During and after his election as pope in March 2013, he was a man of many firsts. 

The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergolio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, made him a man of multiple firsts: a pope from South America, ordained a priest after the end of Vatican II, a Jesuit, and someone who had never studied in Rome or worked there full-time. Having once worked as a chemical technician and a bouncer, he also loved to dance the tango. 

On February 11, 2013, the cardinals in Rome had gathered for a seemingly very ordinary event: the approval of three candidates for canonization. After Pope Benedict XVI finished that business, he shocked them and the whole world by announcing that, effective at the end of that month, he was resigning as pope after his eight-year ministry as bishop of Rome. 

Before the conclave began, cardinals over and under the age of 80 gathered for a week of general congregations to assess the needs of the Church. Because there was no funeral to plan, there was much more time for sharing their concerns. 

Cardinal Bergoglio, one of the last ones to speak, warned his brother cardinals about “spiritual worldliness” and “a self-referential Church,” one excessively focused on its rights and reluctant to engage people on the peripheries. The Church, he said, is like the moon—having no light of its own because it simply reflects the light coming from Christ. 

During his first meeting with people in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis spoke in a very conversational tone, saying: “We take up the journey, bishop and people. This journey of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the Churches. A journey of fraternity, of love, of trust among use. Let us always pray for one another.” He shocked many people when, before giving his blessing, he first asked the people for a moment of silence to bless him. He later ended all his public talks with a request that those present pray for him. 

Once at work, he promptly appointed eight cardinals from around the world to advise him on two matters: the reform of the Roman Curia and the governance of the universal Church. To Preach the Gospel, a 2022 apostolic constitution, addressed the first task; work on the second task continues. 

Pope Francis visited Rome’s parishes, schools, hospitals, and prisons; traveled widely in Italy; and made 47 apostolic journeys outside Italy, many to countries with small Catholic populations. Pope Francis brought the peripheries into the center by appointing cardinals from almost 30 countries that never had a voter in a papal conclave. 

Living Up to His Namesake 

Three days after his election, Pope Francis told several thousand journalists that, after his election, Cardinal Claudio Humes, OFM, a longtime friend, leaned over and urged him not to forget the poor. Bergoglio’s bold decision to take the name Francis ensured he would always remember them. After describing St. Francis of Assisi as a man of poverty, a man of peace, and someone who wanted to protect creation, Pope Francis added, “How I would like a Church that is poor and for the poor.” 

At the chrism Mass on March 28, 2013, he asked priests to be “shepherds with the smell of their sheep.” In late August that year, Father Antonio Spadaro, SJ, interviewed him for more than six hours on behalf of Jesuit publications around the world. After Pope Francis said, “I am a sinner,” he explained that he began considering a priestly vocation after making a life-changing confession at the age of 17. He also described the Church as a “field hospital” for wounded people. 

On October 4, 2014, he visited Assisi and the old cathedral’s new Chapel of the Renunciation, recalling St. Francis’ returning his clothes to his father. Speaking to poor people, immigrants, and those seeking employment, Pope Francis gave a resounding no to the question: “Can we make Christianity a little more human without the cross, without Jesus, without renunciation?” 

Travels, Meetings, Interviews, Phone Calls 

His first major trip in Italy was to Lampedusa, an island off Sicily’s coast, where he denounced the “globalization of indifference” shown to refugees, many of whom had drowned while seeking freedom on that island. Among the 68 countries he visited, no recent pope had ever visited 37 of those countries, especially in Asia and Africa. 

He also visited individuals and groups of survivors of clerical sexual abuse, appointing one of them, Juan Carlos Cruz, to the papal commission for the protection of children and vulnerable adults. 

At the end of his 2015 address to a joint session of the US Congress, he said: “A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as [Abraham] Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to ‘dream’ of full rights for all their brothers and sisters as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.” 

Critics, Autobiography, Final Chapter 

Pope Francis frequently denounced clericalism. Not all bishops’ conferences agreed with his 2018 decision to revise the Catechism of the Catholic Church by withdrawing its acceptance of the death penalty. Similarly, not all episcopal conferences agreed with his 2023 defense of civil unions for same-sex couples—without describing them as marriages. 

In October 2023 and 2024, Pope Francis held monthlong meetings at the Vatican, including bishops and large numbers of laypeople and members of religious communities—all with votes. He gave new meaning to the terms collegiality and synodality, pointing out that these apply in various ways to all levels of the Church. 

In 2024 he published Life (HarperCollins), the first autobiography written by a pope still in office. He died on April 21, 2025, at his Casa Santa Marta residence at the Vatican. Five days later, after a funeral at St. Peter’s, he was buried at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. 

In the 2025 pre-conclave general congregations, cardinals again described the Church’s needs and, in general terms, the gifts of the next bishop of Rome, building on the legacy of Pope Francis. 

Chronology

• Born (1936) in Buenos Aires, eldest of five children; his parents and grandparents had emigrated from Italy; enters the Society of Jesus (1958), ordained a priest (1969), served as Jesuit provincial in Argentina (1973–79).
• Served as rector of San Miguel Seminary (1980–86) before studies in Germany (1986), teaches in Buenos Aires (1986–90), worked as confessor and spiritual director in Cordoba, Argentina (1990–92).
• Named auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires (1992), its coadjutor archbishop (1997), archbishop of Buenos Aires (1998), and cardinal (2001). In October 2001, he was appointed relator at a world synod of bishops when Cardinal Egan returned to New York City after 9/11
• Cardinal Bergoglio chaired the 2007 drafting committee for the Fifth General Council of CELAM (the Latin American bishops’ council).
• Elected pope on March 13, 2013; chose to live in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta instead of in the nearby apostolic palace; in an empty St. Peter’s Square, livestreamed a prayer service for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020); began a five-week hospitalization for double pneumonia and other respiratory complications (February 14, 2025).

By the Numbers

• 68 countries and territories visited as pope
• 938 people canonized in Rome
• 1,541 people approved for local beatifications
• 4 encyclicals: Light of Faith (mostly by Pope Benedict XVI), 2013; Laudato Si’, (on climate change), 2015; Fratelli Tutti (on social friendship), 2020; He Loves Us (on the Sacred Heart of Jesus), 2024
• 7 apostolic exhortations
• 110 cardinals named
• 3 women appointed to head Vatican offices previously run by men
• 5 ordinary assemblies of the synods of bishops, including the family (2013–14) and synodality (2023–24)
• 2 declarations signed with Muslim leaders (one on caring for our common home and the other on respecting all human cultures)

Peace is a gift from God. Human actions that cooperate with God’s grace activate peace in the world. On October 27, 1986, St. John Paul II invited leaders of world religions to Assisi to pray and fast there for the sake of world peace. At the concluding prayer service, the pope called those present and everyone who would hear or read his words to be “artisans of peace.” Francis of Assisi was certainly an artisan of peace.

—from the book Peace and Good: Through the Year with Francis of Assisi
by Pat McCloskey, OFM

Victoria Moorwood reported in USA Today that in a January 29 interview with Fox News, Vance said: “There’s this old school—and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way—that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world. 

“A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders.” 

In his letter to the US bishops, Pope Francis wrote, “Jesus Christ, loving everyone with a universal love, educates us in the permanent recognition of the dignity of every human being, without exception.” He later noted that he had been following closely “the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations.” 

Referencing his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti (On Fraternity and Social Friendship), Pope Francis continued, “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:25–37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” The text of the pope’s letter can be found in the 2025 papal letters section at Vatican.va. 

Yes, there is a hierarchy of love, but it begins not with loving your family but first with loving God—and by extension—all those people made in the divine image and likeness. I’m afraid that Vance’s understanding of ordo amoris would nullify not only the good Samaritan parable but also Jesus’ story about those who are condemned for not feeding the hungry (Mt 25:42–46) and the rich man’s indifference to the sufferings of Lazarus (Lk 16:20–25). It would also justify the Pharisee’s contempt for the tax collector praying at the back of the Temple (Lk 18:9–14). 

Augustine’s City of God sharply contrasts God’s values (completely normal in heaven) with the values unfortunately commonly accepted then and now in the earthly city. Would Augustine recognize Vance’s interpretation of ordo amoris? I strongly doubt it. They could perhaps discuss it at the eternal banquet. 

How Did the Rosary Develop? 

I have read different explanations about the origin of the rosary. What’s yours? 

The Hebrew Bible has 150 psalms. Some Christians began to pray 150 Our Fathers, later switching to 150 Hail Marys, organized into the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries. In 2002, St. John Paul II added the luminous mysteries (Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan, the wedding feast of Cana, proclamation of the kingdom of God, the Transfiguration, and the institution of the Eucharist). Because the rosary is a form of private prayer (no matter how many people join in at the same time), such adaptation is perfectly legitimate. 

Which Direction Should a Church Face? 

Why do Catholics no longer face east when celebrating the Eucharist? Who authorized that change and why? 

Unfortunately, people sometimes oversimplify history. In fact, not all Catholic churches have ever been built on an east/west axis. Rome’s Vatican basilica, built in the fourth century by Emperor Constantine and then torn down and rebuilt under several popes in the 15th and 16th centuries, is on a slight southwest/northeast axis. 

At a morning canonization, Mass is celebrated in St. Peter’s Square. The extraordinary ministers of the holy Communion, bishops, and cardinals sit on the altar’s left side with their backs to the rising sun. Diplomats or other official guests sit on the right side, facing the rising sun. I have been on the left side at such a Mass. 

Also, Rome’s Christian catacombs of Priscilla, Domitilla and Marcellinus, and Peter all include frescoes depicting the celebration of the Eucharist. In them a presider and other ministers face viewers and presumably other Christians present at the same celebration. 

The Missal of the Council of Trent allowed Masses ad orientem (to the east) or else facing the people. After Vatican II, many altars attached to a wall were moved forward, or a freestanding altar was placed between the back wall and the people, enabling the presider to face the congregation, which had been impossible in most churches. An Internet search for “Mass ad orientem” and “history” yields a lengthy and interesting article on this subject. 

The practice in some Roman Catholic churches to face ad orientem is not the ancient and universal custom that many of its promoters think it is. 

Muslim mosques have a niche (mihrab) indicating the direction of Mecca’s Kaaba (their holiest shrine), and that is the direction that Muslims face when praying. 

Will God Wipe Out the Human Family? 

The way things are going today, I have to ask: Will God destroy the human family? 

No, but we may wipe ourselves out. After Noah and the ark survived the flood, Noah offered a sacrifice to God. Genesis 8:21b tells us that the Lord said in his heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings, since the desires of the human heart are evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living being, as I have done.” 

Being of mostly Irish descent, I will answer your question with another one: Why did God allow Cain to murder his brother, Abel? Isn’t the answer to both that God gave human beings freedom, a key part of being created “in the image and likeness of God”? 

Doesn’t your question suggest that God lives in time exactly as we do (past/present/future: chronological time)? Such time is a human invention that we cannot simply project onto God, thereby limiting God. 

Although it is difficult to understand, all time is simultaneously present to God (also known as kairos time). Humans necessarily live in chronological time. Granted, Scripture often speaks as though God operates in chronological time—for example, God’s instruction to Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gn 2:16–17). 

Some people use their freedom generously and benefit others. Other people, however, abuse their freedom terribly. That explains most of the news we receive via TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. When we cooperate generously with God’s grace, we will always be stretched in the direction of what God considers normal. 

Is Group Prayer Better? 

I’m having a heavy heart about prayer. It seems God listens only if we have a large group praying for a particular intention. Does the prayer of one person matter? I know there’s strength in a group. Does Jesus listen only to group prayer? That can’t be true. 

Group prayer is recommended but is not required. Individual prayer is fine. 

Please remember, however, that we do not pray to change God’s mind. Let’s call Plan A what would happen if I/we do not pray for some person or intention. Let’s call Plan B what we would prefer to happen. We do not pray because we think that our Plan B is better than God’s Plan A. 

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he began, “Our Father.” We should always pray in that spirit—not as though we are giving God new information or stressing the urgency of something that God might have overlooked. 

Individually or as a group, we pray to open ourselves to God’s grace and to deal with whatever happens. That includes being ready to offer whatever assistance we can if our prayer seemingly goes unanswered. 

Helping an Addicted Person 

I want to help a coworker who is struggling with a gambling addiction. How can I help her? What are the Catholic Church’s views on gambling? 

Gamblers’ Anonymous (GamblersAnonymous.org) is a 12-step group whose members admit that gambling has made their lives unmanageable. Members gather for mutual support on their daily journey to recovery. An Internet search may reveal such a group close to where your coworker lives. The more humbly you suggest this group, the more likely your coworker will accept it. 

Facing an addiction is a one-time decision that must be supported by countless daily decisions. There are similar groups for other addictions, each of which can be addressed effectively only if the addicted person stops lying to herself or himself about the effects of that addiction and then takes steps toward long-term recovery. 

All gambling isn’t necessarily evil, especially if people impose on themselves limits regarding the time, money, and energy used for it. For some people, for example, bingo is more a social activity than a way to make money. For others, though, it might be an addiction. 

Must I Continue Chemotherapy? 

I have just completed my first round of chemotherapy and am not sure if I am willing to engage in a second round. Do I have a moral obligation to do that? Am I, in effect, committing suicide if I refuse to do so? 

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, or extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is a refusal of ‘over-zealous’ treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decision should be made by the patient if he [or she] is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected” (2278). 

The text continues: “Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a patient cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity even if death is not willed as an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged” (2279). 

Can Homosexuals Be Knights of Columbus Members? 

Is it morally acceptable for a homosexual to become a member of the Knights of Columbus? I do not feel homosexuality is morally acceptable in God’s eyes; too many things that are morally wrong are becoming socially acceptable. This world is backward, and we are blind to what is coming.

Doesn’t the term homosexual refer first to an orientation and only later to specific actions? The Catholic Church recognizes that genuine homosexuality is not truly a free choice. That does not, however, mean that engaging in homosexual acts is morally OK. There is free choice involved there. 

Thus, a celibate, homosexual person can be a Knight of Columbus, Communion distributor, or belong to any other organization linked to the Catholic Church. 

Yes, our world is in bad shape, but reducing its problems to homosexuality as an orientation is too simple to be true. 

Women, men, married, single—they all seek to live the Gospel under the inspiration of St. Francis of Assisi.

If you have ever gone to a large family reunion, you probably needed a little coaching beforehand about how various family members are related to one another. This short chronology describes branches of the Franciscan family.

1182 ✧ Francesco Bernardone is born in Assisi to Pietro and Pica.

1206 ✧ Conversion of Francis begins; soon other young men follow the Gospel life under his inspiration.

1209 ✧ Francis and 11 brothers receive verbal approval from Pope Innocent III for their way of life (start of the First Order). Francis writes “An Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance.” This group later becomes a group of laymen and laywomen (married or single) living the Gospel under the inspiration of St. Francis and according to their state of life (start of the Third Order, now known as the Secular Franciscan Order, the largest group within the Franciscan family).

1212 ✧ Clare founds a monastery at San Damiano outside Assisi; the nuns live by the work of their hands and donations but, surprisingly, without lands to produce income. A network of monasteries begins (start of the Second Order).

1223 ✧ Pope Honorius III formally approves the Rule written by St. Francis, who dies three years later.

1447 ✧ Third Order Regular is recognized by Pope Nicholas V as a community of priests and brothers. Active congregations of Franciscan sisters and brothers who teach, nurse, or engage in other ministries belong to this branch of the family.

1517 ✧ Within the First Order, the Conventual and Observant friars are legally separated, each with its own general minister (worldwide leader) and general chapter (meeting of provincial ministers and others).

1528 ✧ Capuchin friars are formally recognized as the third branch of the First Order—with their own general minister and general chapter.

1500s ✧ Franciscans become missionaries outside Europe while remaining very active on that continent.

1800s ✧ Many more congregations of Franciscan sisters and brothers begin, usually for a single apostolic work. In the late 20th century, most of these join the International Franciscan Conference (headquartered in Rome).

1976 ✧ St. Paul VI approves an updated Rule for the Secular Franciscan Order.

1986 ✧ St. John Paul II hosts in Assisi a Day of Prayer for World Peace; this event is repeated in 2002 and 2011.

2002 ✧ St. John Paul II approves The Rule and Life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.

2015 ✧ The worldwide Franciscan family joins in various initiatives during the Year of Consecrated Life. In addition to several Lutheran and Episcopalian Franciscan religious and lay communities, many admirers of St. Francis of Assisi are found among Christian groups, other world religions, and agnostics.

In any word-association exercise, Christians are very likely to link “Lent” and “penance.” Francis did that—but much, much more. He can, therefore, be a good guide for all of us this Lent.

‘Who You Are Before God’

According to St. Bonaventure, an early biographer of Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi often said, “Who you are before God, that you are and no more” (Major Life, VI:1). We are rightfully inclined to add “and no less.”

In his Admonition XIX for the friars, Francis says: “Blessed is the servant who does not consider himself any better when he is praised and exalted by people than when he is considered worthless, simple and looked down upon, for what a person is before God, that he is and no more.”

I first encountered this saying almost 40 years ago, and I continue to be profoundly struck by it. Francis of Assisi was one of humanity’s most honest and free people, and his observance of Lent helped both his honesty and his freedom grow.

Penance is not some “extra” tacked on to a person’s life. It naturally proceeds from living out the deepest truth about one’s life. Conversion is simply the means by which we surrender partial truths for more complete truths. People addicted to alcohol or to some other drug may be able to abstain from that substance for some period of time, but they will always be addicted. Only when they admit that can they take appropriate action.

The same is true of the attitude “I can quit anytime I want.” People sometimes say that while tenaciously grasping their addictions, which they assure everyone are “no big deal.” Penances that are not based on truth are simply an exercise of a person’s willpower and must eventually crumble. Penances that grow out of truth thoroughly transform a person’s life.

A Little Help From Aristotle

Francis of Assisi probably never heard of the fourth-century B.C. Greek, pagan philosopher Aristotle. Although Francis would have absolutely disagreed with Aristotle’s assertions that God is impersonal and that the world always existed, they shared at least one firm conviction: Goodness, truth and beauty are always found together.

Whatever is good is automatically true and beautiful. The same is true for all combinations of those three terms. In his “Praises of God,” Francis addresses God as “the good, all good, the highest good, Lord God living and true.” Francis had a cosmic vision of God and creation as a reflection of God.

Lent was not simply a time for Francis to afflict his body, which he eventually admitted overdoing! Rather, Lent was a time to name the truth and falsehood around Francis, to grow in appreciating beauty, which is always a reflection of the generous God who created it.

Francis’ exuberant Canticle of the Creatures spilled out of a man dedicated to living in the truth about his life and how it connects with the lives of others. How many Lenten reflections reinforced those convictions?

True Freedom

Lent can subtly tempt us to tell ourselves lies and then feel virtuous about it. I could tell myself that if I eat or drink moderately during Lent, then maybe that is not important at other times. If I can refrain from getting into arguments with a certain person during

Lent, then perhaps it doesn’t matter what I say to that person at other times. “After all, I did the right thing during Lent!,” I can say. Lent could become an endurance contest leading us not toward, but subtly away from, God’s goodness, truth and beauty in our lives.

The solution, however, is not to give up on Lent. We will inevitably grow as Jesus’ disciples to the extent that we accept what Jesus tells us about how goodness, truth and beauty are connected in our lives and in everyone else’s. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving (the works of mercy) remain the classic Lenten practices. Each of them, however, can have its counterfeits. According to Jesus, the Pharisee who prayed at the front of the Temple wasn’t really praying (see Luke 18:9-14). His “prayer” was more about praising himself than about being open to God’s grace.

The more we live in the truth about God, ourselves and others, the more genuine will our prayer, fasting and works of mercy be, the more they will represent who we truly are before God. That is the path to true freedom.

Sin is always a counterfeit freedom. We don’t have to wait until we see God face-to-face to arrive at that truth and to know deep down that God loves us profoundly and invites us to share in divine life forever.