Within eight months of his election on 13 March 2013, Pope Francis laid out his priorities in his apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”). In this foundational document, he called for a renewed energy and commitment to evangelization and mission, a fervent living out of the Gospel in daily life through coherent witness to the love of God for all people.
Over the next 12 years, until his death on 21 April, Francis carried out his vision by challenging assumptions and interpretations of the Christian life.
His words — with phrases such as, “throwaway culture,” “the peripheries” and “Who am I to judge?” — and his actions, for example signing joint documents with Muslim leaders, often pricked at the conscience of the dominant cultures within the church and society.
“I would like to join my tears to yours and tell you that there is not a day when I am not close to you and do not carry you in my heart and in my prayers.”
“Evangelii Gaudium” highlighted his preferential option for the poor, not only for those with few means, but for those living on the margins of society, “the peripheries,” material and existential. This includes all those who are ill, imprisoned, disabled, abandoned, orphaned, discriminated against, and those denied access to the resources that should be available to all.
Among the people on the margins, migrants and refugees remained particularly close to the heart and mind of Pope Francis. His first visit outside Vatican City was to Lampedusa, an Italian island off the coast of Tunisia. There, he met migrants who landed on European shores in search of a better life and thanked those who welcomed them.
His concern for those on the margins in the Diocese of Rome included setting up public showers and a clinic at the Vatican for the homeless and washing the feet of inmates at the local prison each Holy Thursday.
His concern for the peripheries further afield included apostolic visits to countries previous pontiffs had not visited: Bahrain, Iraq, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Macedonia, South Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. In each of these countries, he prayed with and encouraged the minority Christian communities in the practice of their faith. In Iraq, where the so-called Islamic State decimated Christian and other vulnerable communities, he also met with representatives of dominant religious communities.
While visiting the United Arab Emirates in February 2019, Pope Francis and Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar, considered the leading theological school in the Sunni Muslim world, signed “A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.” The document calls for “the adoption of a culture of dialogue,” “mutual cooperation” and “reciprocal understanding.” It also condemns war and “all those practices that are a threat to life, such as genocide, acts of terrorism, forced displacement, human organ trafficking, abortion and euthanasia.”
His witness to fraternity and peaceful coexistence among all people of good will are enshrined in his nearly 40,000-word encyclical, “Fratelli tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship.” Published in October 2022, “Fratelli tutti” holds up fraternity and friendship as means in building a more just and peaceful world, where the dignity and rights of each person are upheld.
“Evangelii Gaudium” also expressed Francis’ commitment to ecumenical dialogue and cooperation. His methodology, described as “the logic of personal encounter,” proved to be practical, opting for a grassroots form of ecumenism based in prayer, presence, gestures, common witness and friendship rather than academic and formal dialogue.
In May 2014, he traveled to the Holy Land to meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting in Jerusalem of their two predecessors — Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras. They issued a joint declaration in which they confirmed their commitment to “continue walking together toward the unity for which Christ our Lord prayed to the Father.” The world watched as the two leaders prayed together at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and then embraced — the start of their long friendship.
His phrases … and actions … often pricked at the conscience of the dominant cultures both within the church and in society.
Six months later, on the feast of St. Andrew, the traditional founder and patron of the Church of Constantinople, Francis traveled to the ecumenical patriarchate in Istanbul to pray with Bartholomew again and to issue a second joint declaration reaffirming their commitment to “promote the full unity of all Christians.”
Witnessing to the “ecumenism of blood,” Francis added to the Roman Martyrology 21 Coptic Christians murdered by the Islamic State on a beach in Libya in 2015. And he declared the 10th-century mystic, monk and poet of the Armenian Apostolic Church, St. Gregory of Narek, a doctor of the church.
He hosted leaders of other churches in his residence at the Domus Sanctae Marthae; met with them at a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis surrounding the needs of migrants; and held summit talks on Syria and Lebanon with various religious and government officials. To further dialogue to advance peace, he planted trees in the Vatican Gardens, culminating in June 2024 with the planting of an olive tree with the Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors to the Holy See.
Synodality — a local and participatory model of governance common in the Eastern churches — was a recurring theme of Francis’ pontificate. First mentioned in “Evangelii Gaudium,” it took on greater importance in later years. With the announcement in 2021 of a Synod of Bishops on synodality, a churchwide process of “walking together” began, and consultations were held in every diocese and eparchy of the Catholic communion of churches with the faithful at all levels.
Pope Francis understood synodality as a way for the people of God to journey together in dialogue and discernment and to take a more active role in the church’s evangelizing mission. He also viewed greater synodality as an avenue to reconcile differences among the Catholic and Orthodox churches. As early as 2017, in a message to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Francis spoke of the need to examine synodality in the context of “the service of the communion of the church.”
In addressing his texts and teachings to all people of good will, he tackled some of the most worrisome global issues of the day, providing a theological framework with which to understand them, including on the state of creation in his landmark social encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’, on Care for our Common Home.”
His calls for peace in Ethiopia, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Ukraine and numerous other countries were unceasing, and his expression of solidarity with those who suffered the injustices of war were concrete and heartfelt.
“I would like to join my tears to yours,” he said in a message to Ukrainians nine months after the start of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine, “and tell you that there is not a day when I am not close to you and do not carry you in my heart and in my prayers. Your pain is my pain.”
He then sent his almoner with medical supplies and ambulances to Ukraine at least nine times.
His expression of closeness to those who suffered was personal and paternal. From the third day of the Israel-Hamas war until two days before his death, he made nightly phone calls to Holy Family Church, the only Catholic parish in Gaza, to check in on his besieged flock.
“It was a great blessing to be able to speak with him,” Rosary Sister Nabila Saleh told Catholic News Service in October 2023. “He gave us courage and the support of prayer.”
As bishop of Rome, Francis’ pontificate could be summarized as truly that of the pontifex maximus — “ultimate bridge-builder” — reminding all that through God everyone, everyone, everyone is welcome in the church: “Todos, todos, todos.”