II, had been an anti-Communist supporter of Solidarity in Poland. He empowered cardinals Ratzinger and Arinze to suppress radical ideas, and squash the spirit of the second Vatican Council. Ratzinger even withdrew the license to teach theology of his own mentor, Hans Kung, after Kung’s book questioned papal infallibility.When he landed in Nicaragua, Pope John Paul II wagged a finger in Ernesto Cardenal’s face as the razor-sharp poet-painter, Columbia-graduate Jesuit priest—who was at the time the Sandinistas' culture minister—knelt before him. Predictably, Ratzinger’s reign as Benedict XVI was deeply conservative. Fifty years on, only memories of the liberating winds of the 1960s and 1970s remain. When Francis took the Chair of Peter, he bore the cross of his own silence when he was the Provincial Superior of Argentina’s Jesuits during the horrific repression of the Pinochet regime. Some accused him of not doing enough to save his brother priests when some of them were abducted and tortured by the military. Perhaps it was his regrets about that period that strengthened his later voice against genocide.So popular had his inclusiveness made him that President Herzog of Israel was among those who spoke of his “boundless compassion” soon after Francis’s death.The Undying Myth of the Catholic Church as a Grand Landlord Francis gave much authority to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, his Secretary of State. Some have impugned Parolin’s pact with China’s Communist Party of China (CCP) as having sold out Roman Catholics in China. This may hurt Parolin’s prospects in the upcoming papal election.Francis, who had once seemed to be projecting Parolin as his preferred successor, had somewhat distanced himself from him, and at times did not seem entirely happy with his chief representative in the world beyond Rome. Ratzinger, on the other hand, never seemed to lose the total backing of John Paul II, for whom he served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—which was called the Inquisition until the beginning of the 20th century.Many were surprised that those who did not vote for Ratzinger at the 2005 conclave should have built a consensus around Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis’s original name. Although Bergoglio had been little known outside Latin America until then, he was almost a shoo-in when Benedict XVI resigned eight years later.Francis faced tricky challenges when he took over—pedophilia, talk of a homosexual network, leaks from the papal household, and a banking scandal. On top of all that, he was the first Jesuit to be elected, and some were suspicious of the very powerful order. Plus, for almost a decade, he had to contend with the fact that a Pope who many conservatives preferred over him, could at any point make a statement that could put his authority under a cloud.Francis was finally the sole Pope in Rome for the past 28 months. However, he was already using a wheelchair when Benedict died. He did his best to keep serving, despite rumours that he too might resign. Since the beginning of his reign, he had used his time to appoint what are now around 80 percent of the current cardinals from about 70 countries. So, whether or not the next pope is from Europe, it does not seem as if it will be another thousand years before another from outside Europe is chosen. Some would like an African, such as Cardinal Peter Turkson or Cardinal Robert Sarah. Conservatives would like the Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo or possibly Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Sri Lanka. Liberals may prefer Cardinal Tagle of the Philippines or Secretary of State Parolin. Cardinal Pierbatista Pizzaballa of Jerusalem, meanwhile, is considered centrist.Some among the large (252 in total, 135 eligible to vote) college of cardinals may have sounded each other out on possibilities during the consistories for which they gathered in Rome in September 2023 and December 2024. They may confer informally as they gather for the funeral, before the conclave of the 135 electors.(The writer is the author of ‘The Story of Kashmir’ and ‘The Generation of Rage in Kashmir’. He can be reached at @david_devadas. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

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