As we lay to rest Pope Francis, a man entrusted with the astonishing task of leading 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, we must acknowledge that he was a pope who inspired devotion and yet also disillusionment.

The first non-European pope in over a millennium, the first Jesuit to hold the Chair of Peter, and the first to take the name Francis — after the saint of humility and radical poverty — he came to the papacy with the power of symbolism already at his side. But symbols alone do not make a legacy. His pontificate has been marked by deep paradoxes, extraordinary global events, and the unrelenting scrutiny of a digital age that magnifies every gesture, every silence, and every word into global significance.

Pope Francis led the Catholic Church at a time when questions of identity, history, and moral authority were being fiercely renegotiated across every sphere of public life. From the rise of “woke” ideology and the deconstruction of long-standing societal structures, to the counter currents of cultural revivalism and nationalist pushback, the world around the Church was changing — faster and more fundamentally than ever.

To that world, he showed incredible, compelling pastoral sensibility by embracing the very sick, the downtrodden, before the eyes of the world, making him a beloved figure among so many.

No moment captured the spiritual loneliness and universal leadership of Francis more than the evening of March 27, 2020. As the world reeled from the shock of a global pandemic, Francis stood utterly alone in the rain-drenched emptiness of St. Peter’s Square. His solitary figure, small under the weight of a sodden white cassock, illuminated by the flickering torches before the Eucharist, became an icon of global grief — and hope. He did not thunder. He prayed. He did not offer a solution. He stood there in the silence of that unforgettable moment.

Pope Francis gives an extraordianry urbi et orbi blessing in St. Peter's Square, March 27, 2020. | Credit: Vatican Media

Credit: Vatican Media

Yet while he insisted Church doctrine could not and would not be changed, many weary Catholics saw how he loosened the uniquely stalwart position of the Catholic church on issues related to marriage and family.

On one hand, he condemned abortion, equating it to “hiring a hitman” and denounced gender ideology; but more than once he gave a disturbing nod to ministries aimed at changing Church doctrine over gay “marriage” and transgenderism, including his brief exchange with Father James Martin, the founder of the LGBT Catholic ministry, Outreach.

Pope Francis’ handling of clerical sex abuse was also marked by troubling contradictions. On one hand, he established clearer procedures for investigating abuse and holding bishops accountable and publicly condemned the culture of cover-ups that protected abusers. On the other hand, his actions in high-profile cases like those of Fr. Marko Rupnik and Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta raise serious questions about consistency and impartiality.

Perhaps more than any other pontiff before him, Pope Francis lived his entire papacy inside the glass house of modern social media. Every homily, every off-the-cuff remark, and even every carefully crafted document was instantly dissected by millions across ideological, religious, and national divides, though it was often his informality in communication that blurred clarity, allowing ideologues across the spectrum to weaponize his words.

In the echo chambers of the internet, he was often cast simultaneously as a reformer and a betrayer, a prophet and a populist, a revolutionary and a regressive. The speed with which opinions formed around his leadership was unprecedented — and sometimes uncharitable.

In his many interviews and press conferences that often required follow-ups or clarifications, it is clear that he perceived himself as a pope who stood at the crossroads of history amidst the noise of clashing narratives.

In many ways, his legacy will be as divided as his papacy. To his supporters, he will be the “Pope of the Peripheries,” to his critics, the Pope of Ambiguity, leaving behind a trail of confusion and even division that his successor in the papacy will have to deal with.

Francis reminded us that the Pope is both a man and a sign — fragile, flawed, and beloved. We now pray not only for his soul but for the Church he leaves behind: wounded in places and always in need of shepherds who speak with both his tenderness but also with the clarity of truth.

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Kelsey Reinhardt is Director of Media and Evangelization for CatholicVote.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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The Pope Of The Peripheries And Of Paradox