Pope Francis The People's Pope. Photo by Giampiero Sposito | Reuters
Celebrating the life and mourning the death of Pope Francis
‘Pope Francis was one of the most beloved leaders of our time, embraced by religious and non-religious people alike. Why? At the beginning of his Papacy during Holy Week, he washed the feet of the poor. He welcomed immigrants, he embraced children, he visited the sick, he spoke out for the afflicted. His language and his actions showed how expansive he was in his boundless affirmation of the dignity of each human being.
‘In addition to this, he had a unique love for the Earth that matched that of Francis of Assisi, after whom he took his name as Pope. His powerful poetic and scientific awareness of the Earth can be seen throughout his 2015 Encyclical letter, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home.
‘Bill McKibben, the noted environmental activist and writer, calls Laudato Si’ “the most important document of his papacy and arguably the most important piece of writing so far this millennium.”
‘This widely read encyclical helped bring about the Paris Agreement in the same year. It also inspired a movement for igniting further awareness of our climate emergency.
Just as Pope John XXIII opened up the Church to the modern world with Vatican Council II over 50 years ago, so has Pope Francis opened up the Church to pressing social and environmental challenges. His legacy will be lasting – in encouraging ecojustice and integral ecology as key paths forward for our shared planetary future. Let us hope “the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor” will become an inspiring vision for the flourishing of the living Earth community.’-Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
‘Pope Francis: an outsider who was a force for good in the world.’
‘The Argentine pontiff was a vital progressive influence on issues such as migration, and fought for a more merciful, less rigid Catholic church.’
‘Pope Francis stood up for a gospel message of humility, inclusion and love for the stranger.’
Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP/The Guardian
‘Defying doctors’ orders to rest following his battle with double pneumonia, a weak Pope Francis last week visited Rome’s Regina Coeli prison, where he blew kisses towards inmates and spent half an hour in discussion with some of those incarcerated. Sadly, this Maundy Thursday encounter turned out to be one of the last acts of a supremely hardworking papacy. In retrospect, its location was entirely appropriate.
‘Throughout his 12 years in Saint Peter’s chair, Francis sought admirably to refocus the Catholic church’s energies on the marginalised, while challenging the power of entrenched interests. Coming, as he put it, “from the ends of the earth”, the first non-European pontiff of modern times was an outsider pope and a radical one. Within the church, the Argentine was a sometimes spikily direct reformer; outside it, he was a significant, high-profile ally of progressive causes.
As inward-looking nationalist movements dragged the west’s political compass steadily rightwards, Francis became an increasingly essential counterweight on interconnected issues such as migration, global heating and the fate of the global south. Laudato Si, his impassioned encyclical dedicated to the challenge of the climate emergency, was a moral and philosophical tour de force explicitly addressed to all people of good will.’- Continue to read
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