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It was a mark of humanity that characterized its papacy that Pope Francis appeared in public to deliver Easter blessings and go around St Peter’s place when his voice and body were clearly failed – less than 24 hours before his death. Only a few weeks after being close to death in hospital with double pneumonia, the Pope was able to end his ministry as he started: among people. Catholics and several non-Catholics will cry A compassionate reformer who tried to modernize his church, even if the results did not succeed what his most progressive supporters hoped.
His modesty and determination to be a voice for the poor and marginalized were one of the many things that marked it many predecessors. The first non -European pope for more than 1,000 years, and first of all of the Americas, chose to live not in the sumptuous papal apartment but in a guest house of the Vatican of two rooms. Not for nothing, he took the name of St Francis d’Assise, known for his humility.
Although Francis has not changed doctrine on questions of sexuality, faith and marriage, he changed the tone and language of discussion to underline the need for tolerance and understanding. His first comment in response to a question on the presence of homosexual priests in the church, “Who am I to judge?” paved the way for its approval in 2023 informal blessings for same -sex couples. Its 2016 exhortation, Amoris Laetitiahas raised the possibility of allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion. After a world consultation, Francis launched with the faithful – to the resentment of the traditionalists – the conclusion document recommended to expand the role of women and lay people in the church.
In a church struggling with relevance in the modern world, Francis has also tried to make it more than one moral voice on questions beyond the family and the room. In an encyclical in 2015, he sought to redefine climate change in terms of religion and faith, warning that it was the product of global dependence developed for consumption while affecting the poor in the world in a disproportionate way. He made interventions out of the migrant support, in the event that hardening American and European attitudes against irregular migration, and spoke of his distress concerning conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
In the end, however, Francis failed to translate his personal magnetism into reforms which have established key questions such as the ordination of married women or priests, or who arrested the decline of the church in Europe and North America. He made some errors of judgment on individuals, including some accused of serious crimes such as financial behavior Or sexual abuse in the church – a scourge some will feel that he did not do enough to rest. He also left the church against financial strains which must be treated.
The Pope managed to thwart the two liberals, not providing a decisive change, and the conservatives who nevertheless accused him of having undermined traditional lessons. These divisions will continue in what should be an argument Competition for his succession. Today’s Catholic Church is more and more, in terms of membership, one of the world’s southern southern, and the cardinals will be confronted with pressure to elect another pope beyond Europe, and a sensitive to problems of poverty and the environment. However, many church churchs and members of the world South are also socially conservative – unlike certain more liberal followers in richer countries.
The next pope, whatever his history or talent, can find a little easier to resolve the deep questions facing Catholicism. But Pope Francis should be recalled for the progress of the modernization he has achieved and for trying to live gospel lessons on the siege with the needy and oppressed. His personal example was perhaps his most powerful heritage.
