Pope Francis’s complicated legacy

Pope Francis has been Pope longer than I have been Catholic. I remember how impressed I was with what I heard of him before I became Catholic at the Easter Vigil in 2016; especially with his desire to maintain a simple lifestyle and live the concerns of the Gospel. When I became Catholic, I discovered that many Catholics had a more nuanced impression of him. He will undoubtedly leave behind a complicated legacy, and the slew of articles around his death is only a beginning in unpacking that legacy. 

Francis made it clear from the moment he was elected Pope in 2013 what his priorities would be. He selected Francis as his Papal name, after St. Francis of Assisi, a Saint known for his simple life, dedication to the poor and love of nature. Like his namesake, Francis consistently used his position to advocate for a poor Church; from maintaining his own frugal and modest habits and eschewing life in the Papal apartments, to his tireless work to advocate for migrants. He made care for the environment a major theme of his papacy, writing a major encyclical on the subject titled Laudato Si, the title being a quote from a song attributed to St. Francis. 

He carried his concern for the poor with him even to the moment of his burial.

He also continued the work begun by Pope John Paul II, apologizing for past offences of the Catholic Church and its members. Of particular note for Canada is that he made fresh apologies for the way the Catholic Church treated indigenous peoples, and condemned the residential school system in the strongest language yet used by a Pope.

Like Pope John Paul II, he travelled extensively. He was the first Pope to visit places like Iraq and South Sudan, showing how unafraid he was to blaze new paths. His desire was to reach out to countries experiencing war, poverty and neglect. It is no surprise that when his coffin reached the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where he was laid to rest, his funeral plan called for last respects to be paid by a group of prisoners and migrants rather than the princes and presidents in attendance. He carried his concern for the poor with him even to the moment of his burial.

Not without flaws

Pope Francis’s leadership in other areas was uneven. On the subject of sexual abuse in the Church, he initially seemed quite dismissive. One well-known incident occurred in 2018 on a visit to Chile, where he dismissed questions about Bishop Juan Barros (who was accused of covering for a priest who was a pedophile) as “slander.” To Pope Francis’s credit, he later apologized and commissioned an investigation, but even late in his pontificate, embarrassing cases like that of Marko Rupnik, a Jesuit artist accused of abuse, showed a slowness to act on this subject.

Pope Francis has often made comments or taken actions that seem to undermine or contradict Church teaching on world religions, LGBTQ+ and the divorced and remarried. In these moments, Pope Francis consistently expressed a desire to make space for people who feel alienated by Church teaching. He achieved this goal at the cost of confusion, both about his personal stance on these topics and how to square his statements with the unchanged position of the Church. He has left a messy set of square pegs and round holes for the next Pontiff to deal with.

Additionally, while reaching out to those who disagree with Church teaching, Pope Francis has pushed away the religiously conservative in the Church. From official documents like Traditiones Custodes, which greatly restricted the Latin Mass that some traditionalists prefer, to his off-the-cuff stories and comments about traditionalists, he has been bizarrely cold toward the fastest growing segments of the Catholic Church both in the West and elsewhere.

Structural changes

Pope Francis has also made a number of structural adjustments that will change the Church in a lasting way. While affirming the teaching of the Church that only men may be ordained, Pope Francis has had a hard look at positions that were unnecessarily closed to lay people and has opened many of them up, allowing lay people and specifically women more opportunities to be involved in the governance of the Church.

Francis also attempted to make the church more synodal. He pushed for regional synods to meet and held a synod on synodality to engage the entire Church. Early synods have seen a lot of discussion with few actionable recommendations, and in liberal Germany, have needed Vatican intervention to keep from veering too far from the structures and teaching of the Church. Perhaps that may change in the future, but initial results have certainly been mixed.

Pope Francis also began a long overdue project to clean up the workings of the Vatican bureaucracy, a byzantine and often corrupt structure that his predecessors often left to its own devices. Pope Francis’s efforts to bring transparency to the Vatican Bank, and the trial of Cardinal Angelo Becciu for financial crimes, is perhaps the most visible piece of that task. Just as the need for these changes predate Francis, this project will still need the attention of whoever fills his papal shoes in the future.

He also went further than any Pope in history to globalize the Cardinals of the Church. When Pope Benedict XVI resigned, 61 of the 115 Cardinal Electors were from Europe. In 2025, only 53 of the eligible 135 Cardinal Electors are from Europe, thanks to Pope Francis. Twenty-five of the Cardinals Francis appointed are from countries that have never had a cardinal before. The upcoming papal conclave will be the first time Haiti or Rwanda will have a hand in choosing a new Pope. This change is certainly overdue, given that the Catholic Church, like most of Christianity, is growing more in Africa and Asia than in Europe. 

Peace for a great man

Ultimately, Pope Francis built up a tremendous amount of goodwill toward the office of the Papacy, reached out to those who have often been neglected by the Church, and brought the Church’s teaching on the environment into sharper focus. He took important steps to globalize the leadership of the Church and to involve women in the governance of the Church where allowed. His flaws remind us that, like any Christian, he is only human.

I am  grateful for the humble, charismatic and evangelically-minded man who was our 266th Pope. May God bless Pope Francis, and may his soul find rest in the everlasting peace of Christ.