Pope Francis died one year ago today. He was the first pope ever from the Americas, his family having fled Italy for Argentina in the 1930s to escape fascism. He brought a breath of fresh air following a 34-year rule by two popes who flirted mightily with the rising fascism that has become so visible in our time.
Their condemnations of theologians (I list 108 in my book The Pope’s War) and their attempts at wiping out liberation theology and base communities alongside the CIA in South America created havoc in society and the church. Their elevation of right-wing ideologues in the hierarchy and greenlighting Opus Dei helped give birth to the dangerous SCOTUS ruling that America has lived with to this day.
But Pope Francis, as many around the world recognized, was of another ilk. He tried to live and teach Gospel values, including opening up “synodal” dialogue in the church, where he urged listening between hierarchy and laity.
He called the church a “field hospital” and urged all Christians to get out and care for those who are hurting. He broke important ground with his encyclical, Laudato Sí: Care For Our Common Home, which scientists have praised as the best Vatican document ever on science and religion.
It lays out the grave spiritual and moral values at stake in the climate change emergency and deserves to be studied by anyone committed to loving and saving the Earth.
Pope Francis insisted that the church was open to all—toda–including sexual minorities, and strongly supported immigrants coming to Europe to escape persecution or climate change.
He critiqued Wall Street, unfettered capitalism, and multinational corporations bent on ruling the world, earning fierce criticism from the loudest right-wing voices in America. Rush Limbaugh called him a “Marxist,” perhaps opening the door for today’s president to attack the current pope.
On Pope Francis’s election, I wrote a book called Letters to Pope Francis, and over his papacy, I would regularly receive letters saying, “Look! He’s following your advice.” I don’t know if that is true or not, but it is true that he attempted changes to the church that were positive.
Though not across the board. Some shadows in his papacy need to be named as well, though thankfully nothing as severe as his immediate predecessors. While he welcomed a gathering of indigenous peoples to Rome, honoring and praising their heritage—something he did on visiting in the Amazon as well–he turned down their number one request: a married clergy. This is shocking since even his predecessors welcomed married European Protestant clergy (as long as they were conservative enough).
Most scandalous was his canonizing Junipero Serra—an act that one Native American leader told me was seen as “making war on Native people all over the world.” Evidence abounds that Serra’s so-called “missions” in California were as deadly and dehumanizing as concentration camps or slave plantations. He formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery and made a trip to Canada to apologize for past ecclesial genocide, but some actions speak louder than words.
He hired a few women for jobs in the Vatican, but turned his back on ordaining them as priests or even deacons, invoking the tired excuse that Jesus did not ordain women. Which is true because he didn’t ordain men either, since the priesthood was a second-century creation.
While publicly welcoming “all” in the church, he did not break with the blatant homophobic teachings of the previous two popes, who called it a “disorder,” thus ignoring, as in the Galileo case centuries earlier, scientific findings that homosexuality is perfectly normal for a certain minority of humans wherever they be.
Overall, however, Pope Francis demonstrated a deep humanity, including joy, courage, and an open heart. He used his very visible pulpit to announce good news and gospel-driven values that the present American pope is proclaiming equally refreshingly.
Banner Image: Efforts to right past wrongs: Pope Francis met with Canadian Indigenous leaders in Quebec in 2024 to offer a message of penitence and healing. In March 2023, the Pontiff formally repudiated the 15th-century “Doctrine of Discovery,” which supported the seizure and colonization of Indigenous lands. Photo by Michael Swan on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
What is your assessment of the person and papacy of Pope Francis one year after his death?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
LETTERS TO POPE FRANCIS: Building a Church with Justice & Compassion
The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
1 thought on “Pope Francis: An Assessment One Year after His Death”
Comment or not? Francis was Great! But.. is this a fair comment? Benedict took a white box from under his cassock and placed it in front of Francis. “It’s your’s mate! Too hot for me to handle!” Francis knew what the white washed box contained. He didn’t open it. He put it under the table. What was in it? A cover up! Of clerical child sexual abuse. Matthew didn’t mention it. Was this scenario a fraud?