Struggle for the Catholic soul

Struggle for the Catholic soul | Daily Tribune

The world is minus a progressive pastoral leader with the passing of Pope Francis on Easter Monday, 21 April 2025.

A man of many firsts, Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was the first Jesuit to become pope, the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first to come from outside Europe since the 8th century when a Syrian, St. Gregory III, became pope.

Chosen by a papal conclave to succeed Pope Benedict XVI who resigned the papacy in February 2013, Francis from the start was a reformist in the Roman Catholic Church. He advocated for social justice, environmental protection, and greater inclusivity for society’s marginalized sectors.

Francis was soft-spoken, but there was no mistaking the firmness and strength in his voice for the poor and marginalized; and his emphasis on economic equality and criticism of unchecked capitalism resonated globally, particularly in the developing nations.

The late pontiff upheld traditional Roman Catholic doctrine, and yet he pushed for a more merciful and compassionate Church, notably on issues like divorce and LGBTQ+ outreach.

He was one with the Church’s stand that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” are “acts of grave depravity,” and are “contrary to natural law,” and yet Francis called for a more compassionate and less judgmental approach towards LGBTQ+ persons.

In a 2016 document, On Love in the Family, he called for an end to anti-LGBTQ+ violence and discrimination, saying, “Every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration.”

And once, on a flight returning to Italy from Brazil, he told journalists on board, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”

In a polarized world, the late Pope remained a rare, unifying figure, speaking on crises like migration, war, and climate change. The world can only wait to see if his successor will be someone who will continue the reforms he started, or he would shift to a different direction.

The legacy of Francis was marked by bold reforms, and unresolved tensions. His was a pontificate that sought to reshape the Catholic Church’s role in the modern world while leaving key battles unfinished.

Still, his legacy will be remembered as nothing short of remarkable, a tireless calling for compassion over rigidity, a decentralization of Vatican power, a softening of the Church’s tone on divorce, LGBTQ+ Catholics, and women’s roles (for instance, allowing females to vote in synods).

Born and raised in Argentina, he was the first pope from the “Global South,” that is, nations regarded as having a relatively low level of economic and industrial development typically located south of the more developed nations. He reoriented the Church away from Eurocentrism by appointing more cardinals from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, a move seen to increase the chances of the next pope being a non-European.

He elevated poverty and migration as core issues, clashing with wealthy Western conservatives, and he cemented the Church’s future in the Global South, alienating in the process some traditionalists in the US and Europe.

Visiting Bolivia in July 2015, he asked for forgiveness for the sins of the Roman Catholic Church in its treatment of native Americans and denounced the unbridled pursuit of money as “the dung of the devil,” calling to a stop to reducing poor countries to being mere providers of raw materials and cheap labor for developed countries.

Francis also cited in his landmark encyclical, “Laudato Si,” on the environment that time was running out to save the planet from irreversible harm to the ecosystem.

“Let us not be afraid to say it,” he said, before a mammoth crowd in Sta. Cruz, “we want change, real change, structural change,” and went on to decry a system that “has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”

Because of the boldness of his efforts to effect change, it was inevitable that Francis would deepen divisions within the Church, causing even some traditionalists like American Cardinal Raymond Burke to accuse him of heresy by his allowing divorced Catholics to receive Holy Communion.

Divisive but transformative, Francis was a Pope who was loved by the margins and caused anxiety among those in the center.

A pope of mercy, the bridge builder between science and faith, rich and poor, and religions, and who knows, the last progressive among pontiffs. If the one who succeeds him happens to be conservative, Francis could be seen as a fleeting reformer.

That would be the ultimate irony, that a Pope who sought unity may be remembered as one under whom factions within the Church he led clashed openly. Still, his impact could grow, in hindsight.

The death of someone who will be remembered as one of the most consequential leaders of the Roman Catholic Church is certain to trigger a pivotal moment that will potentially reshape the power dynamics and theological direction of the Church, and exert global influence over its 1.3-billion faithful, whoever his successor will be.

Many, of course, hope that it will be someone who carries on the torch Francis had lit, and ease the tensions he had unleashed within the Church even as it continues to struggle on for the soul of Catholicism.