April 22, 2025
Dean Greg Sterling issued the following statement today on the death of Pope Francis.
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Like many around the world, I am deeply saddened by the death of Pope Francis. I am grateful, too, for all he did to advance currents of Christianity that are too seldom seen today: his humility, his advocacy for the poor and marginalized, his prioritizing human need over institutional prerogative, his stand for the environment, and, among other welcome acts, his opening the Catholic world wider to women and others in ways no previous pontiff had done.
Pope Francis set a tone at the very beginning of his papacy that let us know he would be a different kind of pope. I was moved by the way Francis interacted with the crowd that gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the first moments of his papacy. He reversed the normal procedure and bowed to the throng and asked for their blessing. In the years that followed, we saw many similar Christ-inspired acts, such as his publicly kissing and blessing a disfigured man with neurofibromatosis, his addressing LGBTQ people with warmth rather than condemnation, his apologizing to survivors of clergy sex abuse, and so on.
I will always appreciate Pope Francis’s theologically rich advocacy for the environment. It was driven by his love of people and all life, and by his understanding that the effects of a deteriorating climate are felt first, and hardest, by those with the least. The Pope’s Laudato si’ encyclical was the subject of a panel discussion YDS co-sponsored at Yale, which drew widespread media coverage. I’ve shared the video of the event with a good number of people curious about the alignment between Christianity and ecology. The encyclical was revolutionary in one sense: no other pope had done as much to call attention to the ecological crisis. In another sense, it was rooted in the church’s long history, hearkening back to Francis’s thirteenth-century namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, and the legend (true even if not historical) of St. Francis preaching to the birds.
For leaders of large, influential, and historically significant organizations, there is always a temptation to put the institution before the people. Few if any organizations can match the Catholic church when it comes to history, resources, and influence, and despite its ecclesiastical mission, the church has tended to be all too human in this respect. Francis, however, had a remarkable habit of putting people first. Rather than being defensive, he apologized for what he called the “evil” of clergy sexual abuse and asked for survivors’ forgiveness. Downplaying doctrine, he exhorted priests to be merciful to Catholics who had divorced and remarried outside the church. When journalists asked for his views on gay priests, Francis surprised them by eschewing a strict recitation of church doctrine and replying: “Who am I to judge?”
Francis’s irenic disposition was also on display at the time of the Reformation’s 500th anniversary in 2017. As recounted by Ray Waddle in our Reflections journal, Francis took the opportunity to make numerous healing statements about Catholic-Protestant relations—statements that strongly resonated with the YDS community and our spirit of ecumenism. These included the remark: “We must look with love and honesty at our past, recognizing error and seeking forgiveness, for God alone is our judge.” Amen.
Although conservatives within the Roman Catholic Church were troubled by Francis’s stances and progressives were upset that he did not go far enough, he advanced the Roman Catholic Church while holding it together. This is no small accomplishment.
Francis’s 12 years as Pope is one of the best things that happened for Christianity in the past half-century. May his legacy long outlive his papacy.