Pope Francis: A Tribute

We at Guided by the Lamb, like the billions of Catholics around the world, were sad to hear of the passing of our Holy Father Pope Francis on Monday 25 April 2025 at the age of 88. We pray for the remission of his soul, that he may experience the Beatific Vision of God in his heavenly kingdom, and that he may share in the communion of saints for all eternity.

Personally, there were many things that I admired about the man who was baptised Jorge Mario Bergoglio, but one thing about him stood out above all else, and that was his humility.

In one of the first interviews he gave as the new Bishop of Rome in 2013, the late pope was asked“Who is Jorge Bergoglio?”. “A sinner”, he replied.

After being gifted a custom Lamborghini Huracán RWD, Francis decided to auction the car off and have the proceeds (over €715,000) be donated to Aid to a Church in Need, the John XXIII Community, GICAM, and Amici per il Centrafrica (Friends of Central Africa).

On his first celebration of Maundy Thursday as Pope, Francis decided not to wash the feet of several of his cardinals (as was the custom), and decided to visit a local prison and wash the feet of the inmates instead. He would later repeat this gesture on several occasions.

Instead of living in the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, the Pope opted to live in a much more modest suite in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

He would regularly donate his $32,000 a month salary to the Church, a charity of his choosing, or a family member; and, if reports are to be believed, he only had $100 to his name at the time of his death.

Each pope has their charism which brings something different to the table and reflects a certain aspect of Christ. For St. John Paul II, it was the fearlessness of Christ that stood for what was true, good, and beautiful in the face of strong (even deadly) opposition. For Benedict XVI, it was the wisdom of Christ and the championing of the synthesis between faith and reason. For Francis, it was the humble service of Christ.

As our Lord taught his apostles:

“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45).

The late pope wanted to imitate his master and be a true servant to his people—to truly live up to the title of "Servant of the Servants of God”.

At the time of his inauguration, the Church was going through one of the most turbulent periods in its modern history. The Body of Christ was continuing to deal with the fallout of the sex abuse scandal, with all the many evils and institution failures on the part of certain clergymen casting a dark shadow over the Church. The Vatican also found itself in the grip of a financial scandal in which several Church members were accused of corruption and money laundering.

Pope Francis saw that multitudes had lost trust in the institutional Church as a result of these failings, and that not a few practicing Catholics were gripped by the vice of "clericalism"—a mistaken belief in the inherent superior of the clergy to members of the laity and their entitlement to certain privileges at the expense of others. One of the ways he thought that the Church could recover from its troubles was for him to emphasise the importance of service by its clerics, particularly service of the poor and social outcasts. He taught that the priests of ought to "smell like their sheep" and be close to those whom they serve, as it was by this close service to the people of God that they would truly live up to their God-given vocation and be a witness to the truth and beauty of the Christian message.

Another quality about Francis that I admired is his commitment to evangelisation—the act of bringing the Good News to the people of the world. Proclaiming the message of the Gospel to others was the main theme of one of his first papal documents (and my personal favourite of his) Evangelli Guadium (the Joy of the Gospel). Francis, following the call of the Church since the Second Vatican Council to engage in a new evangelical effort like that of the first Christians in the age of the Roman Empire, believed it was the responsibility of all the Catholic faithful to go out and be a witness to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. For him, Catholics had too much of a tendency to bunker down into their respective ecclesiastical shelters and not venture out into the wider world to bring Christ's message of repentance, mercy, hope, and salvation to all in need of it. This isolationist mentality needed to be overcome, as he wrote:

“I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life” (Evangelii Gaudium, 49.)

He compared the Church’s role to that of a field hospital in a war that reaches many of the wounded soldiers after a battle is fought. Francis recognised that all the people of the world are wounded in some way, either by the sins they committed against others or by the sins others committed against them; and as he looked out at the landscape of today’s world, he saw that there existed a great many wounded people in need of the healing touch of Christ—men and women injured by a multitude of different ills, such as abuse, war, violence, poverty, social rejection, isolation, familial breakdown, betrayal, bitterness, a lack of forgiveness, spiritual desolation, and a lack of love. To these wounded souls wandering in the world today Francis wanted to show the merciful face of Christ—that Christ who referred to himself as a physician who had entered into the world to heal the people of their physical and spiritual ills. He wanted to imitate that Saviour who spoke of himself as a Good Shepherd who goes out in search of the lost sheep of the fold, whilst leaving behind the 99-faithful sheep (Luke 15: 1-7).

All of this is not to say that Francis was above criticism. Like every pope who has proceeded him and every pope who will succeed him, Francis was a fallible man who made several mistakes.

Although I understand why he felt the need to restrict the use of the Traditional Latin Mass in his motu propio Traditionis Custodes (as quite a fair number of his most ardent critics came from certain sections in the traditionalist quarter of the Church, many of whom placed themselves into schism by refusing to recognise the legitimate authority of his papacy—people like Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Bishop Joseph Strickland, Fr James Altman, Patrick Coffin, and Taylor Marshall, amongst several others), I believe that these restrictions were too heavy-handed and were unfair to those Latin Mass lovers who understood what was written in Pastor Aeternus (chapter 3) and Lumen Gentium (paragraph 25) and remained faithful to his pontificate and the Magisterium throughout the 13 years he was the leader of Christ's flock.

He was not as refined and careful with his words as St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI were with theirs, and he oftentimes found himself saying off-the-cuff remarks that proved to be confusing and had to be later clarified by a Vatican spokesperson.

His appointment and subsequent defence of the Chilean bishop Juan Barros, who was accused of covering up sexual abuse in the Church, proved to be a great mistake—a mistake which he later acknowledged and for which he sought forgiveness from the victims of clerical sexual abuse and the Chilean people.

Despite these shortcomings, Francis was an admirable successor to the throne of St. Peter and served as an inspiration to billions worldwide, including myself. There is much more that could be said about him that I haven't touched upon already in this post: his emphasis on God's mercy and we Catholics being merciful to others; his pursuit of peace and his condemnation of the various conflicts that continue to rage on in our world and claim the lives of millions (particularly the fighting in Ukraine, Gaza, Syria, and South Sudan); his promoting of the inherent dignity of all human beings at every stage of their lives, from conception until their natural death; his commitment to ecumenism and improving the relationship between the Church and other Christian denominations; his strong condemnation of individualism and the "throwaway culture"; his outreach to young people; and so on. But, what I will add is this: I am sad that he is gone, and I will miss him dearly.

Gracias por todo padre, y que descanse en paz.

Amen.