The next pope should be like Francis in spirit

As Pope Francis lay at death’s door in the hospital on the last Sunday in February, the Gospel reading in the Catholic lectionary that day summed up his papacy in the words of Jesus: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Mercy was a central theme for Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, from his election in 2013 — the first Jesuit and first Latin American pope — to his death on Monday. Days after his election, he preached on the story of a woman caught in adultery who was about to be stoned. Jesus invited any of her accusers who was without sin to throw the first stone. They slinked off, and Jesus spoke gently to the woman. “We do not hear words of scorn, but only words of love and mercy,” Francis said. “This word mercy changes everything.”

In 12 years, Francis did not change everything, but he made a good start on many issues, moderating the authoritarian, orthodoxy-enforcing stance of his predecessors, the now-sainted John Paul II (1978-2005) and Benedict XVI (2005-13). Some Catholics are praying for a Francis-like successor. Others want one more like Benedict or John Paul. Francis named nearly 80% of the cardinal electors eligible to choose his successor. But there are no guarantees. John Paul and Benedict had appointed 100% of the electors for the 2013 conclave, but they chose the very different Bergoglio.

This is a hinge moment, and the cardinal electors — the Latin root of cardinal means hinge — must face it wisely. We don’t need any retreats from Vatican II. We need a pope who will continue, more boldly, what Francis began carefully: getting the clergy to listen to the laity in the synod process, taming clericalism, expanding the role of women, welcoming gay people, continuing the struggle to control sexual abuse, showing the same concern for the poor that Jesus preached, and emphasizing the need to care for our common home, the planet.

LOVE OF NATURE

Perhaps Francis’ most influential document was Laudato Si’, the 2015 environmental encyclical that began by quoting Francis of Assisi. The pope who took his name also shared his love of nature. “Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us,” the pope wrote. “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.”

The pope also emulated the saint’s simplicity and commitment to the poor. He did not live in the grandiose Apostolic Palace, but in the hotel-like setting of the Casa Santa Marta. He made clear that he wanted priests and bishops not to be high and mighty, but to be “shepherds with the smell of the sheep.”

That simplicity won Francis widespread affection. So did something he said in an early news conference, when he was asked about gay priests: “Who am I to judge?” In his 2016 book “The Name of God Is Mercy,” Francis explained: “On that occasion I said this: If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person? I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized.”

The pope did not erase the church’s teaching on homosexuality, but he did soften it. In a 2021 document approved by Francis, the orthodoxy watchdog Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith answered a question: Could priests bless same-sex unions? The verdict: God “cannot bless sin.” In 2023, however, Francis led the Vatican to issue a statement that priests could bless gay couples, if those blessings were not confused with the ritual of marriage for heterosexual couples. Still, some LGBTQ+ advocates said that it left unchanged the church’s view that gay couples were inferior to heterosexual couples.

Along with that subtle shift in doctrine, the pope listened empathetically to the stories of transgender and gay Catholics. He met with a group of them in October, for the second time in less than a year. Walking a tightrope between church teaching and his efforts to be more welcoming, Francis told parents of children with different sexual orientations, “Never condemn your children.”

MIXED ABUSE RECORD

On the clergy abuse crisis, his record was mixed. During a 2018 trip to Chile, Francis first defended bishops against allegations by abuse survivors that bishops had covered up. Later, he apologized and demanded that Chilean bishops submit their resignations. After the late Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, was found guilty by a Vatican tribunal of sexually abusing minors and adults, Francis stripped him of his priesthood.

In keeping with his critique of clericalism, Francis shattered the traditional career ladder, appointing cardinals for dioceses that had never had one and not appointing cardinals for dioceses that had always had one. In choosing bishops for America, he did not follow the pattern of Pope John Paul II. “Francis’ top priority is ‘Is he pastoral? Is he concerned about the poor,’ “ wrote Rev. Thomas Reese, an expert on the Vatican. “It’s not about whether he’s loyal to Francis or not, which was the only issue that mattered under John Paul.”

In fact, loyalty to Pope Francis is not universal among American bishops, and many conservative Catholics feel he has gone too far in modifying church teaching. He started a process that involves clergy and laity listening to each other, but that process has not yet yielded any significant change in teaching, such as the ordination of women as deacons, which Francis has opposed. His successor should take that next step.

Before the last conclave, I wrote that the church was in need of repair, as in the time of St. Francis of Assisi, and suggested that the new pope call himself Francis. He did. But the church is still in need of repair. This conclave should give us a pope in the reformist spirit of both the saint and the pope who took his name.

This guest essay reflects the views of Bob Keeler, a retired Newsday journalist.