How Pope Francis tried to build an inclusive Church – and world

The voice has gone silent but the image and the presence of Pope Francis will remain. His was the voice of conscience for millions across the world, not necessarily of Catholics alone. His last address, Urbi et Orbi, “for the city and for the world”, delivered on Easter Sunday, the day before he passed away, was a last plea that peace is possible, expressing the longings of people in war-torn areas everywhere.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, from Argentina, of Italian descent, took the name Francis on his election in March 2013 as the head of the Vatican City State and the 1.3 billion Catholic Church.

Francis was the first pope from the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits, as they are popularly known), a Catholic religious organisation founded in 1540. He was also the first pope from Latin America. His election came after the unexpected resignation of Benedict XVI, which was seen as divine inspiration.

After he was elected, the Jesuits asked Pope Francis how they could help him. “Help the Church to implement the decisions of the Second Vatican Council,” he said. It was a reference to the Vatican II conference in 1965, the last major gathering of Church leaders to decide on Church doctrine and administration, in the face of major changes in the world’s theological, intellectual, social, political and cultural situation.

In 2012, Cardinal Carlo Martini, a well-known Jesuit scripture scholar, had declared with sorrow that the Church seemed to be 200 years behind the times. When Francis had been in his position for six years, a Christian pastor, tongue in cheek, remarked that the Pope was “dragging the Church, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century!” – well aware that we were already in the 21st.

With the passage of another six years, perhaps the Catholic Church has made a break-through into the 21st century, thanks to the two sessions of the Synod on Synodality, a worldwide gathering of Church leaders. For the first time, it included lay people and especially women, instead of only Catholic bishops who are all male.

This Synod concluded a long process of preparation involving every Catholic who was willing to participate using the pedagogy called “spiritual conversations”, inspired by the founder of the Jesuits – Ignatius of Loyola.

Francis was a master of the process of “discernment” taught by Ignatius, which entails going through a rigorous intellectual process of weighing the pros and cons of a decision but finally relying on the intuition of the divine by being sensitive to the feelings that god’s spirit evokes during this process.

Francis initiated major changes in the Catholic Church with regard to its understanding of various aspects of the life of the Church, especially the role of women. For the first time, women are in charge of important offices at the Vatican and have the right to vote at important decision-making meetings. He also initiated changes in the understanding of marriage and family, of cultures, of relations with people of other faith, of the role of youth and of the need to reach out to the marginalised.

Francis has become famous for his exhortation “todos, todos, todos” signifying that the Church should include everyone, including those of different sexual orientations, the poor, the migrant and others left out by society. Some of these changes brought stiff opposition within the Church, even from some senior cardinals. Francis taught by example and emphasised the mercy of god as a guiding principle.

Francis’s writings are proof of his being in tune with the signs of the times. Although he wrote principally for Catholics, his thoughts are relevant to all humanity – especially Laudato Si (2015), on saving our common home, the earth, and Fratelli Tutti (2020), on building fraternity across cultures and religions.

In his attempt to build fraternity with all peoples, Francis visited many Islamic-dominated countries including Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Indonesia and Turkey. His visits to West Asia resulted in Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, signing a path-breaking “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” in 2019.

His fervent advocacy for migrants and refugees has caught the attention of the world – his letter in February to the bishops of the United States to oppose the drastic measures that the Trump administration has announced against migrants, demonstrates the boldness of his actions to defend human dignity.

He made submissions at international fora welcoming artificial intelligence and its benefits for humanity but also calling attention to its possible harmful use and the need for regulation. He also convened an international meeting of young economists to brainstorm on a new and just economic order.

His condemnation of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza has been unequivocal and consistent, pleading for reconciliation and peace. No major issue facing humanity has been ignored by this religious leader.

The one regret for many Indians is the fact that though Francis expressed, early in his tenure, his closeness to the millions of devout people of the Hindu faith and his desire to visit India, this was not made possible by the Indian government. The Vatican never received a formal diplomatic invitation, making impossible the visit of a head of state.

Indians of various faiths took note of the presence and influence of Francis as a religious leader on the world stage but Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have considered it sufficient to have had his own two encounters with Francis in Rome, representing our 1.4 billion people.

A tribute to Francis would be our commitment to peace and reconciliation, an effort at building human fraternity across differences and a practical leadership in safeguarding the ecology – our Common Home.

Frazer Mascarenhas SJ is a former principal of St Xavier’s College Mumbai.

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