Like many Catholic parishes around the world, my parish held a Commemorative Mass to honour Pope Francis. My parish priest invited me to offer a refection. Here is the text.
When Jorge Bergoglio was elected Pope, he was not well known outside of Latin America. Some Jesuits I knew presumed that he had taken the name Francis in honour of the first Jesuit saint – Francis Xavier – but we soon learned that it was in honour of St Francis of Assisi.
Now, as we give thanks for his life and twelve years of ministry as our Pope, we have witnessed deep connections between Francis of Assisi and Francis our Pope. Both had a strong personal commitment to material simplicity, a deep love of those made poor, pushed to the edges, or excluded, and a sense of kinship with all of God’s creation. Both men were prepared to walk across battlefields – literally and figuratively – to encounter others, to listen, to engage in dialogue, and to promote peace. Francis of Assisi and Francis our Pope both answered God’s call “repair my house, which is falling into ruin.”
Those are the words that St Francis heard addressed to him in a mystical experience before the cross at San Damiano. At first, he took it literally and started maintenance work on the church building. Then he realised that God was asking him to remedy the corruption that the church had fallen into with its abuse of power and love of wealth.
Pope Francis erected a huge replica of the San Damiano cross right at the entrance to the Paul VI Hall where the Assemblies of the Synod on Synodality took place. Every day as we came and went it reminded us that reviving the ancient practice of synodality is about returning to the wisdom of the Early Church, getting back to basics – and repairing the church. Pope Francis invited us anew to journey together as the People of God, following Christ in our time and place, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, towards the Kingdom of God.
Here are four items in the ‘scope of works’ of Pope Francis’ repair project:
Item 1: eradicating clericalism. Pope Francis was sometimes quite hard on priests. He constantly condemned clericalism because it disrespects the equal baptismal dignity of all members of the pilgrim People of God. We know that it is part of the culture that enables abuse.
Item 2: rectifying a preoccupation with disciplines and practices of secondary importance instead of focussing on the core message of the Gospel. It is so easy for any us to be like the scribes and Pharisees, but Francis focused on the kerygma, always placing pastoral witness to God’s love at the centre.
Item 3: replacing indifference to the cries of our sisters and brothers who are in need or excluded with a lively sense of being one human family. That was the focus of Francis’ second social encyclical Fratelli Tutti. Throughout his pontificate Francis was constant in his concern for asylum seekers, refugees, migrants, First Peoples, and victims of violence and war. He wanted to see a better kind of politics aimed at the common good.
Item 4: reinstating the understanding that we are God’s creatures. Francis’ best-known social encyclical Laudato Si’ reminded us that we are part of God’s creation not outside or above it. Along with all other creatures, together with all flesh and matter, we are part of a sublime universal communion of God’s creation. The ecological crisis that we are facing is, at its heart, a spiritual crisis.
I was truly fortunate to meet Pope Francis personally on three occasions. Each time he asked me to pray for him, which of course I have been doing. In November 2024 we spoke about Study Group 2, which is one of ten international study groups established after the First Assembly of the Synod. Its task was to provide him with advice by 30 June 2025 on how the church might better listen to the cry of the poor and of the earth. I am the coordinator of Study Group 2, and I asked Pope Francis to pray for us. He picked up my ID badge hanging on a lanyard, looked closely at it, nodded, and said “thank you, thank you, thank you”. Study Group 2 will complete our work in memory of Pope Francis, although we do not know at this stage who will be receiving it.
Now it is time for us all to say “thank you, thank you, thank you” to our beloved Pope Francis. Thank you for your example of humility and simplicity. Thank you for your love of those made poor or excluded and of God’s creation. Thank you for reminding us that the mission of the church is not fundamentally about rules and rituals but about sharing the transforming love of God in every aspect of life.
Dr Sandie Cornish, 30 April 2025
Thank you Sandy!