Dr. Pamreihor Khashimwo
EKHON | April 24, 2025: On April 21, 2025, the world bid farewell to Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who passed away at the age of 88 due to a cerebral stroke and subsequent heart failure. His death marked the end of a transformative papacy, earning him a nickname of “A Papacy of Reform” that redefined the Catholic Church’s relationship with the marginalised and emphasised a pastoral approach centred on compassion and inclusivity.
In an age where the global Church confronts growing inequality, climate crisis, and spiritual drift, Pope Francis stands as a prophetic voice, rekindling the Gospel’s radical call to walk with the poor. His papacy, marked by humility, compassion, simplicity, and reform, has been nothing short of a pastoral revolution. At the heart of this transformation lies his “ecclesiology of the poor,” a theological and pastoral vision that makes the margins the centre of the Church’s mission.
From Buenos Aires to the Bishop of Rome
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pope Francis is the son of Italian immigrants. His father worked as a railway accountant, and his mother was a homemaker. Raised in a working-class neighbourhood and having once worked as a nightclub bouncer, Bergoglio’s early life was shaped by austerity, familial piety, and a strong connection to ordinary people.
A bout of life-threatening pneumonia at the age of 21 led to the removal of part of his right lung, a formative moment that deepened his spiritual resolve. He entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1958 and was ordained a priest in 1969. Known for his intellectual rigour and pastoral heart, he rose through the ranks, becoming Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and cardinal in 2001.
As archbishop, Bergoglio eschewed the trappings of power, riding buses, living in a modest apartment, and cooking his own meals. His ministry to the poor and marginalised earned him the nickname the Slum Bishop. This ethos would later define his papacy.
A Papacy Rooted in Mercy
On March 13, 2013, following the unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Bergoglio was elected the 266th pope, the first Jesuit Pope, the first from Latin America, and the first to take the name Francis, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi. This choice signalled his commitment to “a poor Church for the poor.” From the outset, Pope Francis shattered convention. He paid his own hotel bill after his election, refused to live in the apostolic palace, and famously declared, “The shepherd should smell of the sheep.”
Ecclesiology of the Poor: Theology on the Margins
Francis’ ecclesiology, the Church’s self-understanding and mission, is deeply shaped by the preferential option for the poor, a principle rooted in Latin American liberation theology and Vatican II. Yet he reframes it through a pastoral, not ideological, lens.
In Evangelii Gaudium, his 2013 apostolic exhortation, Francis writes: “The poor are not only the ones we assist; they are agents of evangelisation… We need to let ourselves be evangelised by them.” (198).
This inversion of power reflects a Church that listens before it teaches and serves before it rules. His subsequent encyclical, Laudato Si’ (2015), called for urgent action against climate change and redefined ecological concern as a moral and spiritual imperative, earning him the name “The Green Pope.” In Fratelli Tutti (2020), he expands this vision to include the cry of the Earth and the bonds of universal fraternity, urging a moral and spiritual awakening to global injustice.
A Pastoral Revolution
Francis’s reforms are not mere policy shifts but a renewal of the Church’s identity. His synodal process, which emphasises listening, dialogue, and discernment, challenges clericalism and promotes co-responsibility. The ongoing Synod on Synodality, launched in 2021, aims to reimagine Church governance with greater inclusion of laity, women, and the marginalised.
His visits to refugee camps in Lesbos, war zones in Iraq, and indigenous communities in the Amazon symbolise a Church that goes to the peripheries, calling him “A Pope of the Peripheries.” This is the “field hospital” Church Francis envisions: one that heals wounds rather than guards doctrine.
The Legacy of Mercy
At the core of Francis’s revolution is mercy, not as a soft virtue but as a divine imperative. During the Jubilee of Mercy in 2016, he opened not just Holy Doors but pathways for reconciliation, encouraging confessions, amnesty for prisoners, and closeness to those estranged from the Church. Quoting St. John XXIII, he often says the Church must use “the medicine of mercy rather than severity” (Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, 1962). This ethos has shaped his outreach to LGBTQ+ persons, remarried Catholics, and those alienated from institutional religion.
Francis, the Franciscan Soul
Pope Francis is not merely reforming structures; he is reanimating the soul of Catholicism. In the face of polarisation, he calls for unity without uniformity, compassion over condemnation, and encounter over ideology.
As he approaches his twelfth year as pope, Francis remains a disruptive presence, disrupting complacency, privilege, and inertia. In doing so, he returns the Church to its Gospel roots: a poor man of Nazareth walking among the people, proclaiming good news to the poor.
His papacy left an indelible mark on the Catholic Church and the world. By prioritising the needs of the poor, advocating for environmental stewardship, and promoting a message of compassion and inclusivity, Pope Francis redefined the role of the Church in the modern era.
In his own words: “The future does have a name… and its name is hope.” (TED Talk, 2017)
Hope, indeed, is what Pope Francis offers: to the Church, to the poor, and to the world.
(The writer can be reached at khashimwo.jnu@gmail.com)
