In Memory of Pope Francis

A reflection on the legacy of Pope Francis and what he meant to me and my faith

I vividly remember watching the white smoke emerge from the Sistine Chapel on a projector screen in my 7th grade classroom when Pope Francis had been elected by the College of Cardinals to become the next Pope.

I think I vividly remember it because it was also at a time where I was first critically thinking about my faith. I was baptized at a young age and had received all of my eligible sacraments, and had even been an altar server at my church. I started attending a Catholic elementary/middle school in 4th grade. Religion, and my faith, has been, and still is, a significant part of my life. But, it was at this age where I started asking a lot of questions. And while there were plenty of answers given by some of my teachers or people I knew at church, some of them weren’t good enough for thirteen year-old me. And with that dissatisfaction came questions of “What does it mean to be a Catholic? Why do we care about this specific thing? What does it mean for me?”

Little did I know at the time, but Pope Francis would ultimately be the source of much growth and guidance in my understanding of faith and what it means to be Catholic.

---

The coolest thing to me at the time of Pope Francis’ election was that he was the first Pope from the Americas, the first from outside of Europe in over 1200 years, first to use a new Papal name in over 1000 years, and was a Jesuit.

Of course, as I have gotten older and learned more about the politics and depth of the Church and what it takes to be elected Pope, these were all incredibly substantial feats for Pope Francis, especially in modern times. But at the time, these things really didn’t impact me the way they do now.

Pope Francis being a Jesuit was cool to me at the time because I had already set my sights on attending Brophy for high school, which is Arizona’s only Jesuit secondary education institution. I felt that his identity as a Jesuit, paired with my (future) identity as a student of a Jesuit high school, created this somewhat more-direct link to the Pope than just being Catholic. And in essence, Pope Francis built his legacy around solidarity, human dignity, and committing the Church to be a Church for those on the margins of society.

Throughout high school, my relationship with faith was strained. Some of that was due to my own lack of desire, but a lot of it was driven around some of the cultural and political stances that some people within the Church espoused that differed from what I believed and felt strongly about. As a short-sighted and inexperienced teenager, this was a big turn off from me. Instead of talking to mentors of mine or even friends, I just closed away a lot of my thoughts and feelings towards religion and faith.

Of course, this stubbornness went away with things like the Kairos retreat offered at Brophy. While I couldn’t explicitly describe it at the time, looking back, Kairos reminded me that community, faith, and struggle are inextricable related. I learned some of the most valuable lessons a teenager could learn through my experiences as a participant and student leader on those retreats.

We can’t just pick and choose the good parts of something and throw away the bad. We have to embrace it for what it is, and work with others to improve the parts that need fixing. I also learned that everyone is struggling through something, whether that be loss, divorce, relationships, questions of self-identity, academics, sports, etc. Just because they might seem like they have it all together on the outside, we can never know what they are truly experiencing unless we connect with them and listen to them.

While the ways in which I learned these ideas wasn’t specifically through a religious lens, I think that this is the part of faith that really sticks with me. To understand God, through Jesus, as experiencing pain and suffering just like we do. To know that the trials and tribulations I am experiencing aren’t unique to me, that there are other people who know that type of pain, is incredibly powerful. And it is built through community and being in relation to others.

Even through this recognition, it still wasn’t enough for me to get past the challenges I still had with the Church, specifically with the institution itself and its role it has played throughout the world.

As I started applying to colleges, I remember having a conversation with a close mentor of mine where he had suggested that I make a list of things that I wanted out of my college experience. As the list grew and shrunk, and the same things were erased and added back multiple times, I ultimately knew that I really wanted to continue at a Jesuit university. While I still had a difficult relationship with my faith, I know I wanted to go somewhere where I could continue to grow and develop in my understanding and experiences. I had also fallen in love with the liberal arts education that is paramount to the identity of the Jesuits, and was really looking for that in a college.

To make a very long college application process story short, I found myself enrolling at Boston College. Not only a terrific academic university, but one of the leading higher education Jesuit institutions in the country.

It was at Boston College where I was really introduced to the work of Pope Francis, and the Jesuits, not only through various classes but through some of the organizations I was a part of during my time there. And it was through all of these experiences and conversations where I was able to reconnect and reignite my relationship with my faith in a way that motivates me to never relinquish the arduous and consistent work it takes to achieve this.

Pope Francis was an incredibly loving and compassionate Pope, who ardently pushed the Church to listen to its heart and lead with love for humanity. As is the Jesuit order as a whole, Pope Francis is widely regarded as one of the most progressive Pope’s the Church has had in a while, driven by his Jesuit background, Vatican II, and his understanding of what it means for the Church to be a modern Church.

The Pope’s unrelenting advocacy for peace and being anti-war, vociferous defense for the care of nature and animals, desire for more women representation in the Church, as well as allowing priests to bless same-sex couples highlight his understanding of the need for an adaptive Church. One that holds steadfast and true to its foundational core in how it teaches and guides faith, through the Gospels, but also recognizing that the Church is made up of human beings living in a modern world. And to be a Church for all, the Church needs to also be aligned with the times. And while there is an incredibly difficult challenge in striking the right balance, Pope Francis made considerable efforts to do this.

One of Pope Francis’ strongest beliefs that impacted me the most was his words around the merciful nature of God. I believe there can be a tendency for young Catholics to be afraid of making mistakes or sinning, mainly because we experience punishments through being grounded, detention, etc. In the same vain, doing something wrong or committing a sin would then cause us to believe that we are to be punished by God. And in the most extreme examples, this would be seen as eternal life in hell.

However, Pope Francis provided us with his own idea, saying “[This] is not a dogma of faith but my own personal view: I like to think of hell as empty; I hope it is.”

What an incredibly powerful and and radical thing to say. Also, so beautiful. To think that we are so loved that all it takes is genuine humility and an ability to ask for forgiveness of our wrongdoings for us to live eternally in peace is overwhelmingly comforting. We all make mistakes, and we do things we wish we could take back. But, that is part of being human. We aren’t perfect. As long as we can acknowledge those mistakes, put our ego’s aside, and learn from those mistakes, we can be saved.

At his core, Pope Francis was brilliant in his pastoral work, especially through his commitment to talking about the dignity of people. I think this is something that can be easily overlooked and taken for granted in today’s day and age. No matter what groups and communities we find ourselves, there’s a tendency to see people as “other.” Pope Francis offers us a different perspective, highlighting that we are all part of humanity. While we have plenty of differences in where and how we are raised as kids, what we are exposed to, and the material conditions of life immediately around us, the recognition that we share in this beautiful thing called life is an incredibly important reminder for us. To see and love each other as if they are family. I think the world would benefit a lot from more of this.

As I continue my relationship with faith, I thank Pope Francis for opening my heart and mind to these ideas. The way I go about my relationships, work, and life in general have been incredibly shaped and formed by the way he espoused his faith and understanding of religion. Life is much more enriched by the love we give to and receive from others, and by treating them with the respect and dignity we hope to receive ourselves.

Be and do good. Be the love you wish to see in the world. It all starts with us.