Pope Francis died. His papacy leaves behind a complex legacy of compassion, contradiction and peaceful courage. This is a personal reflection on faith, doubt and what could come later.
The last time a Pope died I was almost thirteen. He was one of the first moments in which I remember having questioned my faith. Not an angry and dramatic way, but with the quiet feeling that something did not square. Then I didn't have the right language, but I felt a dissonance. Something sacred was finished and I was not sure of how to elaborate mourning.
Now, with the disappearance of Pope Francis, that feeling has returned, but with more consistency, more layers. Now I'm older. I lived, I grew up, I entered myself in ways that the Catholic Church around which I grew up never knew how to grasp.
I'm queer. I am progressive. I can be not practicing and yet, in some way deep and inexplicable, I still consider myself Catholic. Not in the rite, perhaps, but in the spirit and values.
This reconciliation is not easy. I do not attend mass, I do not recite the rosary and I do not make communion. But I believe in the call to love, to serve, to protect vulnerable and basically to find peace in God. I really believe that faith, although often distorted by institutions, can still be a force for good.
It is precisely for this tension that I paid attention to Pope Francis. In a world where faith is often perceived as a popped tool, he offered something more kind, more curious. It was not perfect and did not redo the church, but pushed it to something more compassionate.
Inclusion
Pope Francis understood that words have a weight, but actions bring people. Under his guide, the Church has taken significant steps, even if increased, towards inclusion. These changes have not canceled centuries of exclusion, nor did those who for a long time remained out of the embrace of the church fully satisfied. But they were important.
He approved the baptism of the transgender and their right to become godparents and opened the door to the priests to offer blessings to the same sex couples. While the position of the Church on the homosexual marriage remained unchanged, Pope Francis supported greater acceptance and respect for LGBTQIA+people, encouraging Catholics to show love rather than judgment. He also made steps forward towards gender equality, appointing women in key roles within the Vatican, reporting the commitment to raising the role of women in the Church, despite being disappointingly contrary to roles ordered for women.
In addition, Pope Francis has worked to promote interreligious dialogue and improve assistance to marginalized communities, including refugees, immigrants and poor. He invited the Church to act as a "field hospital" for the most needy.
Conflict
Beyond the doctrine, Pope Francis showed us something more pastoral and deeply human. It is said that from 9 October 2023 he called the parish of the Holy Family of Gaza every evening at 19. In the middle of a brutal conflict, he personally visited the parish. No accurate declaration, only presence. In a moment of genocidal destruction, he reminded us how the cure is presented in its simplest form.
He supported the protection of innocent civilians in Gaza, refusing to flatten complex suffering on politics.
Environment
One of the silent but deeply powerful bequests of Pope Francis was his voice in the climatic crisis. Long before he became politically sure to worry about it, Francesco defined the destruction of the planet as a moral and spiritual failure. In praise to you - Laudato Si '(2015), has framed climate change not only as a scientific or economic question, but as a question of justice, in particular for the poor, who suffer first and more hard when the earth is pushed to its limits.
He challenged the world to see the earth not as a resource to be dried up, but as a shared house that has been entrusted to us. He warned against unbridled consumerism, the greed of companies and the human cost of environmental neglect. For a church so often accused of being blocked in the past, his defense of the climate was profoundly reformist.
Abuse
Of course, no reflection on a papacy can ignore the darkest stain in the history of the Church: the systematic abuse of children and the covers that followed.
Francesco's balance in this case is not uniform.
There have been moments of silence, of hesitation.
But there have also been moments of action. In December 2019 he made a significant move, allowing access to complaints, testimonies and documents of internal processes by secular courts. The victims, for the first time, were able to see their recognized stories in writing, not buried in the Vatican secrecy. This was a step forward towards responsibility, but it was not enough.
The Catholic Church has a long way to go. There is still a lot of work to do, not only to protect children, but also to fully face the culture that allowed these horrors to remain uncontrolled for so long. The next Pope must go further. It must be willing to say, without ambiguity, that the Church has failed.
Which allowed the abuses. Who protected power from innocence. Whatever less would be an insult to those who still bring the scars of betrayal.
And then?
I go back to this point: Catholicism, at its roots, is service, charity, equality, peace and unity. These are the values that persist beyond doctrine and dogma. They are the ones who hold some of us linked to faith, even at a distance.
While the Church looks to the future, the new Pope will inherit a world in crisis. Climate change, political disorders, economic inequality and profound spiritual tiredness. The world now asks different questions. The Church cannot respond with the same old tools. It must evolve not only in politics, but also in posture.
I don't know who will be the next Pope, nor what his theology will reflect or how he will speak to people like me: queer, not practicing, still believers. But I know what I hope:
- A pope who will treat the climatic crisis as a sacred duty
Someone who will carry on the legacy of Francesco asking for real and global action to protect the planet. Not only in words, but considering the Church herself responsible for its environmental impact. A pope who will question the greed and waste systems and will remind us that the earth is not ours to dominate it, but to keep it.
- A pope who will be a voice for peace, not for power
Someone who will speak clearly and courage in the face of violence, especially in places like Gaza. Someone who supports the dignity of all people, regardless of the boundaries, religion or politics. A pope who will be on the side of the vulnerable and will not limit himself to praying for peace, but will push to obtain it.
- A pope who will protect children, without excuses or delays
Someone who will stop protecting the institutions from their sins and start protecting the innocent with full transparency. A pope who gives a name to evil, admits the cover -ups and face of the healing of the survivors, not of the reputation of the Church, the priority.
- A pope who will honor the wisdom and leadership of women
Someone who will open serious and sincere paths towards the inclusion of women in the priesthood. A pope who recognizes that the Church cannot pretend to serve all humanity excluding half of it from its highest roles.
- A pope who will not deal with Queetorss as a compromise
Someone who will not speak for puzzles or caveat, but who will clearly and fully say that LGBTQIA+ people are not disordered, they are no less, they are not tolerated, but loved. A pope who will bless the unions, will recognize families and affirm the entirety of queer lives.
- A pope who helps us to find God in the modern world
Someone who understands that faith must evolve if he wants to survive. A Pope who speaks not only to tradition, but also to technology, solitude, anxiety, the spiritual hunger for this generation. A pope who sees that holiness does not live in the past, but in the present moment: disordered, complex and alive of possibilities.
Scritto da Kieren Sainsbury
publicatto in kieren.co