Pope Francis left a complex legacy after his death, writes Politico.
Francis — known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio — was elected Pope in March 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI, who resigned due to health problems. The event was preceded by the Vatileaks, a high-profile leak of internal Vatican documents that exposed behind-the-scenes conflicts, corruption, financial abuses, and power struggles at the highest levels of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis is the first Latin American and Jesuit pontiff. He was also the first to take the name Francis — after Francis of Assisi, a 13th-century saint who protected the poor. But his reign has not done enough to address shortcomings in the church, from clerical abuse to the misuse of Vatican funds, according to Politico.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires in 1936 to a family of Italian immigrants. His father worked on the railways and his mother Regina was a housewife. According to his memoirs, Jorge was a clever mischievous boy and a football fan.
In his youth, he worked as a nightclub bouncer and cleaner, then studied chemistry and worked as a lab technician in a food laboratory. A serious bout of pneumonia led to the removal of part of one lung in 1957. Jorge soon joined the Jesuit order after what he says was an inspiring encounter with a local priest.
At first, Bergoglio found it difficult to combine his spiritual vocation with his ordinary human life. He later admitted that he was “blinded” by a girl he met while studying at the seminary. However, he quickly rose through the Argentine church hierarchy, gaining a reputation as a generous man and earning the nickname “Bishop of the Slums” for doubling the number of priests in the poor neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.
Pope John Paul II made Francis a cardinal in 2001. He gained a reputation as a priest who renounces luxury, lives modestly and uses public transportation.
After the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI, he became the embodiment of the reformersʼ hope in a Church that yearned for change—and the first non-European pope since the Syrian Gregory III in the 8th century.
His pontificate has been marked by a departure from Benedictʼs academic style. Francis has called for the Church to become a "field hospital" where the needy are prioritized and issues of sexuality are relegated to the background.
“Who am I to judge?” Francis said in 2013, responding to a question about whether a gay man could become a Catholic priest.
The Pope managed to somewhat change the thousand-year-old structure of the Church by opening high positions in the Vatican to women and laypeople.
But overall, these chaotic reforms only irritated conservatives and disappointed liberals. For example, he maintained a ban on female priesthood and, under pressure from African bishops, was forced to soften his statement on blessing same-sex couples.
Francis has remained a controversial figure on the international stage. He has won support in the global South but has drawn criticism from Western supporters for his calls for peace in Ukraine, his silence on the oppression of religious minorities in China, and his sharp criticism of Israelʼs invasion of Gaza. His leadership style has also been unpredictable: he has been prone to cancelling plans due to journalistic leaks or breaking promises.
Because of this, increasingly radical opposition formed against Francis, especially among conservatives in the United States.
The informal leader of the opposition was ultra-conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke, who said the Catholic Church had become “too feminized” and that the shortage of priests was a result of the introduction of female ministers. Burke repeatedly clashed with Francis over his “progressive agenda”, including access to communion for divorced and remarried believers and restrictions on the Latin Mass. The pope responded by removing Burke and stripping him of his privilege of living in a subsidized Vatican apartment.
Francis was no softie, writes Politico. Behind his appearance was a knack for outwitting opponents and attacking unexpectedly. In his everyday life, he was not shy about insults — he called his critics "crazy". Some claimed that Francis was the "antichrist" and that the papacy was vacant.
Inconsistency is perhaps the most accurate description of Francisʼ pontificate. Instead of reforming the Church, he left behind chaos and a theological quagmire for his successor.
On the one hand, Francis has significantly changed the geographical structure of the cardinalate, appointing 110 of the 138 cardinal electors, most of them from outside Europe. But insiders warn that this does not guarantee the preservation of his vision, as Vatican alliances rarely survive a change of pontiff.
Despite all this, much of the drama surrounding his pontificate was purely elite. At the time of his death, Francis had an approval rating among 1.4 billion Catholics that any politician would envy.
- On April 21, the Vatican announced the death of Pope Francis. He died after a long illness — he was in the hospital from February 14 to March 23. The pontiff had developed bilateral pneumonia. His condition was serious.
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