Westar Executive Director Statement on Pope Francis

For many people, from diverse religious traditions and from all walks of life, Pope Francis was a beacon of hope. While often compromised due to the broader powers of the church, and while sometimes guilty of failing in courage, he nevertheless was a voice of justice. In terms of Roman Catholicism, more often than not, Francis cared for the catholic or universal side of the faith over its imperial or Roman side. His sense of compassion supported his universalism. He notably stated, “who am I to judge?” when a reporter first asked about his position on gay identity in 2013. He wanted the church to be known for environmental justice and became the first pope to issue an encyclical on the climate (2015). What does it profit, he seemed to have felt resolutely, for the church to earn its reputation from intolerance when so many issues of justice needed a voice?

His remarkable apology to Indigenous nations of Canada for the role the Catholic Church played in supporting residential schools stands out perhaps beyond any other event. Against much internal resistance, and with an experienced knowledge of colonial violence, he stated that he was both sorry and ashamed of the role the Catholic Church played in a program of cultural genocide. As reporters noted, many Indigenous peoples traveled miles, and many more traveled a lifetime, to hear these words that supported reconciliation and that admitted guilt. Aside from John XXIII, it is hard to picture any other pope being capable of performing such an act of healing.

It is true that on many other fronts (his failure to understand the depth and expanse of sexual abuse, his still token regard of women in leadership roles, his support of the US Supreme Court when it took from women the right of choice over their own bodies), Francis fell short. In different ways and from diverse angles, he is deserving of criticism, but no one should misrepresent the balancing act a pope is always caught within. Neither can anyone take from him his genuine kindness, his recognition of injustice, and his understanding of suffering. This was a pope who gave to the Roman tradition a choice. Will it choose to continue on the catholic road of compassionate universalism, or will it turn again to its Roman heritage of intolerant imperialism?

-David Galston

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