In his 2015 apostolic journey to the Philippines for the country’s Year of the Poor, the Holy Father asked young people: “You who live by always giving, and think that you need nothing, do you realize that you are poor yourself? Do you realize that you are very poor and that you need what they can give you? Do you let yourself be evangelized by the poor, by the sick, by those you assist?”
Migrants and refugees
Migrants, displaced people, refugees, and victims of human trafficking always held a special place in the Jesuit pontiff’s heart.
In 2016, Francis instituted the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and called on Catholics worldwide in 2020, through Fratelli Tutti, to open their arms to those affected by war, persecution, poverty, and natural disasters.
In his 2018 World Day of Migrants and Refugees message, he said: “The Lord entrusts to the Church’s motherly love every person forced to leave their homeland in search of a better future … In this regard, I wish to reaffirm that ‘our shared response may be articulated by four verbs: to welcome, to protect, to promote, and to integrate.’”
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Environment and climate change
Pope Francis spoke in Catholic and secular venues about the detrimental impacts of a “throwaway culture” perpetuated by unscrupulous profiteering and rampant consumerism.
Having written two key documents — including Laudate Deum — dedicated to the care for God’s creation, he wrote in Laudato Si’ in 2015: “We have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”
Pets vs. people
The pope was a strong believer that pets should never replace children.
During his 2023 address at the General State of the Birth Rate conference held in Italy, the Holy Father recalled one brief encounter: “I greeted the woman, and she opened a bag and said: ‘Will you bless him, my baby?’ A dog!”
“I did not have any patience there… ‘Madam, many children are hungry, and you are here with a dog!’ Brothers and sisters, these are scenes from the present, but if things continue like this, it will be the custom of the future: beware.”
Marriage and family life
Among several practical pearls of wisdom for families — including advice to mothers to “stop ironing the shirts” of their sons so that they marry soon — Pope Francis told newlyweds in 2016 that the words: “May I?”, “Thank you,” and “I’m sorry” are key to maintaining peace in the home.
“There are always problems and arguments in married life,” the pope said. “It is normal for husband and wife to argue and to raise their voices; they squabble, and even plates go flying! So do not be afraid of this when it happens. May I give you a piece of advice: Never end the day without making peace.”
Youth and the elderly
Known as the “grandfather of the children” at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, Pope Francis traditionally used his weekly general audiences to convey his spiritual closeness with both the youth and the elderly.
When the pope instituted the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, he said: “The future of the world depends on this covenant between young and old. Who, if not the young, can take the dreams of the elderly and make them come true? Yet for this to happen, it is necessary that we continue to dream.”
“Our dreams of justice, of peace, of solidarity can make it possible for our young people to have new visions; in this way, together, we can build the future,” the pope said.
Synodality
The Argentinian pope often said he preferred a Church that goes out into the world even if “bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets.”
The Holy Father insisted priests be shepherds “with the smell of sheep,” urged consecrated brothers and sisters to bring God’s “light to the women and men of our time,” and called on laypeople to “bring the novelty and joy of the Gospel wherever you are.”
Urging all Catholic faithful to learn how to listen and walk together as one missionary Church, the Holy Father said at the close of the Vatican’s 2024 Synod on Synodality meeting: “Everyone, everyone, everyone! Nobody left outside: everyone … It is up to us to amplify the sound of this whispering, never getting in its way; to open the doors, never building walls.”
“How much damage the women and men of the Church do when they build walls, how much damage! Everyone is welcome, everyone, everyone!” he said.
Popular piety: Our Lady, St. Joseph, and the Heart of Jesus
Pope Francis was known to love the simple faith and devotion of the people. His own childlike affection for Mary, the Mother of God, and St. Joseph was evident to millions.
However, the pontiff’s belief in the power of popular piety reached its climax in his last and lengthy encyclical letter, Dilexit Nos, in which he wrote: “The flames of love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus also expand through the Church’s missionary outreach, which proclaims the message of God’s love revealed in Christ … As we contemplate the Sacred Heart, mission becomes a matter of love.”
Food
The Church’s first Latin American pope understood the importance of physical and spiritual nourishment.
Besides sharing lessons learnt from his favorite movie, “Babette’s Feast,” the pope would always tell those who prayed the Sunday Angelus with him to “have a good lunch!”
In Dilexit Nos, the Holy Father stressed just how important culinary traditions are for family life when he wrote: “In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity.”
“No algorithm,” he said, “will ever be able to capture, for example, the nostalgia that all of us feel, whatever our age, and wherever we live, when we recall how we first used a fork to seal the edges of the pies that we helped our mothers or grandmothers to make at home.”
Kristina Millare is a freelance journalist with a professional communications background in the humanitarian aid and development sector, news journalism, entertainment marketing, politics and government, business and entrepreneurship.
