POPE FRANCIS 1936-2025
In a world thirsting for moral leadership, Pope Francis offered some hope. He constantly spoke for the poor, the marginalized, the imprisoned, migrants and all those crushed and on the losing end of competitive capitalism, in Pope Francis’s words: “…those stripped of their dignity, demeaned by the arrogance, injustice and power of those who exploit the poor amidst general indifference.” Symbolically he took the name of Francis of Assisi, the great 12th-13th century apostle of the poor who gave up a life of opulence to be close to and serve the masses of suffering people.
Pope Francis was not able to bring the kinds of changes to the Catholic Church that many wanted to see, and perhaps he only looks good in comparison to other world leaders.
But let us be grateful that he did what he could to lead a tradition-bound, 2,000- year-old institution in the direction of social justice.
Sources: The New York Times, 4/22/2 and Pope Francis, Meditations on the Stations of the Cross, March 2024