{"id":1820,"date":"2025-04-21T08:04:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T08:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urc.org.uk\/?p=54597"},"modified":"2025-04-21T08:04:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T08:04:50","slug":"on-the-death-of-his-holiness-pope-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/?p=1820","title":{"rendered":"On the Death of His Holiness, Pope Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The United Reformed Church, with Christians everywhere, mourns the death of His Holiness Pope Francis, and extends its sympathy to Catholics who will grieve this loss most keenly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope in March 2013 taking office after the abdication of Benedict XVI. It is rumoured Bergoglio was the runner up when Benedict was elected and was the first Pope ever to have his predecessor living in such proximity throughout much of his papal ministry.<\/p>\n

All who are called to offices of leadership and oversight in the Church realise how demanding these roles can be; none is more demanding than that of Bishop of Rome. The complexity of the task tired Benedict to the point of exhaustion and the toll of the office was heavy for Francis.<\/p>\n

Within the limitations and expectations of the Papal office Francis was an agent of change who sat lightly on inherited traditions and pomp. Rejecting an ermine lined red cape before being presented to the crowds in St Peter\u2019s, Francis said to an aide \u201cno thank you Monsignor \u2026 the carnival is over!\u201d.<\/p>\n

Living a simple lifestyle meant, for Francis, rejecting a move into the Papal apartments (which he said had room for more than 300 people) and remaining in a small suite in the Vatican guesthouse, taking his meals with other guests.<\/p>\n

Francis saw his ministry, primarily, as being one who called the Church to be missionary. He wanted every element of the Church\u2019s life to reflect missionary discipleship and the building of the Kingdom.<\/p>\n

He oversaw the updating of the constitution for the Roman Curia (the Vatican civil service) so that it was orientated towards service and mission; it is supposed to be a template for every diocesan curia. Francis railed against bishops who viewed themselves as managers of a corporation seeing them, instead, as men who had to \u201csmell of their sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a speech before his election Francis stated: \u201cwhen the Church does not come out of herself to evangelise, she becomes self-referential and sick\u201d. A maxim all denominations should take to heart.<\/p>\n

He also spoke of Jesus knocking on the door, from within the Church, seeking to be let out into the world. Yet Francis was no liberal. He would speak of the reality of the Devil \u2013 no doubt the behaviour of some of his bishops led him to become ever more convinced of the reality of evil and remained traditional over some of the hot button topics of the age \u2013 gender and sexuality.<\/p>\n

Francis also saw his call to involve a return to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. After that Council, which changed so much within Catholicism, Paul VI established a Synod of Bishops to keep alive the spirit of conciliar government which reasserted itself at the Council.<\/p>\n

The Synod had been undervalued by Popes John Paul II and Benedict and was reduced to little more than a talking shop called to rubber stamp whatever Pope or Curia wanted. Francis embarked on a bold programme of reform, convening the Synod more regularly and asking it to deal with tough questions: family life, young people, mission in the Amazon, and, more broadly the nature of the Church\u2019s mission as well as attempting to recover Synodality in Catholicism.<\/p>\n

Francis\u2019 vision would be familiar to Reformed Christians with an emphasis on the Holy Spirit working within synodical process. He yearned for a shared discernment process which included laity (both men and women).<\/p>\n

However, the dilemma for any reformer is to let the process happen and not try to influence its outcome. Francis\u2019 calls for local dioceses to follow this Synodical way has led to some difficult issues in Germany where calls to bless same sex unions and ordain women to the diaconate have proved uncomfortable for the Roman Curia, and Francis himself, to manage.<\/p>\n

Francis was, in many ways, a radical when it came to the status quo. He created cardinals from far flung places that would not normally expect to have a man in the College.<\/p>\n

When asked about gay priests he, famously, shrugged his shoulders and said: \u201cWho am I to judge?\u201d which begged the response \u2013 \u201cif not you, then who?\u201d. Admittedly at a tiny pace, Francis appointed more women to the higher rungs of the Roman Curia but not anything like the speed needed to ensure balance between the sexes.<\/p>\n

He did, however, include more women than ever before in Synods and ensured they had prominent positions within them.<\/p>\n

Francis was determined to see the strong relational bonds between religious traditions and between humanity itself. He referred to Muslims as \u201cour siblings\u201d and went to great lengths to improve Christian-Muslim relations visiting the United Arab Emirates in 2019 and Iraq in 2021.<\/p>\n

His pilgrimage to South Sudan with the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the Archbishop of Canterbury was groundbreaking in its ecumenical nature and in its efforts to bring warring factions together.<\/p>\n

He visited Lutheran churches in Sweden to mark the 500th<\/sup> anniversary of the Reformation. This was a pope who understood, and embodied, the interconnected nature of all humanity and the strong familial bonds between Christians.<\/p>\n

The global significance of Francis\u2019 ministry was seen most clearly in his two environmental encyclicals. In these he repurposed the centuries-long sidelined heritage of Christianity as a faith seeking profound and nourishing interaction with fellow creatures.<\/p>\n

Many readers of Laudato si <\/em>have tried, and failed, to evade its radicalism summed up in its opening quote from St Francis: \u201cOur Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

In Francis, liberation theology became not only mainstream, but intellectually accessible. The divorce of faith and created reality is set aside, liberating the value of a creative and resilient spiritual tradition for justice, and for joy. Laudato si <\/em>is informed by both activism and science.<\/p>\n

The idolatry of control, and the \u201ccommon sense\u201d of Mammon are once more castigated in the righteous impatience of Laudate Deum<\/em> [2023], an easier and more refreshing read at 7,000 words than Laudato Si\u2019s<\/em> dense 40,000.<\/p>\n

With Francis, big broad-stroke arguments for environmental justice belong with the simple appreciation of accessible beauty: encouraging grace at meals, and wildflowers in churches that \u201cthose who saw them could raise their minds to God, the Creator of such beauty\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following the election of Trump and Vance as President and Vice President of the United States of America, Pope Francis became more and more alarmed at the rhetoric and actions against migrants.<\/p>\n

In February 2025 he wrote to the US Catholic Bishops reminding them of the migration of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt in search of a better future, the Holy Family\u2019s flight into Egypt to escape terror, and condemning the mass deportations from America \u201c\u2026the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defencelessness\u201d.<\/p>\n

Criticising Mr Vance\u2019s notion that Christian love ripples out in concentric circles, Francis noted Jesus\u2019 Parable of the Good Samaritan where love is demanded for all without exception. Edgily, commending migrants to Our Lady of Guadalupe, left the American bishops in no doubt as to where they must stand in opposition to the actions of President Trump.<\/p>\n

Above all, Francis was a pastoral pope emphasising the mercy of God and the need to change our ways to save the planet. The selfless love embodied in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, however, sometimes led to some key mistakes in Francis\u2019 pontificate.<\/p>\n

He was, sometimes, too slow to see the reality of abuse allegations against some of his friends. His desire to unify worship in the Catholic Church led him to rescind Benedict\u2019s tolerance of the celebration of the older Latin Mass meaning many traditionalists found him intolerant.<\/p>\n

Francis came to an agreement with the Chinese government to regularise the situation of Catholic bishops not recognised, nor controlled, by the Chinese state. Many feel the agreement gave too much to the Chinese government and not enough to the Church. Time will tell.<\/p>\n

Francis\u2019 ministry as Pope was remarkable. From his simple \u201cgood evening\u201d to the crowds on the evening of his election to the warmth that radiated from him, he caught the imagination of the world. Not since John XXIII has the non-Catholic world felt such warmth towards a Pope.<\/p>\n

May he rest in peace and rise in glory.<\/p>\n

Prayers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eternal Majesty,
we commend to you our brother Francis,
give him the rest he so sorely needs.<\/p>\n

Faithful Shepherd,
help us to model in our lives and ministry,
the mercy, radicalness, and missionary zeal of Your servant Francis,
that your kingdom will come.<\/p>\n

Abiding Spirit,
guide the College of Cardinals as they pray, discern, and elect a new pope,
that that the ministry of oversight and leadership embodied in Pope Francis
may bear good fruit. Amen<\/p>\n

Image: www.quirinale.it<\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Reformed Church, with Christians everywhere, mourns the death of His Holiness Pope Francis, and extends its sympathy to Catholics who will grieve this loss most keenly. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope in March 2013 taking office after … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-urc-news","tag-urc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t