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Francis Biography

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, better known as Pope Francis, is the leader of the Catholic Church and the sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was born on December 17, 1936. In addition to being the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III, a Syrian who reigned in the 8th century, Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus.

The son of an Italian immigrant, Bergoglio began his career in the food industry as a janitor and bouncer in the Buenos Aires, Argentina, area. The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) prompted him to join in 1958 after he recovered from a serious illness. He was professed a priest in 1969 and served as the provincial superior of the Jesuits in Argentina from 1973 until 1979.

In 1998, he was named archbishop of Buenos Aires, and in 2001, Pope John Paul II elevated him to cardinal rank. When the riots broke out in Argentina in December 2001, he was in charge of the Argentine Church.

The Kirchner and Fernández de Kirchner governments viewed him as a political foe. A papal conclave elected Bergoglio as Pope Benedict XVI’s successor on March 13 after Benedict resigned on February 28. The name Francis was chosen as a tribute to Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the inspiration for Pope Francis’ papacy.

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His humility, stress on God’s mercy, international exposure as Pope, care for the poor, and commitment to interreligious dialogue have all been hallmarks of Francis’s papacy.

By staying in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace utilized by his predecessors, Francis is credited with adopting a less formal approach to the papacy.

Abortion, celibacy, and the ordination of women are still taboo subjects for Francis, who has opened the door to discussion about the idea of deaconesses and made women full members of the Roman Curia’s dicasteries.

He is of the opinion that the Church should be more accepting of those who identify as gay or lesbian. During his pontificate, Pope Francis has made addressing climate change a priority by issuing the encyclical Laudato si’, which is an unequivocal rebuke to free-market capitalism, consumerism, and overdevelopment. After re-establishing diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, he backed the plight of migrants in Europe and Central America. His opposition to populism began in 2018.

There are many things about John Paul II that religious conservatives don’t like, such as the fact that his papal encyclical, Amoris Laetitia, allowed Catholics who were legally divorced and legally remarried to be included in the Eucharist.

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Early years

Buenos Aires, Argentina, resident Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on December 17, 1936, in Flores. Mario José Bergoglio (1908–1959) and Regina Mara Svori (1911–1981) had five children, the eldest of them was Mario Bergoglio. Mario Bergoglio was born in Portacomaro (Province of Asti) in Italy’s Piedmont area to an Italian immigrant accountant.

She was born in Buenos Aires to an Italian family of Piedmontese-Genoese descent. Regina Svori was a housewife. When Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1929, Mario José and his family were forced to flee the country.

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It is the pope’s only living sibling, Mara Elena Bergoglio (b. 1948), who claims that the family did not leave for economic reasons. Alberto Horacio (1942–2010), Oscar Adrián (1938–deceased), and Marta Regina (1940–2007) were his three other siblings. Antonio and Joseph, two great-nephews, were killed in a car accident. Cristina Bergoglio, his niece, is a Spanish painter.

He attended Wilfrid Baron de Los Santos Angeles, a Don Bosco-run school in Ramos Meja, Buenos Aires Province, in the sixth grade. As several media agencies wrongly reported, he attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial N° 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen, named after a former Argentine president, and graduated with the diploma of a chemical technician.

Esther Ballestrino was his supervisor at Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory, where he worked for several years in the food area. Bergoglio had previously worked as a bouncer at a nightclub and as a janitor sweeping floors.

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He was diagnosed with pneumonia and three cysts at the age of 21. Within a few days, he was having part of his lung removed. “San Lorenzo de Almagro” is the football team that Pope Francis has always supported. Tita Merello films, neorealism, and tango dancing are among the favorites of Bergoglio’s, as is the traditional Argentine and Uruguayan music known as the milonga.

Jesuit (1958–2013)

While en route to celebrate Spring Day, Bergoglio discovered his call to the priesthood. While on his way to confession, he stopped by a church and was moved by the priest’s words. On March 11, 1958, Bergoglio entered the Society of Jesus as a novice after three years of seminary study at the Archdiocesan Seminary of Inmaculada Concepción in Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires. As a young seminarian, Bergoglio reportedly had a crush on a girl he met and briefly questioned whether he should continue his theological studies. He was a Jesuit novice in Santiago, Chile, where he studied humanities. Following his novitiate in the Society of Jesus and his religious commitment on March 12, 1960, Bergoglio was formally recognized as a Jesuit on that day.

In 1960, Bergoglio graduated from Colegio Máximo de San José in San Miguel, Province of Buenos Aires, with a licentiate in philosophy under his belt. From 1964 to 1965, he taught literature and psychology at the Santa Fe high school Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción. At the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires in 1966, he taught the same courses he had previously taught.

Archbishop Castellano consecrated him as a priest on December 13, 1969, after he completed his theological studies in 1967 at the Facultades en Filosofia y Teologa de San Miguel. He worked as a novice master for the province and later became a theologian at the university.

In Alcala de Henares, Spain, Bergoglio finished his final level of Jesuit spiritual training, tertianship, and made final, solemn vows as a Jesuit on April 22, 1973, including the fourth vow of obedience to the pope’s mission.

For six years, he served as provincial superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina.

The Yom Kippur War cut short his journey to Jerusalem in 1973, shortly after he was designated provincial superior.

A year after serving as vice president for the San Miguel Institute for the Humanities, he was named the school’s new rector; he had previously studied there. While in Ireland, he stayed in the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy Jesuit Center, where he studied English for the first three months of 1980. For six years, he served at San Miguel until being replaced by someone more in sync with the worldwide movement in the Society of Jesus toward social justice, rather than his concentration on popular religiosity and direct pastoral service.

Consideration of possible dissertation topics took him to Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt, Germany.

He decided to investigate Romano Guardini’s work, specifically his study of ‘Contrast,’ published in his 1925 work Der Gegensatz, by the German/Italian theologian. Córdoba’s Jesuit community entrusted him with the responsibility of serving as a confessor and spiritual director. An important Marian devotion in Argentina is the artwork Mary, Untied by Knots, which he witnessed in Augsburg while in Germany.

A priest from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Stefan Czmil, supervised Bergoglio during his time at the Salesian Academy. Czmil’s funeral Mass was typically celebrated by Bergoglio many hours before the rest of his class.

For these reasons, and because of his work as auxiliary bishop in Buenos Aires and ongoing disagreement with the Jesuit leadership and scholars, Bergoglio was advised by Jesuit authorities in 1992 not to live in any Jesuit residences.

In his new role as a bishop, he no longer had to answer to his former Jesuit superior. His “virtual alienation from the Jesuits” didn’t end until he was elected pope, and he never again visited a Jesuit convent.

Benedict XVI appointed him as Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992; he was consecrated on June 27, 1992, by Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

He adopted the phrase Miserando atque eligendo as the motto for his diocese. “Because he saw him through the eyes of kindness and chose him,” according to Saint Bede’s homily on Matthew 9:9–13.

A coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires with the right of succession was named by Pope John Paul II on June 3, 1997. Bergoglio was named Metropolitan Archbishop of Buenos Aires after Quarracino’s death on February 28, 1998.

In that capacity, Bergoglio constructed new parishes and reformed the administrative offices of the archdiocese, spearheaded pro-life efforts, and established a committee on divorces. One of his most important tasks as archbishop was to expand the Church’s presence in the city’s poorest neighborhoods… The number of priests stationed in the slums more than doubled under his watch. He became known as the “Slum Bishop” as a result of this activity.

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio disposed of the archdiocese’s shares in various banks and converted its accounts to those of a typical customer in international banks within his first few months in the position. The archdiocese was on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of the local church’s investments in banks. The church was required to exercise more economic restraint because it was a regular customer of the bank.

For those Eastern Catholics in Argentina who did not have a prelate of their own church on November 6, 1998, he was named the ordinary.

When Sviatoslav Shevchuk, a major archbishop of the Greek Catholic Church, was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio “took care of our Church in Argentina” as the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Shevchuk said.

A former bishop who had been suspended as a priest for his opposition to the Argentine Revolution military dictatorship in 1972 was reconciled with Bergoglio in 2000, and it was the only church official to do so. He defended the marriage of Podestá’s wife to the Pope. For his part, Pope Francis remarked that the Catholic Church in Argentina “must wear clothes of public penance” as a form of reparation for its crimes committed during the Dirty War era of dictatorship in the 1970s.

Holy Thursday ceremonial foot washing became Bergoglio’s tradition in institutions such as prisons, hospitals, and senior homes.

Cardinal Bergoglio established a weekly Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite in 2007 barely two days after Benedict XVI released new restrictions for using the liturgical forms before the Second Vatican Council. It was a weekly event.

The Argentine Episcopal Conference elected Bergoglio its president for a three-year term (2005–08) on November 8, 2005.

November 11, 2008, was the date of his re-election. Despite his retirement, he remained a member of the commission’s permanent governing body, serving as president of the committee overseeing the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and serving on the liturgy committee responsible for shrine maintenance.

A collective apology was given by Bergoglio as leader of the Argentine Catholic bishops’ conference for the church’s failure to protect people from the Junta during the Dirty War. Upon reaching the mandatory age of resignation as archbishop of Buenos Aires in December 2011, Bergoglio handed in his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI in accordance with canon law. Archbishop John Paul II was still in office because there was no coadjutor archbishop in situ.

Pope John Paul II made Archbishop Bergoglio a cardinal at the consistory on February 21, 2001, and conferred on him the title of cardinal-priest of San Roberto Bellarmino, a church dedicated to the Jesuits and named after one of their founders. On October 14, 2001, he was formally installed in the church. It was a trip he and his sister Mara Elena made while they were in Rome for their father’s christening ceremony.

During his time as a cardinal, Bergoglio held five administrative roles in the Roman Curia. ‘ On the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments, he served as a member of a number of other committees and commissions, including the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Society of Apostolic Life, and the Pontifical Council for the Family. Benedict XVI’s successor to Cardinal Edward Egan, who returned to New York City following the September 11 attacks, was praised by the Catholic Herald as “a man open to communion and discussion” in the Synod of Bishops later that year.

Personal humility, doctrinal conservatives, and a strong devotion to social justice were hallmarks of Cardinal Bergoglio.

He was known for his humility because he lived a humble life. Olivos bishop’s mansion in the suburb of Olivos was not his place of residence. He commuted by bus and prepared his own meals at his apartment.

He only made “lightning visits” to Rome throughout his short stay there. In his letters, he often included a miniature picture of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, calling her “a wonderful missionary saint.” He was well-known for his devotion to her.

One of the contenders for the papacy after Pope John Paul II’s death on April 2, 2005, was Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who attended his burial.

The conclave that chose Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 included him as a cardinal elector. According to John L. Allen Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter, Bergoglio was a frontrunner in the 2005 conclave for the Roman Catholic Church. Bergoglio was the second-place finisher and main contender to Cardinal Ratzinger in the 2005 conclave, according to the Italian magazine Limes, which claimed that he received 40 votes in the third ballot, but only 26 votes in the fourth and final ballot.

It was alleged that the information came from an unnamed cardinal who was present at the conclave and kept a diary. For a Latin American papabile, this number of votes was unprecedented, according to Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli.

During the election, La Stampa stated that Bergoglio and Ratzinger were neck-and-neck until Bergoglio made an emotional appeal to the cardinals not to vote for him. He requested this because he feared that the conclave would take too long to pick a new Pope, according to Tornielli.

Prior to being named a cardinal, Pope Francis was connected with a group called Communion and Liberation, a sort of Catholic evangelical lay organization called associations of the faithful.

The Rimini Meeting, an annual event held in late summer in Italy, is where he often appeared. When six Pallottines killed in the San Patricio Church shooting asked Cardinal Bergoglio to grant them beatification, the third step toward sainthood, in 2005, he did so. A separate inquiry into the deaths was also launched by Bergoglio under the aegis of Argentina’s then-ruling military dictatorship, the National Reorganization Process.

Relations with Argentine governments

During Argentina’s Dirty War in May 1976, two Jesuit priests, Orlando Yorio and Franz Jalics were allegedly kidnapped and held hostage by the Navy, and Bergoglio was named as a suspect. However, contrary to rumors, he never tried to expel the priests from the Jesuit order, despite his fears for their safety.

An Argentine human-rights lawyer, Myriam Bregman, filed a criminal complaint in 2005 alleging Bergoglio, as superior in the Society of Jesus of Argentina, of complicity in the kidnapping. No details were provided in the complaint, which was denounced by a spokesman for Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. In the end, the case was dismissed. It took five months for the priests to be discovered semi-naked and sedated, yet they survived.

According to Yorio, by refusing to inform the authorities of his support for the group’s activities, Bergoglio effectively handed them over to the death squads. According to Yorio, who passed away in 2000, Bergoglio did nothing “to free us, in fact precisely the contrary,” in a 1999 interview. As soon as Jalics moved into seclusion in a German monastery, he refused to discuss the allegations made against him.

The kidnapping had been confirmed by Jalics two days after Francis’ election, but he later released a statement in which the former lay colleague who had become an insurgent and been captured was given the names Yorio and Jalics when he was interrogated. Second statement: “It is false to suggest that our capture occurred at the initiative of Father Bergoglio (…) the fact is, Orlando Yorio and I were not denounced by Father Bergoglio,” Jalics wrote.

Afterward, Bergoglio told his authorized biographer Sergio Rubin that he fought behind the scenes to free the priests; Bergoglio’s mediation with dictator Jorge Rafael Videla on their behalf may have saved their lives. Bergoglio.

Rubin was also told by Bergoglio that he had given his own identity papers to a man who resembled him so that he might depart Argentina under the dictatorship.

When Rubin interviewed Bergoglio about those occurrences, he was the only person who spoke to him about them.  Ex-judge Alicia Oliveira has also claimed that Bergoglio assisted persons fleeing Argentina under the junta’s rule. Both Gonzalo Mosca and José Caravias have told the media how Pope Francis helped them escape the Argentine dictatorship when Francis was just a young man.

He was “anguished” and “extremely critical” of the regime throughout the Dirty War, according to Oliveira.

It was during this meeting that he told Oliveira that it was time for Bergoglio to come up. “He was unable to. That it was a difficult task.”

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning artist, and human rights campaigner, once said: “Perhaps he lacked the bravery of other priests, but he never supported the dictatorship… The dictatorship was not Bergoglio’s collaborator.” There is no evidence to link Bergoglio to the dictatorship, says Graciela Fernández Meijide, a member of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights. According to the Clarn newspaper, she said: “Justice was unable to establish the absence of any relevant data. During my time in the APDH, I received hundreds of testimonies from victims of the dictatorship. There was no mention of Bergoglio. In the CONADEP, too, it was such.

He was never referred to as an initiator or anything else.” According to a statement from Argentine Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti, Pope Francis is “totally innocent” of the charges. Bergoglio had no reason to expect that the incarceration of Yorio and Jalics would result in their deaths, as noted by historian Uki Goi because the military dictatorship had a favorable public image in early 1976 and the extent of its political repression was not widely recognized until much later.

On social media, a photo of Bergoglio handing out Holy Communion to dictator Jorge Rafael Videla became a viral sensation after his election as pope in 2013. The daily Página/12 has also used it.

In no time, the photo’s falsity was exposed. Carlos Berón de Astrada, the priest whose face is obscured in the photograph, has been identified as the man in the photo. After Videla’s presidential pardon, the photo was taken in 1990 at the “Pequea Obra de la Divina Providencia Don Orione” chapel. The shot was taken by AFP and first appeared in Crónica, a Spanish publication.

Argentina’s new president, Fernando de la Ra, took office in 1999 when Carlos Menem stepped down. On 25 May, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio performed the annual Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral. In 2000, Bergoglio slammed society’s perceived lack of interest in the world. When Argentina went through an economic depression, the Church attacked the government’s budgetary austerity, which led to an increase in poverty.

As a way to find a resolution to the situation, De la Ra requested that the Church encourage leaders of the economic and political sectors to engage in conversation. If Bergoglio had told him that the meeting had been canceled because of a misunderstanding between De la Ra’s aide and the president, he would have declined to participate. Because De la Ra only made the request in press interviews, Bishop Jorge Casaretto thinks it’s doubtful.

Ramón Puerta was elected president of the Senate in 2001 after the Justicialist Party won the election and gained the majority in Congress.

Due to the resignation of Vice President Carlos lvarez just a few days prior, an opposing party found itself in second place. Inquiring about an interview with Puerta, Bergoglio got a favorable impression of him and requested one A confident Puerta reassured De la Ra that the Justicialists were not plotting his ouster and offered to work with the president to push through any legislation that would be necessary.

After the December 2001 riots, he demanded that police separate rioters and vandals from peaceful protestors and the Ministry of the Interior agreed.

President Néstor Kirchner was present as Cardinal Bergoglio said Mass at the cathedral on the First National Government holiday in 2004. He heard Bergoglio call for greater political discussion, oppose intolerance, and denounce showmanship and loud pronouncements.

The following year, Kirchner celebrated the national day abroad, and the cathedral’s Mass was canceled. His support for his fellow Jesuit Joaquin Piá in 2006 helped him defeat an amendment that would have allowed him to run for reelection for a third term as mayor of the Misiones Province. A similar scheme in other provinces, and eventually the national constitution, was envisioned by Kirchner. To the end of his life, Kirchner saw Bergoglio as a political opponent.

Bergoglio’s relationship with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Kirchner’s widow and successor, has been hostile. The administration perceived Bergoglio’s plea for national reconciliation in 2008 as a support for anti-government protesters, which he denied.During the battle to legalise same-sex marriage, they had an especially strained relationship.

Initial reactions to Bergoglio’s election as pope were divided. There was much celebration in Argentina, but a pro-government tabloid (Página/12) revealed additional charges concerning the Dirty War, and Argentina’s National Library head outlined an international conspiracy theory. The president congratulated the new pope for more than an hour before making a brief reference to him in a regular speech.

Cristina Kirchner, on the other hand, made what political analyst Claudio Fantini called a “Copernican pivot” in her relationship with the pope and completely embraced the Francis phenomenon because of the pope’s popularity in Argentina.

Kirchner met privately with Bergoglio, now Francis, the day before his inauguration as pope. They ate lunch together and exchanged gifts before going their separate ways. This was the first meeting between the new pope and a head of state, and talk was rife that the two had reconciled their differences. As a result of this development, Página/12 withdrew their critical articles regarding Bergoglio, published by Horacio Verbitsky, off their website.

Papacy

It has been stated that Francis is in good health at the age of 76, despite the fact that he had some lung tissue removed in his youth.

In the unlikely event that he develops a respiratory illness, his respiratory reserve may be compromised. Sciatica has already disrupted his schedule, delaying his return to Argentina for many days in 2007. There have never been more Jesuits in the Catholic Church than there are now. There had been some tensions between the Society of Jesus and the Vatican before this appointment was made.

As a result of his second-place finish in the 2005 conclave, Bergoglio appeared to be the only other feasible contender. He is also the first from America and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. According to several media outlets, he is the first non-European pope, but he is actually the 11th; Gregory III from Syria, who died in 741, was prior. As a result, while Francis wasn’t actually born in Europe, his father and both of her mother’s grandparents are from northern Italy, where he was born and raised.

Compared to his predecessors, his demeanor as pope has been described as “no-frills,” and the press has noted that “his common touch and accessibility is proving to be the greatest inspiration.”

Pope Francis rode a bus back to his accommodation after being elected on the night of his election rather than being taken in the papal car. His second visit was to Cardinal Jorge Mara Meja’s hospital, where he mingled with the facility’s patients and personnel.

During his first media appearance after his election, on the Saturday following, the pope justified his choice of papal name, citing Saint Francis of Assisi as “the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man,” and he added “[h]ow I would prefer a poor Church, and for the poor”.

He is fluent in Spanish, Italian, German, and the “daily language” of the Holy See, Vatican City’s official language. As well as being fluent in Latin (the official language of the Holy See), he is also fluent in French (the language of France), Portuguese (the language of Portugal), English, and some Piedmontese (the language of Italy).

Instead of living in the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis has chosen to remain in the Vatican guest house, where he may welcome visitors and have meetings, in a suite. Since Pope Pius X, he is the first pope to live outside of the papal residence. The Angelus is still sung from the window of the Apostolic Palace.

Election

On the second day of the 2013 papal conclave, Bergoglio was elected pope and assumed the papal name Francis. During the conclave’s fifth round of voting, Francis was selected as its new leader. Cardinal protodeacon Jean-Louis Tauran delivered the Habemus Papam pronouncement.

A Latin American couple of friends of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn whispered Bergoglio’s name into Schönborn’s ear; Schönborn replied, “if these individuals say Bergoglio, that’s an indication of the Holy Spirit.” The conclave was secret, and thus, the conclave’s results were confidential.

Rather than sitting on the papal throne, Francis stood to welcome his cardinals’ congratulatory greetings, which was seen as an obvious indicator of a shift in Vatican protocol.

He donned a white cassock instead of the red, ermine-trimmed mozzetta used by previous popes when he appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. Unlike his predecessors, who wore a gold pectoral cross, he chose to wear the same iron one he had worn as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Urbi et Orbi blessings were bestowed on hundreds of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square after he was chosen and chose his name. “The Bishop Emeritus of Rome” Pope Benedict XVI and “the new Bishop of Rome” Pope Francis encouraged the throng to pray for him before he blessed the crowd in St. Peter’s Square. Pope Francis was inaugurated in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on March 19, 2013.

In the presence of world leaders in politics and religion, he celebrated Mass. Francis’ homily centered on the liturgical holiday of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph.

Name

It was on March 16, 2013, at the beginning of his first public audience, when Francis said that he had chosen the name “Francis” because he was particularly concerned about the well-being of the poor.

The Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes had embraced him and said, “Don’t forget the poor,” as it became evident that he would be chosen the new bishop of Rome during the conclave vote, which had made Bergoglio think of the saint.

In the past, Bergoglio has voiced his respect for St. Francis and explained that he was inspired by his life and work “He introduced Christianity to a concept of poverty as a counterpoint to the ostentation, conceit, and vanity of the time’s political and religious leaders. He made history.”

Francis is the first pope to bear that name. He was elected with the papal name “Francis,” not “Francis I,” as the Vatican stated on the day of his election; hence, he does not have a regnal number. When Francis II is elected, the name will be Francis I, according to a Vatican spokeswoman. Lando’s 913–914 pontificate was the last time a serving pope had a name that was not previously used by a predecessor.

On the other hand, some cardinal-electors had joked with him, telling him that he should pick Adrian VI or Clement to make amends with Clement XIV, who disbanded the Jesuit order because Adrian was a reformer.

In commemoration of John XXIII, it was stated in February 2014 that if elected in 2005, Bergoglio would have selected the pontifical name “John XXIV.” “John, I would have called myself John, like the Good Pope; I would have been entirely inspired by him,” he reportedly told Cardinal Francesco Marchisano.

All senior Roman Curia officials were formally asked to extend their terms of service on March 16, 2013, by Pope Francis.

Alfred Xuereb was appointed as his personal secretary by the king. To fill the office of Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, he appointed José Rodrguez Carballo as secretary on April 6, a position that had been empty for several months. On the occasion of a new pope’s election, Vatican employees were given several million Euros in bonuses, which Francis decided to donate to charity instead. A €25,000 annual payment for cardinals serving as board members at Vatican bank was also scrapped by Pope Francis in his first year in office.

His new Council of Cardinal Advisers was established on April 13th, 2013, and consists of eight cardinals who will advise him on how to reorganize the Roman Curia. Only one member of the Curia was in the meeting, which included numerous well-known Vatican critics.

President Giuseppe Bertello, Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa of Chile, Oswald Gracia of India, Reinhard Marx an of Germany, Laurent Pasinya an of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, George Pell of Australia, Seán O’Malley of the United States, and scar Andrés Rodrguez Maradiaga of Honduras are the other six members of the Vatican City State governorate delegation at this year’s meeting. Bishop Marcello Semeraro was appointed secretary and the group’s first meeting was slated for 1–3 October.

Early issues

21 British Catholic peers and MPs from all parties requested Pope Francis in March 2013 to allow married men in Great Britain to be ordained as priests but preserving celibacy as the rule for bishops. When married Anglican priests can enter the Catholic Church and become priests under either the Pastoral Provision of June 20, 1980, or the Anglican ordinariate of 2009, they wonder why married Catholic priests cannot do so.

According to Fouad Twal (the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem), the pope should visit Jerusalem at some point in the future.

The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Louis Raphael I, requested that the pope travels to Iraq to see the “embattled Christian community.”

The first-ever papal visit to Mesopotamia’s dwindling Christian villages was made by Pope Francis in March of 2021.

Ten male and two female juveniles, ages 14 to 21, were imprisoned at Rome’s Casal del Marmo detention facility on the first Holy Thursday following Francis’s election, and he washed and kissed their feet as a sign that he was at their service.

The pope was the first to include women in this ceremony, though he had done so previously as archbishop. Muslims were present in both male and female prisoner populations.

In his first Easter homily, delivered on March 31, 2013, Francis called for international peace, naming the Middle East, Africa, and both North and South Korea by name.

While criticizing those who succumb to the lure of “easy wealth” in a world run amok by greed, he also pleaded for the human race to do its part to conserve the planet’s natural resources. Jesus, “who converts death into life, we beg the rising Jesus, who turns hatred into love, vengeance and forgiveness, conflict to peace,” he wrote. Francis chose not to read the greetings prepared by the Vatican in 65 different languages. “At least, for now, I feel at ease using Italian, the everyday language of the Holy See,” Vatican officials claim.

Since his election as pope in 2013, Pope Francis has been reaffirming his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVIplan ,’s to restructure the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious. New York Times reported in 2012 that Pope Benedict XVI was concerned that the group of nuns had feminist leanings, concentrated too much on alleviating social and economic inequality rather than preventing abortion, and allowed speakers who questioned church teaching to speak at its gatherings. After a year-long inquiry, the case was finally closed in April 2015. As a result of the closure, the sisters’ emphasis is consistent with that of Pope Francis, who visited the United States in September 2015.

On May 12th, Pope Francis canonized the first Colombian saint, Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena, the second female Mexican saint, Mara Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, and the 813 15th-century Martyrs of Otranto, all of whom were accepted for sainthood during Benedict XVI’s tenure. He remarked, “As we honor the martyrs of Otranto, pray for the countless Christians who continue to suffer violence and for the bravery and fate to react to evil with goodness.”

Synodal church

For example, he has presided over synods on the family (2014), young people (2018), and the Amazonian Church (2019). (2019). Episcopalis communio, Francis’ apostolic constitution from this year, allows a synod’s final statement to become magisterial teaching simply by receiving the consent of the pope. The synod’s secretary-general was also empowered to receive comments from the laity.

A truly synodal church may be the most significant achievement of Pope Francis’s reign, according to some observers.

Consultation with Catholic laity

Francis’ efforts to unite the Catholic Church have been questioned by a 2014 World Values Survey highlighted in the Washington Post and Time. Although many Catholics were pleased with Francis’ personality, they disagreed with certain of his ideas. Abortion, artificial contraception, divorce, the ordination of women, and married priests are all hot-button issues among Catholics, according to the results of a recent survey.

A poll of the laity’s views was distributed by Francis to parishes in the same month, and the responses were regarded as “far broader consultation than merely a survey”. However, unlike his recent predecessors who argued that the Catholic Church is not a democracy of popular opinion, he continued to speak out on Catholic doctrine.

It “is not in any sense that a social scientist would recognize” as a survey, according to Lancaster University’s Linda Woodhead, of the poll Pope Francis launched. It would be impossible for the average Catholic to understand theological language in there, according to Woodhead. Nevertheless, she had a sneaking suspicion that the survey had some sway.

According to a Church spokesman, a high-ranking Vatican official requested that the survey results remain confidential and that orders had come from the pope that the information should not be made public until after October 2014, the Catholic Church in England and Wales had refused to publish results of this survey.

Laity participation in decision-making has disappointed many reformers who had anticipated more involvement. There was a wide discrepancy between what the Catholic Church teaches and what ordinary Catholics were doing in certain other countries, such as Germany and Austria.

Pope Francis opposes both abortion and homosexual marriage, according to Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, the former Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, an American cardinal with a longstanding reputation as one of the church’s most strident conservative hardliners.

He also stated that Francis and Cardinal Kasper would not amend or redefine any dogmas relevant to Church doctrine on doctrinal concerns during the 2014 consistory discussions at the Vatican press office.

Institute for the Works of Religion

 

When Pope Francis took the helm, the Vatican Bank promised to be more transparent in its financial operations in the first few months of his presidency. There have long been rumors that the bank was involved in corruption and money laundering. Francis set up a commission to advise him on how to improve the Bank’s operations. Furthermore, Promontory Financial Group was tasked with investigating the bank’s entire customer base in relation to these findings.

A letter rogatory was issued by the Vatican Tribunal’s Promoter of Justice for the first time in the history of the Republic of Italy in August 2013 because of this matter. During the closing days of Benedict XVI’s pontificate in January 2014, Francis removed four of the five cardinal overseers of the Vatican Bank.

Experts and clerics were investigating the bank’s operations. Ernst von Freyberg was given command. Moneyval believes that more change is required, and Francis may be inclined to shut down the bank if the measures prove too challenging. Reforms’ prospects are clouded by the question of how far they can go.

A final draught of Benedict XVI’s long-awaited encyclical Lumen Fidei was published on June 29, 2013, by Pope Francis.

The apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium—which Francis referred to as the beginning of his papacy—was published on November 24, 2013, the day after he was elected pope. Pope Francis released his first original encyclical, Laudato si’, on June 18, 2015.

Francis’ second apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, was issued on April 8th, 2016, and focused on the importance of family love. At the end of 2016, four cardinals formally requested clarification from Pope Francis, specifically on the subject of allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion.

Ai nostri tempi and De concordia inter codices are two of his most famous motu proprios (personal mottos). This new avenue to canonization was paved by Francis in his encyclical Maiorem has direction.

It was he who added to the Roman Curia by creating two new Secretariats: one dedicated to the economy, and the other to communications. He made it easier to declare a marriage null and void.

Francis signed Veritatis Gaudium, a new apostolic constitution for ecclesiastical universities and faculties, on December 8, 2017, and it was released on January 29, 2018, according to Francis’ official website.

On March 19, 2018, Pope Francis issued a new Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et exultate (Rejoice and exult), which focuses on “the vocation to holiness in today’s world” for everyone. Contrary to modern interpretations of the Pelagian and Gnostic heresies, Jesus’ beatitudes exhort people to “go against the flow.” he writes.

Francis acknowledged the sexual abuse of religious sisters by priests and bishops in his encyclical, Lumen Gentium, published in February of this year.

In response to this and other allegations of clerical sexual abuse, Francis organized a meeting in Rome, Italy, from February 21–24, 2019, to discuss the issue.

It was in response to this summit on May 9th, 2019, that Francis promulgated the motu proprio Vos estis lux Mundi that laid out specific duties, including reporting on bishops and they’re superior to the Holy See directly, while simultaneously involving another bishop in the archdiocese of a charged bishop.

Scripturae sacrae affectus will be released on September 30, 2020, to commemorate the 16th centennial of the death of Jerome.

Francis published the encyclical Fratelli tutti, which uses St. Francis’ words to characterize our global brotherhood and sisterhood, on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, which falls on October 4, 2020.

Papal letter “Patris corde,” published on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2020, will be read by all Catholics.

A “Year of Saint Joseph” has been declared by the Pope to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Saint Joseph’s appointment as the Patron of the Universal Church.

Pascite gregem Dei, Francis’ apostolic constitution, will be released on June 1, 2021.

On the 16th of July in 2021, Pope Francis released the motu proprio Traditions custodes. The document repealed Benedict XVI’s 2007 Summorum Pontificum authorization for the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, with Traditions custodes placing additional restrictions on the 1962 Roman Missal. A letter that accompanied the motu proprio from Pope Francis claimed that the emphasis on Paul VI’s Mass will help restore the “unity I intend to re-establish throughout the Roman Rite Church.”

Ecumenism and interreligious dialogue

With regard to fostering ecumenism, Pope Francis has followed in the footsteps of the Second Vatican Council and the papacies following the Council in supporting interaction with leaders of other religions, as well as promoting peace with people who do not believe in God.

Clerical titles

Francis announced in January 2014 that he would appoint fewer monsignors and only those who have been honored to the lowest rank of monsignor, chaplain of His Holiness, in the order of the remaining three. To be eligible, priests must be at least 65 years of age and ordained by their diocese. Francis never sought the title of the archbishop for any of his priests while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires for 15 years.

Though he did not apply this prohibition to clergy serving in the Roman Curia or diplomatic corps, where careerism is a major problem, it is widely assumed that he associated it with clerical careerism and hierarchy.

Canonizations and beatifications

On May 12, 2013, Pope Francis presided over the first canonizations of his pontificate, which saw the Martyrs of Otranto become saints in his name. The first canonization of Pope Francis exceeded the record of Pope John Paul II in canonising the most saints in a pontificate, with the canonization of Antonio Primaldo and his 812 companions killed by the Ottomans in 1480. Pope Francis approved the canonizations of Angela of Foligno and Peter Faber in October and December, respectively.

On 3 April 2014, Pope Francis authorized the canonizations of the Jesuit José de Anchieta, the Ursuline nun Marie of the Incarnation, and the bishop François de Laval, all of whom were previously canonised.

John XXIII and John Paul II were canonised on April 27, 2014, while six additional saints were canonised the following November 23.

Joseph Vaz was canonised by Pope Francis during his visit to Sri Lanka on 14 January 2015; Junpero Serra was canonised in the United States on 23 September; four other saints were canonised, including the first married couple to be named as saints, on 18 October.

Maria Elisabeth Hesselblad and Stanislaus Papczyski were canonised by Pope Francis on June 5, 2016, while Teresa of Calcutta was canonised on September 4, 2016.

Francisco and Jacinta Marto were canonised during the pope’s visit to Fátima in mid-2017, as well as 35 additional saints on October 15.

On October 14, 2018, Pope Francis made seven saints, including his predecessor Pope Paul VI and scar Romero.

When Pope Francis confirmed Bartholomew of Braga’s equipollent canonization in the middle of 2019, it was widely expected.

Newman was one of the five new saints to be canonised by Pope Francis on October 13th, 2019.

On 24 April 2021, Pope Francis approved the canonization of Margherita della Metola as a martyr.

He has presided over three beatifications: Paul Yun Ji-Chung and 123 companions on August 16, 2014; Pope Paul VI on October 19, 2014; and the two Colombian martyrs on September 8, 2017. The pope has also continued the practice of having beatifications celebrated in the place of the individual’s origin.

Numerous men and women, including Opus Dei’s lvaro del Portillo (canonised on September 27, 2014), the martyred archbishop scar Romero (canonised on May 23, 2015), Polish cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (canonized on September 12, 2021), and large groups of Spanish martyrs, have been granted beatification by Pope Francis.

On November 8 of this year, Pope Francis proclaimed his predecessor, John Paul I, a saint.

Church Doctors

At a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 12th, 2015, Pope Francis formally named Saint Gregory of Narek as the 36th Doctor of the Church; Armenian Catholic and Apostolic Church representatives were in attendance. St. Irenaeus of Lyon was formally named as the 37th Doctor of the Church on January 21, 2022, by Pope Francis, with the additional title “Doctor unitatis” (Doctor of Unity) attached to the title.

Consistories

Francis named 19 new cardinals at his first consistory as pope, which took place on February 22nd, 2014. Sixteen of these new cardinals were under the age of eighty at the time of their appointment, making them eligible to vote in a papal conclave.

New appointees from South America, Africa, and Asia, including Chibly Langlois of Haiti and Philippe Nakellentuba Ouedraogo of Burkina Faso, are among the world’s poorest nations. In the consistory, Francis and Benedict XVI appeared together in public for the first time.

He also attended the second consistory on February 14, 2015, as Francis elevated 20 new cardinals, 15 of whom were under the age of eighty and five who were beyond. Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar and Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga were both appointed cardinals by Pope Francis.

On November 19, 2016, Pope Francis presided over the third conclave of his presidency, appointing 17 new cardinals. Thirteen of those people were under the age of eighty at the time of their ascent, while four were over the age of eighty. Cardinals Patrick D’Rozario from Bangladesh and Dieudonné Nzapalainga from the Central African Republic is among the first three American cardinals to be elevated by Pope Francis, who also named the first three American cardinals and only one curial appointment during his papacy.

On June 28, 2017, Pope Francis presided over a fourth consistory in which he elevated five new cardinals. In order to be able to vote in a papal conclave, each of the five had to be under the age of eighty. No cardinals in this consistory were from the Roman Curia, and only one was an auxiliary bishop. This is notable since the pope is continuing his pattern of promoting cardinals from diverse backgrounds.

This was Francis’ fifth conclave, which saw the appointment of 14 new cardinals on June 28, 2018. As a result, eleven of them were eligible to vote in a future papal conclave, but the remaining three were ineligible since they were above the age of eighty.

Pope Benedict XVI continued to name the Vicar of Rome and a curial perfect as cardinals while naming his replacement for the Secretariat of State in anticipation of his transition to a curial department. Like in 2016, Pope Francis made a priest a cardinal in Madagascar, Pakistan, and Iraq as part of his tradition of giving the red hat to individuals from the peripheries. For the first time, Pope Francis made papal almoner Konrad Krajewski a cardinal at the consistory. – The Vatican. Later, Francis stated that he wanted the almoner’s office to continue to wear the red hat because it is an integral part of the Vatican’s structure.

It wasn’t expected that Francis would announce the appointment of 13 new cardinals during his weekly Sunday Angelus talk on September 1st, 2019. There were 10 of these appointees under the age of 80, and three of them were over the age of 80, thus they would be cardinal electors. The new cardinals were sworn in on 5 October 2019 at the annual consistory celebration. New cardinals tend to hail from the margins of the church or from less developed nations.

A Muslim majority country (Morocco) and an Indonesian country (renowned for its work on refugee and migration issues) each had two new appointees. As a result of Francis’ appointment, the College of Cardinals now has 70 cardinal electors out of a possible 130.

Pope Francis appointed thirteen new cardinals on 28 November 2020; nine of the new cardinals were under the age of 80, thus they would be eligible to vote in a future conclave.

Additionally, the pope named four cardinals above the age of 80 to the Congregation for Divine Worship. As Francis had done, most of these new cardinals followed Francis’s lead by selecting the first cardinals to represent Brunei and Rwanda. Along with the first African American cardinal (Gregory) and the first Conventual Franciscan (Gambetti) in 160 years, Francis also named a new cardinal (Lojudice) from Siena, Italy, a first since 1801.

On his nomination, three of his appointee were merely priests, therefore two (Gambetti and Feroci) were consecrated bishops and one (Cantalamessa) gained a papal dispensation from the process.

Year of Mercy

 

A Special Jubilee Year of Mercy was declared by Pope Francis in April 2015 with the papal bull Misericordiae Vultus (Latin: “The Face of Mercy”), which began on December 8, 2015, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and ended on November 20, 2016, on the last Sunday before Advent and the Solemnity of the Feast of Christ the King of the Universe.

It was decided to open the Holy Doors of Rome’s major basilicas, including St. Peter’s Basilica, and to open “Doors of Mercy” in other major churches around the world, where the faithful could earn indulgences by fulfilling the usual conditions of praying for the pope’s intentions, confessing, and abstaining from sin, as well as partaking in communion.

When Lent comes around, the Holy See’s Apostolic Penitentiary will be staffed with specially trained and experienced priests dubbed “Missionaries of Mercy” who can forgive even the most grievous of sins. These priests will be available in every diocese throughout Lent.

On November 20, 2016, Pope Francis issued the Apostolic Letter Misericordia et Misera to mark the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. The World Day of the Poor was founded in honor of this occasion.

Church during COVID-19 pandemic

It was Francis’ decision to cancel his St. Peter’s Square general audiences during Italy’s COVID-19 pandemic to keep the crowds from forming and spreading the virus. During the period of prayer and fasting observed by the Diocese of Rome in memory of those affected by the virus, he urged priests to visit sick people and medical professionals. He also exhorted the faithful not to forget about the poor in the midst of the crisis. He also offered prayers for the people of China who had been infected by the virus.

On March 13, 2020, Pope Francis expressed his anger at the news that the Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome had closed all of its churches. France was quarantined along with the rest of Italy, but Francis begged for the quarantine to be lifted, pleading “not to leave the… people alone.”

In a letter to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD) dated March 20, 2020, Pope Francis requested the formation of a Vatican COVID-19 Commission to express the Church’s concern about the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to propose solutions to the potential socio-economic challenges it may bring.

‘Urbi et Orbi,’ which means ‘in this place and now,’ was given by Pope Francis on March 27.

Francis framed the context of Mark’s storm-calming parable this way in his homily: “You can feel it in the air, you can feel it in your actions… You can feel it in the deafening quiet and the dreadful blank that fills our existence… You can feel it in the air, you can feel it in your actions. We learn and experience Jesus’ priestly prayer of’may all be one’ when faced with suffering, which is the ultimate test of our peoples’ progress.”

Francis is adamant that getting vaccinated against the COVID virus is a moral imperative. It is Francis’ belief that people have a moral need to take care of themselves, and this responsibility extends to their neighbors. As he put it, “health care is a moral obligation.”

Role of women in the church

Francis approved the ordination of women as acolytes and lectors on January 11, 2021. Prior to the Catholic Church’s institutionalization of women’s ministry, these traditionally male-exclusive roles were only performed by men. These roles are separate from those reserved for ordained clergy, according to Francis.

Back-to-back appointments of women to positions previously held by men were announced in February 2021 by Pope Francis. When Nathalie Becquart was selected as the Synod of Bishops’ first co-undersecretary, he chose her from among the French Xaviere Missionary Sisters. Catia Summaria, an Italian judge, was the first woman to serve in the Vatican’s Court of Appeals as a Promoter of Justice.

Francis was elected by the cardinals to clean up the Vatican’s finances after scandals erupted under Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II’s administration. He indicated that he is determined to rid the Catholic Church of corruption, but that he was pessimistic because of a human problem that has been around for hundreds of years.

Theological emphases

A missionary urge among all Catholics, active sharing of their faith, avoidance of worldliness, and more visible living of the message of God’s compassion were revealed in Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium (Evangelii Gaudium).

Francis advocated for a “missionary and pastoral conversion” in his first major letter, Evangelii Gaudium (Joy to the World), in which the laity would actively participate in the church’s missionary duty. Finally, Francis defined holiness as “an drive to evangelize and to leave an imprint in this world” in his letter on the invitation to the same holiness for all, Gaudete et exsultate.

Francis advocated for government decentralization away from Rome and a synodal decision-making process involving consultation with the people.

To combat the oppression of women in the Church, he made women full members of the Vatican’s dicasteries.

Francis’ choice to name himself after St. Francis of Assisi was an early sign of his concern for the well-being of the entire natural world. In May of that year, Pope Francis issued his major environmental encyclical, Laudato si’ (Praise be to you).

Francis has highly lauded “popular movements”, which reflect the “power of us”, serve as a solution to the “culture of the self”, and are built on solidarity with the poor and the common good.

Mercy has been referred to as the “keyword” of Cardinal Walter Kasper’s pontificate.

31–32 One of the fundamental themes of his pontificate is God’s mercy, as encapsulated in his papal motto, Miserando atque eligendo. On the other hand, Francis has referred to certain Catholics’ “obsession” with “abortion, homosexual marriage and the use of contraceptive technologies,” which “do not represent the heart of Jesus Christ’s teaching,” as an example of this.

According to Francis, “Who am I to condemn if someone is gay and seeks God and has a good heart?”

As time progressed in 2015, he came to the conclusion that “the family is imperiled by escalating efforts by some to redefine the basic institution of marriage.” The same-sex marriage “disfigures God’s blueprint for creation,” he says, according to a statement he made.

In an interview released in October 2020, he declared that he favors legalizing same-sex civil unions; Although the interview was conducted in 2019, this section had been omitted from the official release since it was deemed inappropriate for the general public to see. Also, the phrase was regarded as favorable to gay adoption.

It is necessary that a civil union statute be enacted. Legally, they are protected. They are entitled to a family since they are offspring of God. Nobody should be evicted or made to suffer as a result of it.

He had made two replies to two different questions at two different occasions, but Vatican officials later explained that they were stitched together in a highly confusing fashion.

When it comes to gay marriage, Francis has never publicly stated his support. Also in 2015, Francis approved the Slovak vote on same-sex marriage, which would have prohibited the practice of same-sex adoptions.

Francis stated at a weekly audience in January 2022 that parents of LGBT children should provide support rather than condemnation to their children.

Francis backed the use of force to protect Iraq’s religious minorities from Islamic extremists.

During a meeting with a group of Yazidi refugees in Europe in January 2018, Francis voiced his support for their right to practice their faith without interference. While there, he called on the world community to “not be a mute and insensitive spectator in the face of your suffering.”

Controversies

Theological conservatives have upped their attacks on Pope Francis since 2016.

The conservative opposition to Francis has been described as “exceptional in its visibility” in recent Church history by one analyst.  It has been suggested that the degree of the disagreement stems from his application of pastoral discernment above and beyond theological principles.

On the recommendation of Pope Benedict, Bergoglio conducted an investigation in 2010 which concluded that Father Julio Grassi, a priest who was convicted of child sexual assault, was innocent and that his accusers were lying.

In March 2017, the Argentina Supreme Court confirmed Grassi’s conviction and 15-year prison sentence despite the study’s findings. There is no doubt in Francis’ mind that the Church was late to the party when it came to sexual abuse cases. A number of abuse survivors have expressed dissatisfaction with Francis’s reaction to sexual abuse in the Church during his pontificate, while others have commended his initiatives.

Francis was condemned in 2015 for helping a Chilean bishop suspected of concealing up sex crimes committed against minors, Juan Barros.

A Vatican investigation led to Barros and two other Chilean bishops resigning after Francis confessed he had made “grave errors” in judgment about Barros in 2018.

After Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse charges came to light, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan wrote an open letter criticizing Francis’ handling of the situation. In it, Vigan claimed that Francis was aware of the claims against McCarrick but did nothing about it. Vigan demanded that Pope Francis step down.

It was Francis’ “duty” to expose the Church’s sex abuse issues to the public, Francis said in a November 2021 interview, “to make people who live it less afraid.”

The apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia sparked debate on a theological level, notably in regards to whether it affected the Catholic Church’s sacramental discipline on access to the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist for divorced couples who have civilly remarried.

According to Pope Francis words, “it is necessary that the divorced who have entered a new partnership should feel part of the Church.” “A responsible personal and pastoral judgment of particular instances,” rather than “a new set of generic standards, canonical in origin and applicable to everyone,” was his plea.

The basic rule of thumb does give out a good which must be ignored or neglected, but in their formulation, it cannot provide absolutely for all specific scenarios, he continued to explain.”

When it came to the problem of receiving communion after a divorce or legal remarriage, Cardinals Raymond Leo Burke, Carlo Caffarra, Walter Brandmüller, and Joachim Meisner formally requested clarity from Pope Francis.

Their request was for a yes/no answer to five “dubia” questions. Until yet, Francis has not made a public statement. Various bishops across the world have put the exhortation into practice in different ways.

Ex-Congregation for the Doctrinal Faith prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller said that Amoris Laetitia should only be read in accordance with the prior doctrine. ” Those who are divorced or civilly remarried, according to Cardinal Müller, can only partake in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist if they commit to maintaining a life of total continence throughout that time. Luis Ladaria Ferrer was installed as the new dicastery perfect in 2017 after Francis announced that dicastery prefects would serve a single five-year term.

After the publication of Amoris Laetitia, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, one of the writers of the Dubai, says that “only a blind man could deny there is immense confusion, doubt, and instability in the church.”

A “Filial Correction” of Francis was signed by a group of conservative clergy, scholars, and laymen in July 2017.

When the pope refused to respond to the 25-page report, it was made public in September. In it, the pope was accused of propagating seven heretical notions during his pontificate by words, actions, and omissions.

“Cronic confusion” is being exacerbated by Francis’s “demeaning” of doctrine, “scandalizing” believers with dubious “teaching and pastoral practice” by appointing bishops who “scandalize” them, and “marginalizing or worse” prelates who object, according to Capuchin Father Thomas Weinandy, who served as the US Bishops’ former chief of doctrine.

In Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on February 4, 2019, Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, signed a joint declaration on human fraternity for world peace and living together.

When it comes to living in harmony with other religions, this joint statement is all about it. “The pluralism and diversity of religious traditions, color, sexual orientation and race, and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings,” the verse stated. According to Catholic theologian Chad Pecknold, “puzzling, and potentially troublesome” is what this sentence means. Some Catholics interpreted it as a reference to God’s “permissive will,” which allows evil to exist on the planet.

It is possible that the multiplicity of religions is evidence of our innate longing to know God, as Pecknold wrote. “The Gift of Filial Adoption, the Christian Faith: the only true and only God-willed religion,” was released by Bishop Athanasius Schneider on February 8th, 2019.

Francis revoked Benedict XVI’s decision in Summorum Pontificum and set further limits on the use of the Traditional Latin Mass in his motu proprio apostolic letter, Traditions custodes, in July 2021. Newly ordained priests must first seek permission from their bishops before celebrating the Latin Mass in their dioceses, among other adjustments made in the letter.

“Cardinals Raymond Burke, Gerhard Müller, and Joseph Zen, as well as many faithful who attend the traditional Latin Mass, generally known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, have challenged Pope Francis’s new policy, Traditions Custodes, which came into immediate force on July 16. The most common complaint is that the limits are unnecessarily onerous and that they were enacted too quickly.”

International policy

Francis is frequently accused by conservatives of having a “soft spot” for populist leftist groups. Carlos Eire, a Catholic Yale historian, stated Francis had a “preferential option for the oppressors” in Cuba after his visit there in 2015. Despite this, Francis remained an outspoken critic of populism from the right.

Catholics in China were angered when Cardinal Joseph Zen called Francis’ backing for the Vatican-China pact a step toward the “annihilation” of the Catholic Church in China.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that the pope’s moral authority could be in jeopardy if he cooperates with the Chinese Communist Party.

In a letter to Francis dated September 2020, Pompeo pleaded with the Pope to speak out against China’s human rights abuses.

Francis included China’s Uyghur minority in a list of the world’s most persecuted peoples in November. The Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, the unfortunate Uighurs, the Yazidi—what ISIS did to them was very cruel—or Christians in Egypt and Pakistan killed by explosives that went off while they worshiped in the church are all examples of individuals who have been persecuted by extremists. China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Zhao Lijian, stated that Francis’ comments had “no factual basis at all”.

Critics have also drawn analogies between Pope Francis and the new president of the United States, Donald Trump, since his election in 2016.

Francis made the following statement on Trump during the 2016 U.S. presidential election: “Anyone who only considers erecting barriers and not creating connections is not a Christian. That’s not what the Bible says.” Trump said, “It is disgusting for a religious leader to question someone’s religion.” According to Federico Lombardi, Francis’ statements were neither “a personal attack, nor a suggestion of who to vote for.”

The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, once claimed that Pope Francis was on his side when he was being criticized by the country’s bishops.

President of the Venezuelan episcopal conference declared that “there is no difference” between his organization and the Vatican during a meeting with Francis in June 2017.  Some 20 former Latin American presidents sent a letter to Pope Francis in January 2019 in which they criticized his Christmas talk on the ongoing crisis in Venezuela for being too basic and for not identifying what they thought were its root causes. Throughout the situation, Pope Francis has not taken aside.

During the Hong Kong protests of 2019, Cardinal Joseph Zen attacked Francis for not making a statement against China, and instead of being cited as saying that he was “very concerned” about the situation in Hong Kong “I’d like to visit China someday. China is one of my favorite countries “As a matter of fact. Francis likened Hong Kong’s protests to those in Chile and France, which he saw as similar.

While withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan was “legitimate,” Francis said the procedure of evacuations was “not thought through” and faulted the war for failing to develop a new nation in Afghanistan. To prevent the Taliban from retaliating against innocent civilians, the Vatican is in negotiations with them through Cardinal Pietro Parolin, he said.

International diplomatic role

To restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba, Francis played an important part in negotiations that took place in New York City. Obama and Castro announced the restoration on December 17th, 2014, at a joint press conference. ‘Bridge to Cuba via the Vatican,’ read the headline in the Los Angeles Times of December 19th. Throughout the process, Francis played a pivotal role in ensuring that the U.S.-Havana negotiations remained on track and that the ultimate agreement was reached.

“President Obama requested that the pope and the Government of Canada act as a middleman in the deal, which they did during the pope’s March 2014 visit to Rome. Pope Francis is being hailed for his role in the discussions’ success because “as a religious leader, he was able to convince both sides that the other side would meet its obligations.” The pope stopped in Cuba on his way to the United States for a visit in September 2015. “The proposal comes at a time when Francis has garnered a lot of acclaim for a breakthrough.”

Visit Cuba “seals that accomplishment, in which he functioned as a bridge between two erstwhile foes,” as stated in the previous sentence. It was in keeping with the pope’s goal to encourage a better understanding of both the Catholic Church’s and the Cuban Revolution’s roles, according to Latin American religion specialist Mario Paredes. Francis wrote a book titled “Dialogues Between John Paul II and Fidel Castro” while serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

For the first time, Pope John Paul II traveled to Cuba. Francis met Ral Castro, Cuba’s leader, in May 2015. Following a meeting at the Vatican City on May 10th, 2015, Castro announced that he was considering returning to the Church.

During a live broadcast of a press conference, he stated: “All of Pope Francis’ speeches and opinions have been read by me; if the pope keeps up this behavior, I will return to the [Catholic] church and return to praying. I’m telling the truth.” Castro promised to attend all of the pope’s Masses “and with satisfaction” if he were elected pope.

His trip to Israel in May 2014, during which he delivered 13 addresses, was well covered at the time.

He was met with protests, which led to an accused attempt at arson at the Dormition Abbey.

The night after his arrival, a fire broke out in the cave beneath the Church of the Nativity.

President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine visited the Vatican in May 2015 and was greeted by Pope Francis. Francis was widely believed to have complimented Abbas “Though his actual words were: “The angel of peace eliminates the demonic spirit of war. ‘” I’ve been thinking about you and wishing you peace.” Palestine’s statehood was recognized by the Vatican, which signed a treaty.

The Vatican expressed hope that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations could be restarted in recent pronouncements. On the occasion of the canonization of two Palestinian nuns, Abbas travelled to Vatican City.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital city, Sarajevo, welcomed Francis on June 6, 2015. During his time in this religiously diverse city, dubbed the “Jerusalem of Europe,” he advocated for tolerance and peace.

On September 25, 2015, Pope Francis delivered a speech at the United Nations.

While on Lesbos with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronimos II of Athenian, he visited the Moria Refugee Camp to draw attention to the global refugee crisis on April 16th, 2016. The declaration was signed by the three Christian leaders there.

Matthew Festing, the 79th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, was asked to resign by Pope Francis in January 2017. The Pope’s demand was made in response to the firing of Baron Albrecht von Boeselager from the Order of Malta by Festing and Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke. Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto was named as the next leader of the Order in May 2017.

During a meeting with President Trump in Vatican City on May 24, 2017, Pope Francis and Trump discussed the role of Catholics in the United States and the world. They exchanged views on a range of topics, including the role that religious communities can play in alleviating human suffering in places like Syria, Libya, and areas under the authority of ISIS.

As part of their discussion, they also touched on terrorism and the radicalization of young adults. It was Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, who addressed the issue of climate change and urged President Trump to remain in the Paris Agreement.
Francis reaffirmed that “we experience the impacts [of climate change] every day” and that we “know how the challenges are to be faced… [t]thanks to scientific understanding” at the 2017 World Food Day celebration. In his words, “There are legal instruments in place, such as the Paris Agreement, from which certain countries are resigning. Nonchalance toward ecosystems’ fragile balances and presumption that we can alter and control the planet’s limited resources are re-emerging.”

For the first time since John Paul II’s momentous trip to Ireland in 1979, Pope Francis paid a visit to the island last year.

When he visited Ireland, he apologized for priestly abuses in the United States and the Republic of Ireland.

Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s crown prince, invited Francis to Abu Dhabi in February 2019. In front of more than 120,000 people, Pope Francis celebrated his first papal Mass in the Arabian Peninsula at Zayed Sports City Stadium.

As part of his “pastoral work,” Francis has advocated for the rights of refugees and migrants throughout Europe and the United States. For this very reason and in order to draw attention to the Christian necessity at play in their circumstances he placed a statue in St. Peter’s Square (Hebrews 13:2).

After meeting Iraq’s leading Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in March 2021, Pope Francis will travel to Ur, the birthplace of Prophet Abraham, for a historic visit. He and the Iraqi priest urged the Muslim and Christian populations to work together for peace in a message of peaceful coexistence.

To put an end to the violence in Jerusalem, Pope Francis will deliver his Regina Caeli address on May 9th, 2021.

The dialogue with China about the nomination of new bishops was openly defended by Francis on September 1, 2021. Pope Francis underlined the importance of strengthening relations between the Vatican and the Chinese government, saying that discussion was preferable to silence.

Francis visited a military cemetery in Rome on November 1st, 2021, and paid honor to the dead soldiers of the Battle of Anzio in World War II and the Battle of the Piave River in Italy, both of which took place in Italy. Francis also commended military casualties for “fighting for their homes and ideals” and asked for global peace to be implemented.

Public image

 

In the eyes of the public, Francis is either a progressive reformer or a liberal moderate. According to the Vatican, news organizations in the West often try to depict his message with a less-doctrinal tone in order to communicate a more compassionate and tolerant message.

A “honeymoon” period, characterized by the pope’s softening of Catholic teachings and his alleged instigation of Vatican ecclesiastical reform, is frequently described in the media by believers and non-believers alike.

Not only do media systems differ in their coverage of Francis’s positions, but they also differ in their portrayals of specific events. A good illustration of this is his 2015 visit to Cuba. Press agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom focused on the religious significance of the pope’s visit, while Prensa Latina, the official government news agency, focused on its diplomatic nature. Francis was more likely to be shown meeting with ordinary Cubans on this tour than the official Cuban media, which was more likely to portray the pontiff interacting with high-ranking officials.

Both Time and The Advocate selected Pope Francis “Person of the Year” in December 2013, praising him and expressing confidence that he will reform the Roman Curia and alter Catholic theology on a number of contentious matters. He was also dubbed the “Best-dressed man” in 2013 by Esquire magazine because of his minimalist outfits, which are often in line with a current simplistic style in sartorial fashion. In January 2014, Rolling Stone magazine placed Pope Francis on the cover of their magazine.

Francis placed first on Fortune magazine’s ranking of the world’s best leaders. [409] A non-political personality, he was listed as the world’s fourth-most powerful person by Forbes on November 5, 2014. This time, Francis placed fifth on Forbes’ list of “The World’s Most Powerful People” published in December of 2016.

As a tribute to Pope Francis, a new song was published in March 2013 entitled Come Puoi (How Can I) (“How You Can”).

Argentine mayor Pablo Bureau stated in March that a part of a street leading to the city’s cathedral had been dubbed Papa Francisco. Other streets and a school where he went to school as a kid are already being considered for naming after him.

It was on November 28th, 2013, that Argentina’s lower house proposed the creation of a commemorative coin as a tribute to Pope Francis. The coins would bear the words “Tribute from the Argentine People to Pope Francis” beneath his face. Sales of papal mementos, an indication of popularity, were on the rise in May 2013.

It was just a few weeks before the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family began that Francis presided over his first combined public wedding ceremony for 20 couples from Rome’s Archdiocese.

Francis became the first pope to join Instagram on March 19, 2016.

He shattered records by amassing more than one million followers in less than a day.

While social media has both benefits and drawbacks, Pope Francis called on social media users to use it as a source of liberation rather than oppression in an annual meeting on the World Day of Social Communications.

Francis wrote his first op-ed for The New York Times on November 26th, 2020, addressing themes like the coronavirus and the necessity for global cooperation.  On top of all that, in his op-ed, the Pope took a shot at activists protesting against the COVID-19 regulations.

There were speculations in August 2021 that he was considering resigning due to health difficulties, but he quickly dispelled them, saying that he was “living a regular life.