April 27, 2025 – Pope Francis

The news of Pope Francis’ death this past Monday morning inspired much personal reflection on his Papacy and his legacy. Certainly, only time will tell what will be his “lasting legacy.” And his Papacy was not without controversy. Pope Francis did, at times, say or do things that struck many as imprudent, unhelpfully ambiguous, or just plain frustrating. Yet regardless of these things, he is still our spiritual father whom we love and honor. And, while I shared some of those criticisms and frustrations about Pope Francis, there have also been many things that he has said or done that I have personally found beautiful, hopeful, and inspiring. So, here is a list of fourteen of these things, which I listed in approximate chronological order. I will be sharing these fourteen things over the course of the next few columns. Here are the first three:

1) Pope Francis washes the feet of prison inmates – Holy Thursday, 2013: As Pope Francis was elected on March 13 of 2013, he celebrated his first Holy Week as Pope only a couple of weeks later. What was striking was that our new Pope chose to celebrate Holy Thursday in one of the prisons in Rome and wash the feet of the prison inmates. (A tradition he has continued over the course of his Papacy).

2)”Church is a Field Hospital” – Sept. 2013: In an interview with the Jesuits (the religious order to which he belonged before he became Pope), Pope Francis said, “I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds.” This very striking image of the Church became very popular among Catholics, or at least among seminarians studying to become priests (which I was at the time), as we spoke about what it means to be Church and to live the Church’s Mission.

3) “The Joy of the Gospel” (Apostolic Exhortation) – Nov. 2013: Pope Francis wrote an “Apostolic Exhortation” on “ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL IN TODAY’S WORLD.” This is something we read for our “Theology of Priesthood” class as we prepared to be ordained and begin our mission as priests. While there is much that could be said about this Exhortation of Pope Francis, one thing that was particularly highlighted was the importance of “Spiritual accompaniment.” That is, the idea of meeting people where they are at and “accompanying them” at their pace towards Jesus Christ and the truth and joy of his Gospel. These two themes of “Spiritual accompaniment” and the image of the Church as a “field hospital for sinners” (see above), I think help us to understand much of what Pope Francis was trying to do throughout his Papacy.