Farewell Pope Francis

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, April 22nd, 2025 - 10 comments
Categories: Deep stuff, poverty, religion - Tags:

Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change. The system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”

This system is by now intolerable, farm workers find it intolerable, labourers find it intolerable, communities find it intolerable, peoples find it intolerable. The earth itself – our sister, Mother Earth and Saint Francis would say – also finds it intolerable.”

When elected 12 years ago, Pope Francis took his name from St Francis, a figure who railed hard against the corruption of the medieval church and dreamt that it would be physically and morally shaken to its foundations. So taking the name Francis was a big deal for those who watch this stuff. 

Pope Francis simply hated the arrogance of church management, which he called clericalism. In his first big speech he simply railed against pretentious, high-handed, self-aggrandizing bishops, cardinals, priests and anyone else. He didn’t have funny robes, or crowns, or have a fancy apartment, or until recently from ill health use the “popemobile’. He will be the first pope I’m aware of to be buried outside St Peters Cathedral. Instead he will be buried at a good-sized church in Rome St Maria Maggiore. 

Now listen: 

It may well disturb us to learn of the extinction of mammals or birds, since they are more visible. But the good functioning of ecosystems also requires fungi, algae, worms, insects, reptiles and an innumerable variety of microorganisms. Some less numerous species, although generally unseen, nonetheless play a critical role in maintaining the equilibrium of a particular place. Human beings must intervene when a geosystem reaches a critical state. But nowadays, such intervention in nature has become more and more frequent. 

As a consequence, serious problems arise, leading to further interventions; human activity becomes ubiquitous, with all the risks which this entails. Often a vicious circle results, as human intervention to resolve a problem further aggravates the situation.

For example, many birds and insects which disappear due to synthetic agrotoxins are helpful for agriculture: their disappearance will have to be compensated for by yet other techniques which may well prove harmful. We must be grateful for the praiseworthy efforts being made by scientists and engineers dedicated to finding solutions to man-made problems. 

But a sober look at our world shows that the degree of human intervention, often in the service of business interests and consumerism, is actually making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and grey, even as technological advances and consumer goods continue to abound limitlessly. We seem to think that we can substitute an irreplaceable and irretrievable beauty with something which we have created ourselves.”

That’s from Laudato Si, which was an encyclical that integrated anti-capitalist rhetoric with environmentalism and with a sacred view of creation. I’ve not seen the life of it before or since, other than in some mystics.

On the whole we have to be clear that the job of the Pope is to preserve two thousand years of church teaching and tradition and to sustain that as a unified movement. So what Pope Francis did wasn’t revolutionise something that can’t be revolutionised. The Catholic Church is essentially the Christianity that made a deal with the Roman Empire and managed that way not to be wiped out. And as a result many systems and structures we still have from the Courts to St Johns resemble church structures.

His 12 years in office were beset with massive historic sex scandals.  They may not have been his fault but they disgraced the church. Speaking in February 2019 of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors, he said: “I am reminded of the cruel religious practise, once widespread in certain cultures, of sacrificing human beings – frequently children – in pagan rites.” And on his own failings, after initially defending a bishop accused of covering up abuse in a row that rocked the Church in Chile, he said in April 2018: “I have incurred grave mistakes of judgment and perception of the situation, especially due to the lack of truthful and balanced information.”

Back in the day Popes were supposed to be infallible. Not this one. 

It’s also 12 years of clearing out the entire management team, and changing the attitude of Catholic management to be joy and non-judgmental welcome to all. That’s what his work looks like now.

The church isn’t making women priests or deacons. Churches are still often not welcoming and stuffy and boring. In Western Europe Catholicism is declining fast. The legacy of essentially church organised crime in places like Ireland and Canada is still shocking. Pope Francis addressed much but can’t make up for the hundreds of years of damage.

But the church is booming in places like Indonesia and the Sahel. It’s over a billion believers. He didn’t change the words but he changed the music. And that is actually quite a lot.

And he wasn’t dumb: of the 138 voting Cardinals who will vote his successor, he named 110 into their jobs. If you want to observe his most powerful structural legacy, it wasn’t in the doctrine, but in the deep move to shift the entire church away from Europe and the USA and towards Africa, South America, and Asia. 

The church under Pope Francis is the church of the poor, of the sick, of the people that need hope and help.

That’s a life lived.

10 comments on “Farewell Pope Francis ”

  1. hetzer 1
    22 April 2025 at 12:30 pm

    Well observed and written AD

    Reply
  2. Res Publica 2
    22 April 2025 at 12:45 pm

    A beautiful reflection, AD.

    You've said a lot of things I've been feeling over the 24 hours and not really been able to find the words to clearly say.

    I think he did more than any of his predecessors to bring the Church back to its roots: intellectually curious, embracing of human flaws, and attuned to the eternal struggle to define “good” in a morally ambiguous world.

    He led not with dogma, but with discernment—and reminded us that the Church can still be the confident heir of over two thousand years of philosophy, reflection, and growth. That we should pursue and accept progress, however small and flawed, rather than condemn ourselves or others for falling short of a rigid, unattainable moral perfection.

    Atque in perpetuum, papa.

    Reply
  3. Kay 3
    22 April 2025 at 12:49 pm

    I was lucky enough to be taken to Rome a couple of times many years ago, so I've been to the Vatican (blessed by JP2 and Benedict which I thought was pretty cool, even though we're not religious at all).

    Having been inside St Peters and Santa Maria Maggiore, I know which one doesn't feel so sickenly opulent, and that I felt more comfortable being inside. I agree that for someone who didn't want all the trappings of the role, anywhere but St. Peters.

    While it's easy for non-Catholics/non-religious to criticise the whole Pope thing, in reality, a) there's much that can be legitimately criticised about any belief system and their leaders, and b) the Vatican has incredible influence of over 1B people around the world, many of whom are zealous about following the teachings. Even a 'progressive' Pope can still be very conservative on the particular topics that have the most effects of it's follower's lives.

    Reply
  4. SPC 4
    22 April 2025 at 1:44 pm

    Francis of Assisi influenced John Wycliffe, seeing those of faith as an invisible group separate from the visible organised church authority.

    And to counterpoint, the poor and the cult of prosperity religion and concern for the habitat for life and those who see such green environmentalism/climate change threat mitigation as a false religion.

    One wonders why the libertarian Vance is not in the same (end time judgment salvation for the few) religious group as Sco Mo, with such God and mammon (for the few who are sorted in power – a huge cost to renew tax cuts for the rich while the $1000 tax credit for the child reduces back to $1000 this year).

    Reply
    • Ad 4.1
      22 April 2025 at 3:50 pm

      For the strong left Catholic version you have to go back to assassinated Bishop Romero, Gustavo Guiterrez' Liberation Theogy and the base communities of Leonardo Boff.

      All that was pretty much overridden by Pope John Paul 2 triumphalising over Soviet communism.

      US-style pentecostal prosperity doctrines are still a faint echo of patrician Medicis and the large scale donor orders.

      Vance is a chancer, Morrison was always just a broker.

      Reply
  5. barry 5
    22 April 2025 at 5:27 pm

    better than the average pope

    Reply
  6. Rex 6
    22 April 2025 at 6:03 pm

    A thoughtful and respectful post, as are the comments. I hope we get another progressive Pope. God bless you.

    Reply
  7. Nigel Haworth 7
    23 April 2025 at 11:03 am

    A decent man, required to work with the many contradictions that mark a 2000 year history. Thinking about Francis, few of us will experience or understand the institutional challenges, which surround a papacy. What is clear to me, having worked with progressive Catholic movements in Latin America and Africa, is that there have been, and are, brave advocates for working people within the Church, who risk everything to make their voice heard. They benefitted from the the support offered by Francis.

    Reply
  8. weasel 8
    23 April 2025 at 5:38 pm

    "So what Pope Francis did wasn’t revolutionise something that can’t be revolutionised," is you pertinent point about Francis' rule as Pope.
    In the end he was simply the acceptable face of an unacceptable organisation — a corrupt, mysognististic, patriarchal, abusive, homophobic, self-serving body that, despite a complete lack of scientific evidence, that if you believe the Catholic Church's mumbo-jumbo you will be rewarded with a heavenly afterlife, so don't worry too much about the world we actually live in. Has anything fundamental changed in the church as a result of his tenure – women priests, acceptance of homosexuality or abortion, ending priestly celibacy (and therefore abuse of children)? There's your answer.

    Reply
    • Ad 8.1
      23 April 2025 at 9:17 pm

      Gosh you should try applying that set of measures to the even-more self-righteous modern state and the political parties that run the state. Especially over the last 3 centuries.

      If you went to church you'd have seen that actually quite a lot has changed because of Pope Francis.

      Reply

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