The Legacy of Pope Francis, 1936-2025

When Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected the 266th pope in 2013, it marked a series of firsts. He was the first Jesuit pope and, as an Argentine, the first from outside Europe. Yet his legacy as Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday at age 88, was disappointing even on the priorities he set for his papacy.

Pope Francis was best known for urging concern for the poor, in the best Christian tradition. He called for a clergy of “shepherds who have the smell of their sheep”—that is, priests and nuns who shared the suffering of their neighbors. He made support for the weakest among us the rhetorical centerpiece of his papacy. He brought a public informality and openness to the Vatican.

Alas, Pope Francis believed ideologies that keep the poor in poverty. One of those earthly dogmas is radical environmentalism, which isn’t about keeping the earth clean for human beings but keeping the earth for itself and treating man as the enemy.