Pope Francis’ death at his residence on April 21 marks the end of an era important for the Vatican and the faithful and faithful of the global Catholic people.
Pope Francis, the first pope from the Americas and the first pope to emerge from the West in modern times, was elected leader of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013.
By the time Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Bergolio was elected Pope in 2013, there was a general sense that the Catholic Church had reached the end of the era. At the time, the church was plagued by crises, from corruption to administrative sexual abuse.
Some of the challenges facing the church, which aged Pope Benedict XVI could no longer handle, have denied Holocaust readmissions to the church, increased evidence of corruption in the Vatican Bank, and created multiple cases of administrative sexual abuse in many parts of the world, as well as the chaos that emerged in the English-speaking world.
Furthermore, the church was upset by the Pope’s secret revelation of his predecessor, Pope Benedict. A book detailing these secrets portrayed the Vatican as a corrupt breeding ground for jealous, intrigue, and unruly factional battles.
The revelation has brought much embarrassment to the church.
Thus, the Belgogian Cardinal meant that it was elected by the Catholic Cardinals on the order to clean up the church and reform the Vatican and its bureaucracy. He was to establish processes and procedures for transparency, accountability and renewal of the church and its structure, and to address the prolonged scandal of administrative abuse.
The Pope’s Global Heritage
Three important things defined his Pope’s role and legacy.
The first is to focus on the central capabilities of the Church. It is to serve the poor and marginalized people. This is what Jesus Christ, the founder of Christian religion, did.
Francis focused on the Catholic Church and the one mission of the whole world. It is to help the poor, deal with global inequality, speak for the silent, and focus the world’s attention on those around them. He also chose to simply live, abandoning the pope’s dignity and pageant.
Second, he changed the way the Catholic Church communicates its message. In his programmatic document, Evangeli Gaudium, he called the church to what he called the “conversation of missionaries.” His idea was that everything that was going on in the church had to be to declare good news to a broken world, injured.
His central message was mercy for everything, the end to war, our common humanity, and God’s intimacy towards those who were suffering. The suffering of the world continues to grow due to injustice, greed, selfishness and pride. He also focused on symbols and simple styles, pushing his message back into the house to celebrate Mass on the walls that divide America and Mexico.
In 2015 he made a dangerous trip to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, during war and tensions between the Muslim Seleka and the Christian anti-Barakha combat fact. He drove Popemovies with both the country’s highest ranked Muslim clergy and his Christian counterparts, visiting both Christian churches and mosques, and shoving the message of peace into his home.
The third strategy was to rebuild the church and reform the Vatican Bank.
He created the G8 (Council of Representatives of Cardinals in Every Region of the World), advised him, and called on the Catholic Church to a meeting for dialogue on all aspects of church life. This effort was unprecedented.
He also reviewed the bishop’s meeting procedures, making it more participatory and gave women the right to vote on a discontinuous basis. He has shaken up members of the Vatican division who choose bishops to include women. He appointed the first woman (Sr Simone Brambilla) to lead the major Vatican division and have a cardinal on her behalf. Another woman (Sr Raffaella Petrini) has been appointed the first female governor of the Vatican city.
Pope Francis and Africa
The Pope’s legacy will be keen in Africa. Three things stand out.
First, he reflected the concerns of people on the continent in his message of imperialism, colonialism, the exploitation of the poor through rich and global inequality, neoliberal capitalism, and ecological injustice. Pope Francis has become the voice of Africa. When he visited Kenya in 2015, he chose to visit the slums of Nairobi and declare the gospel of abandoned liberation of society. He called on the African government to ensure access to land, accommodation and labor for the poor and all citizens.
In a way, Pope Francis embodied the message of decolonization, partly driven by the liberation theology developed in Latin America. This theology united the liberation of people from the structures of injustice and structural violence with religious belief.
Second, he encouraged African Catholics to develop Africa’s unique approach to pastoral life and address African social issues. Pope Francis in particular believed in decentralization and local processes to meet local challenges. He has said many times that there is no need to solve all the problems of the Church by the Pope in the heart of Rome.
In this way, he encouraged the growth and development of Africa’s priorities and cultural adaptation to the Catholic faith. He also encouraged greater transparency and accountability among bishops in Africa, giving African Catholic universities and seminaries greater autonomy to develop their own educational priorities and programs.
Third, Pope Francis had very deep connections with young Africans. He encouraged and supported initiatives and programs to strengthen youth institutions to strengthen youth institutions and hope for and support personal, spiritual and professional development. For the first time in history, Pope Francis almost met more than 1,000 young Africans per hour on November 1, 2022. I helped organize this meeting. He answered their questions and encouraged them to fight for what they believed in.
Reform’s agenda
Pope Francis’ reforms could be called movement, with priests, bishops and popes calling shots, and everyone’s voices are important, and even the church of God’s people, whose concerns and needs are met.
He quietly changed the tone of his message and style of leadership at the Vatican.
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Certainly, he did not substantially change the content of the message. This is often seen as a resistance to conservative, eurocentric, cultural pluralism and social change. But he constantly lacked that foundation through inclusion and openness to hear the voices of all, including those who disagree with the church’s position. In doing this, he changed the priorities and practices of the Catholic Church regarding core issues such as power and authority.
Pope Francis opened the door to the voices of marginalized people in the church – women, the poor, the LGBTQI+ community, and those who were plundered from the church. Many African Catholics want to see more African representatives in the Vatican. Many of them also worry about the expanded division of the church, driven by Western cultural and ideological battles that have nothing to do with the social and ecological contexts of Africa, particularly those in the United States.
Why was his Pope important?
Pope Francis was the first pope of the Americas and the first Jesuit Pope, first picked the name Francis and was the first to come from the modern West. He chose the name Francis because he wanted to concentrate his Pope on the poor people emulating St. Francis of Assisi.
In a way, Pope Francis redefines what religion and spirituality mean to Catholicism. It does not relentlessly set and enforce the law, but rather takes care of our neighbors and our planet. This is like the religion the world needs today.
Stanchuiro is a research professor in World Christianity and African Studies at DePaul University.
Source: Conversation
