In aligning the Church with the world’s poor and marginalized and avoiding  the defense of its traditional positions on LBGTQ issues, abortion and the role of women Pope Francis has made the Church an ally of the progressive forces creating a more equitable, peaceful and sustainable world.  With his actions, his simple lifestyle and his words he has sought to ensure the Church’s relevance and role in responding to our global crisis.  

Pope Francis’ thirteen year papacy coincided with the further degredation of the planet Earth and its species.  As the threats caused by the burning of fossil fuels and overconsumption in general became more evident, the Pope’s written reflections on the ecological crisis became more pointed. Issued in 2023, his “apostolic exhortation” titled Laudate Deum or “Praise God” was addressed to “all people of good will on the climate crisis”. His much longer, didactic 2015 “encyclical letter” titled “Laudate Si” (“Praise to You, my Lord”) was sub titled “on care for our common home”. 

In the Laudate Deum the former Argentine Bishop more directly addresses the world’s leaders guided by the “technocratic paradigm” he deplored in the earlier “encyclical letter”.  The insights of his “exhortation” more clearly describe the threat posed by our leaders and technocrats:   “We have made impressive and awesome technological advances, and we have not realized that at the same time we have turned into highly dangerous beings, capable of threatening the lives of many beings and our own survival.”  The document’s warnings conclude with the words, ‘“Praise God” is the title of this letter. For when human beings claim to take God’s place, they become their own worst enemies.”

While Francis spares us the anger of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, his “exhortation” should be considered a firm repudiation of thinking “goodness and truth automatically flow from technological and economic power as such”. Destruction of our environment results from accepting the “idea of infinite or unlimited growth which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and experts in technology”.

In his travels, actions and lifestyle as Pope, Francis remained wedded to the simplicity demonstrated by his veneration of Francis of Assisi and the motto he chose for his term in office, “Miserando atque eligendo” or “lowly but chosen”.  He embraced the significance of being named the first Pope born and raised outside Europe since the 8^th Century.  As a child of the Southern Hemisphere he represented well the aspirations and heartache of the peoples where the Church continues to grow the fastest.  As a leader in the Argentine Catholic Church during the military junta’s “dirty war” of the seventies and early eighties, he shared the suffering of a population subjected to violent repression, lying and harsh deprivation of the poor. His praise of the writings of Gustavo Gutierrez, the pioneering liberation theologian, marks a radical change in the Vatican’s position on the theology that grew from the Latin American struggle against exploitation by foreigners and national collaborators.

Prior to Francis’ going to Mexico in February 2016, he shared the purpose in visiting the world’s second largest population of Catholics was to:

                                    To be close to the people and places where there is most need:

The Indians in San Cristobal, Chiapas.

The violence in Michoacan.

The Migrants in Juarez City (on US Border)

Defense of the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide, pastoral ministry with families grieving members lost to drug cartel and state violence, and the plight of migrants preyed on in Mexico had early on become the Pope’s priority concerns.  One journalist noted that Pope Benedict in his 2012 visit of Mexico’s Catholic heartland of Guanajuato failed to mention the over 100,000 dead and thousands disappeared in Mexico’s war on the cartels.  Following Francis’ visit, he named Michoacan’s leading Catholic prelate to Cardinal to help protect him from the violence.

Francis’ impact seems destined to grow in the future.  In his few years in office he was able to make the Church less Eurocentric and more globally oriented.  In the upcoming conclave 80 per cent of the Cardinals naming the new Pope will have been appointed by Francis.  A significant increase in the number of Cardinals from Asia and Africa will be there. Over half of those selecting the new Pope have served the Church in formerly colonized nations. As a prophet foresaw 2800 years ago, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven…….giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall the word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty.” (Isa 55:10-11)

In a final statement issued on Easter Sunday, Francis made an “ appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage  weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death!” This appeal was preceded by his Easter affirmation of hope and encouragment, “Evil has not disappeared from history; it will remain until the end, but it no longer has the upper hand; it no longer has power over those who accept the grace of this day.”  In praying for peace his final “Orbi et Urbi” highlighted Israel’s war on the Palestinians in Gaza and the Holy Land.