Today, April 21, 2025, Pope Francis died in Rome of a stroke and irreversable cardiac arrest. May he rest in peace.

Pope Francis was something of a contradiction, in my mind. While he called for and advanced the idea of synodality in the Church, that is – as best I can understand it – the notion that more Catholics should be involved in how the Church carries out her mission, and not just bishops and religious, Pope Francis made many decisions that seemed to lack any hint of synodality. This includes his removing of certain bishops or other Church officials who disagreed with him, his limiting the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass, and his teaching on divorced and remarried Catholics and blessings to individuals in same-sex marriages. It seems he did not take criticism well and, while many of his critics, in my estimation, went too far in their denunciations of Francis’ decisions, Francis often took a “my way or the highway” approach to those decisions, especially when it came to those of more “conservative” or “traditional” thinking. He removed Bishop Strickland from his diocese in Texas and fired Cardinal Burke, but couldn’t seem to bring the hammer down on the German bishops who led the Church in Germany into effective schism in their support of gay marriage and women’s ordination. Many in the Church felt he allowed the Chinese Communist Party to take advantage of what they perceived as his naivete, and that he was not the strong, outspoken voice of religious freedom people wanted to hear to the Church suffering severe persecution in Nicaragua and Nigeria.

I found myself disappointed in the men he raised to significant positions in the Church in the United States. Respectfully, Cardinals Cupich in Chicago, Tobin in Newark, and now McElroy in DC are, in my opinion, likely to only deepen the confusion among Catholics on where the Church stands on critical issues such as immigration, abortion, and the LGBT agenda.

Francis was often a victim of the media and of his communications office’s failure to address the mis-reporting of the press on what the he said. Francis would say one thing and the press would interpret that to mean what they wanted it to mean. No example is more infamous that the “Who am I to judge?” statment Francis made early in his pontificate when asked about gay men in the priesthood. Francis was asked by a reporter about how the Church should address the reality of gay men in the priesthood. Francis explained that, so long as they are living a life faithful to the moral teachings of the Church, “Who am I to judge?” This was twisted fiercely by the press all over the world to suggest that Francis was giving his thumbs up to a homosexual lifestyle. “It’s okay to be gay!” Jon Stewart falsely summarized the pope’s statement. Again, when Pope Francis said that sexual sins were not the most serious of sins, a position taken by St. Thomas Aquinas himself centuries earlier, it was as if he had claimed that sexual sins were not sins at all. One of the cast members of The View spoke of how pleased she was because she didn’t want to think she was going to hell for her sexual exploits. Entirely lost was the nuance of most serious sins. What people heard was “no sin at all!” Even today, I heard Will Cain on his program on Fox speak of how Francis was “open to gay marriage” because of his teaching on blessing individuals in same-sex marriages. This was a misrepresentation and Francis, to his credit, attempted numerous times to correct it, but he ultimately failed. He was seen as a liberal, a progressive, a Marxist, and an enemy of the West, and the label stuck, so people simply assumed his positions without regard to what he actually said or wrote. Francis tried on many matters to crack the proverbial door an inch, only to have others come behind him and kick it wide open.

But while Francis was often the victim of the press, he was often the victim of himself and his lack of clarity in some of the things he said. In September, 2024, in a trip to Singapore, Pope Francis said, “All religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine.” Respectfully, again, this is a ludicrously unclear statement that, on its surface, does not reflect the teaching of the Church. This was not the only time Francis was unclear about what he meant (or, in the eyes of his critics, was perfectly clear about what he meant!). Tom Hoopes, Catholic author and podcaster, wrote an entire book entitled What Pope Francis Really Said to help clarify some of the statements Pope Francis has made that have been misunderstood. But the mere fact that there needs to be a book entitled What Pope Francis Really Said reveals in itself the confusion Pope Francis caused in the minds of many Catholics and non-Catholics alike. A similar book entitled What Pope Francis Really Did might be equally beneficial.

Despite the confusion or consternation he often caused with his words and actions, Pope Francis was loved by multitudes because of his most endearing quality: the sense that we had a real pastor on the throne of St. Peter. There is no question that Francis loved Jesus, loved the Church, and loved the people of the world. He was more human than other popes seemed in that we could see his faults and quirks as well as his gifts – getting angry when people pushed each other in their efforts to be close to him (and then apologizing publicly for it), making personal phone calls to friends and acquaintences or to people who wrote him, using a defamatory epithet for gay persons when speaking in public, taking the bus back to the hotel where he stayed with the other cardinals who had just elected him pope, personally paying his tab at that hotel, refusing the splendor of the papal residence in favor of the more humble guest house, selling Vatican property to turn it into a homeless shelter, inviting the poor to dine with him regularly, and visiting prisons, as he did only last Thursday.

If many Americans were upset with his stance on immigration, at least he put his money where his mouth is, taking immigrants into Vatican City. He took a strong stand on climate change, to the chagrin of many, but he was convinced of its importance. Many liberals who loved his so-called progressivism were disappointed when he refused to change Church teaching on abortion, marriage, and women’s ordination (even to the diaconate). When a certain element hoped to exploit the Synod on Synodality to press for change in Church teaching and discipline, Francis pushed back (if only finally), insisting that the purpose of the Synod was not to change established Church teaching, but to address structures that were outdated and in need of reform.

It may be decades or even centuries before the Church can neatly assess the impact of Pope Francis on the history of the Church. Then again, it may not be long at all. Depending on who is elected the next pope, Francis’ agenda for the Church may speed ahead, be stopped in its tracks, or reversed. The only thing predictable about the papacy is that the papacy is unpredictable. Like presidents, prime ministers, and kings, popes are in the spotlight during their reigns, but the spotlight quickly moves to another once that pope has moved on to his eternal reward. Most popes, as most presidents, et al, are footnotes in the annals of history. Few stand out beyond their own eras. Pope St. John Paul the Great, I think, was such a pope. Francis’ legacy will be largely determined by how his plans for the Church are carried out. Will they come to fruition over the years, or will they be discarded as quickly as possible by the next successor of St. Peter, or the next? This is the question for every pope. The question for us, as we mourn for our pastor, pray for the repose of his soul, and await the election of the next pope, is always: How can I be faithful to Jesus and His Church today? What is being asked of me by my Lord? The hope of every Christian heart, as I’m sure was the hope of Pope Francis, is to hear these words from Jesus when we stand before Him in judgment: “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Eternal rest grant onto him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.