What after the "unforgivable" liberal Pope Francis

Flying back from a trip to South Korea in August 2014, Pope Francis said in a conversation with journalists: "In two or three years, I will return to the Father's house".

However, that return happened on Easter Monday 2025, when from Vatican the news arrived that the Roman bishop Francis died at 7.35 in the morning. The public was flooded with messages of mourning, analyzes of his pontificate also appeared quickly, but millions of ordinary people, Christians and Muslims, atheists and of various faiths, wrote - a good man is gone. If only that was the judgment of the world about someone who had so much power in his hands and so many opportunities for that power to change him, and it didn't, it would have been quite enough. And the good list is much longer.

"He was a pope you could approach," Thomas Bremer, former professor of ecumenical theology at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Münster, told Vreme.

And then he remembers some moments, pictures, anecdotes about Pope Francis: as soon as he was elected, he leaves the Sistine Chapel with the cardinals, while the others get on the bus, a car is waiting for him, of course he refuses to go alone, sits on the bus with others and the photos reach the media - from the back, all the red caps are photographed, and suddenly - a white one; on those days he pays the bill himself in the home for priests where he was housed before the Conclave began; he quickly calls a vendor at a newsstand in Buenos Aires - where he used to buy daily newspapers and whom he told to keep them until he returned from Rome - to tell him: "Don't keep them anymore, I've become pope."

Authentic compassion

Pope Francis lived in the world, not by or above it. He spoke more often about the deep causes of contemporary problems, and not about the consequences, without endearing himself to either the political or economic elites. It was enough to see how he treats people, wash the feet of prisoners and hug refugees, hear him talk about women who have had abortions or the LGBT population, and it would immediately become clear that this is not about some kind of simple, good form of a church dignitary or the need to please (part of) the public, but about authentically lived faith and compassion. Hence, his calls for peace in Gaza, Ukraine or South Sudan did not sound like pious phrases, which can often be the case.

"He was the pope of closeness, he wanted a Church that goes out among people, not one that passively waits for people to come to it. He spoke of the Church as a field hospital that is not afraid to enter people's lives even when they are difficult and chaotic. In fact, first of all when people are struggling with poverty, relationships with others, their sexuality and if they do not live in accordance with the Church's doctrine," a correspondent from the Vatican of the Dutch newspaper told "Vreme" Dutch newspaper and theologian Hendro Munsterman.

Huge resistance

The resistance he encountered in the Church itself was enormous, be it from the Vatican structures, or from more conservative Catholics in Poland, America or Croatia...

"Of course there was resistance among the faithful, especially in the USA, but the greatest resistance came from the ranks of the clergy, especially among younger priests," Munsterman believes.

Why? Because Pope Francis required them to walk with their people, told them that shepherds should "smell like their sheep", not just tell people what to do, but be a part of their lives.

When it comes to the resistance of the clergy, Bremer also states that the Pope's modesty was a finger in the eye of those who are used to enjoying luxury, the bishops who live "courtly style".

Finally, for conservative church currents, he was excessively, almost unforgivably, open and liberal. Liberals, again, considered him too conservative, unwilling to bring real reform.

What after Pope Francis?

There are many reasons for the new pope to be different, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but, according to Munstermann, Pope Francis has laid a foundation that cannot be broken: "The next pope will have to continue on the path of synodality. Because the synodal process has clearly shown that this is the future of the Church and there is no going back. Also, he will have to understand that the Church in the third millennium is a pastoral church, close to people in everyday life."

Bremer again points out that the Synodal path is irreversible in Germany, but the attitudes of Catholics in, for example, Western Europe in relation to Africa or South America are quite different. He also points out that the Church is divided on these issues - and this division goes far.

"I am listening"

Every evening for a year and a half, Pope Francis called the only remaining Catholic priest in Gaza to ask him how he could help the people there. He used to call him several times a day.

In an interview, a journalist asked him - what do you say to him every day, and Franja answered: "I listen."

He knew how to listen. And when he spoke, he spoke clearly and warmly. It simply should not have been translated. And it wasn't that he couldn't do otherwise (his encyclicals - whether he dealt with the environmental crisis or relations between people - are deep philosophical and theological essays), but that he didn't want to. Because that was also a way to bring the Church, far away from people, closer to them.

Pope Francis tried to maintain a balance between leadership and service (believing that true leadership is service), between liberal and conservative currents, between fidelity to church teaching and fidelity to man who suffers and searches. Hence, it is certain that he was crucified, which means that he fulfilled the essence of the Christian life.

Read the entire text of Jelena Jorgacevic in the new double issue of "Vremena", which will be published on Thursday, April 24.