The Pope of the Poor

Over 250,000 people stood in line for hours outside St. Peter’s Basilica to catch a glimpse of the late Pope Francis. Once inside, the crowd moved quietly past the simple wooden casket which held the body of Francis. Some crossed themselves, others prayed, and still others held up their cell phones to take pictures of the beloved pope. People came from all over the world to mourn Pope Francis. Some stood in line for six hours with their children for the few seconds it took to walk past his body.

The Catholic Church has some 1.3 billion members worldwide, making it the largest single branch in Christendom. Almost half of all Christians are Catholics. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult the task of trying to lead such a diverse group of Christians from every continent. But for 12 years this amazing man followed in the footsteps of Jesus and gave himself sacrificially to both believers and non-believers. He was a remarkable ambassador for Jesus. He will be greatly missed.

Over the last few days I have thought about how wonderful it would have been to have personally known Pope Francis. I am not a Catholic, but I have admired from afar the pope’s leadership to move the Catholic Church in a direction that exemplifies the ministry of Jesus.  What if Francis and I could have met for coffee and discussed the great issues facing the world? I doubt seriously if he would have had the slightest interest in raking over our theological differences.

Pope Francis spent 13 years training for the Jesuit priesthood and could have held his own with any theologian. But Pope Francis would not have spent his time with me parsing the finer points of theology, not because he couldn’t, but because he recognized that while theology had its place, it was not the service God had called him to do.  

He would have greeted me as a brother in Christ and welcomed my friendship. I would have found him disarmingly humble, without any trace of arrogance, and he would have been refreshingly interested in what God was doing in my life. He would have asked about my church, the people I served, and I have no doubt, he would have volunteered to help me in my work. Although we came from different Christian traditions, that would not have stopped Francis from being a kindred spirit. The body of Christ has one head but many different and diverse parts.

At some point in our conversation, he would have plunged into what was of primary concern for him—human beings. Pope Francis was called to alleviate as much suffering as possible in this often cruel and unjust world. He irritated some within his own church because he placed a priority on the real socio-economic needs of people over theological orthodoxy. He once said, “Without a solution to the problems of the poor, we cannot resolve the problems of the world.”

Pope Francis recognized that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. He was called the Pope of the poor for good reason. He dedicated his papacy to the problems that the poor, the sick, the forgotten and the marginalized face on a daily basis.

Interestingly, though, the weaker members of society had not always been his primary concern. Like all of us, Francis would have to learn and grow until he became the servant God called him to be.

He was born Jorge Marie Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1936. A bright, curious, highly motivated student, he thought during his teen years he would study medicine. He was in many ways a typical teenager, enjoying sports, friends, and dancing. One day, however, just short of his 17th birthday, his life was transformed when he went into a confessional. After he left church that day, he knew that he wanted to be a priest. He had had an encounter with God, a Damascus experience, some might say. Early on, his mother was not particularly happy with his decision but over time she came to accept his calling.

Early in the priesthood, he proved to be a rather authoritarian administrator and lacked patience and empathy with the people he worked with. Eventually, his aggressive leadership style fell out of favor with his superiors, and he was more or less exiled to Cordoba, Argentina. It was there that the young priest went through an existential crisis. Would he allow God to change him from the man he was to the church leader God wanted him to be? He emerged from his wilderness experience having learned humility and greater compassion for people.

Throughout the remainder of his years as a priest, Francis emphasized concern and care for the poor, the migrants, the planet, and human rights. Although he was recognized as an able administrator, he never lost touch with the common people and their needs.

When Pope Benedict XVI retired, the conclave, in a surprise move, elected the 76-year-old virtually retired Latin American priest as pope. He took his papal name from St. Francis Assisi, a medieval friar who spent his life dedicated to helping the poor. For the next 12 years Francis never forgot the weaker members of the world. He traveled tirelessly to advocate for the poor against the excesses of global capitalism that exploited them. Even during the last few years of his life, when his health was fragile, he continued to speak up for those who no one else listened to, the forgotten of the world.

Pope Francis took courageous stands that many in the church criticized. He embraced his critics and encouraged them to discuss and debate the controversial subjects of faith. He sometimes made mistakes and was quick to apologize and correct his errors. He raised the profile of women in the church and placed them in important jobs. He allowed priests to bless same-sex couples without condemning them. He knew the LGBTQ issue was incredibly complex and refused to simply castigate people with different sexual orientations.

He made it possible for divorced and remarried people to receive communion. He advocated for victims of sexual abuse and asked forgiveness for the church’s complicity in covering up sexual crimes over decades if not centuries. He acknowledge that priests had abused nuns and worked to strengthen the ways to report these crimes and prosecute the offending predators and remove them from the priesthood.

Pope Francis would be the first to tell you that he was not a perfect man, but he spent his life growing in the grace and knowledge of his Lord. He was criticized by liberals for not going far enough and by conservatives for going too far. He presided over the church during a time of right-wing and left-wing extremism and guided the church through the turbulent waters. His love for the things of God, his humble spirit, his openness to people of all faiths, his simplistic lifestyle, his compassion for the poor, and his honesty and moral integrity will be greatly missed. Like King David of old, Pope Francis was a man after God’s own heart.