Pope Francis died Monday at the age of 88; as preparations for his mourning and burial and the process of selecting his successor get underway, religious scholars around the world are beginning the process of assessing the pontiff’s legacy and its impact on the Catholic Church.
“I’m very sad, because I loved Pope Francis, and many people throughout the world did,” said Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies at College of the Holy Cross and Founding Editor of the Journal of Global Catholicism. “This is also a time to celebrate his legacy and wonder whether that legacy will continue.”
Schmalz said Francis made a mark on the church unlike any previous pontiff.
“I think he will be remembered for opening up the Catholic Church in ways in which it had never been before,” he said. “Synodality, which is allowing more lay participation in the governance of the church, outreach to women, to the LGBTQIA+ community: in all these ways, Pope Francis wanted to establish a church of mercy, one that’s open to the world in its full complexity.”
When considering what sort of leader might be selected as Francis’ successor, Schmalz suggested the church may opt for a less change-oriented pontiff.
“The Catholic Church might want to take a breather, since these reforms have been wide-ranging and deep,” he said. “It might be time for the Catholic Church, at least in the mind of some Cardinals, to effectively catch its breath and elect perhaps an older pope, one who is pastoral in the sense that Pope Francis was, but also one that’s not going to bring any significant changes. But we’ll have to see.”
Schmalz said Pope Francis’ funeral services will reflect the humble life he chose to lead.
“He didn’t want the kind of formal, lavish service that often accompanies the death of popes,” Schmalz said. “I think what’s most significant is he’s not going to be buried in the Vatican, he’s going to be buried at the Church of St. Mary Major, which reflects not only his own personal devotion to the Virgin Mary, but that he didn’t see himself as someone who was, effectively, imprisoned by the Vatican, that his was a papacy of outreach, and his final resting place will reflect that.”
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