Pope Francis will be remembered as a champion for the vulnerable. The outpouring of praise from global leaders shows a near universal appreciation for his voice for justice.
Former President Joe Biden marked Francis’ death in a statement, saying the pope “commanded us to fight for peace and protect our planet from a climate crisis. He advocated for the voiceless and powerless.” President Donald Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in the pope’s honor. Several other leaders in the U.S. and around the world also took time to honor Francis.
But you can’t have a voice for justice without boldly denouncing injustice, and Francis was brave enough to do so. Recalling Francis’ simplicity and humility, we must avoid the risk of erasing his courage and audacity, letting the powerful — all too keen to praise a pope whose advice they routinely ignored — off the hook in the process.
Ever the prophet and pastor, Francis did not communicate his radicalism in academic writings or arcane theology but lived it publicly and clearly. Through encyclicals, homilies, and addresses, Francis had no problem railing against direct targets like the arms trade, telecommunications companies, and the extractive industry. In a speech to a meeting of social movements, Francis reflected on several “structures of sin.” “Thinking about these situations,” he said, “I make a pest of myself with my questions. And I go on asking. And I ask everyone in the name of God.”
Francis was not vague with asking these questions. In that same speech, in the name of God, he calls directly on people in power, from pharmaceutical companies to food monopolies, to end their injustices. Elsewhere, like in his apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, he chastised world leaders for their failures to courageously confront the climate crisis. Yet despite his many pointed criticisms and his structural analysis, his words have been largely ignored by those in political power.
Now that the pope is about to be buried, it falls to the rest of us to ensure his prophetic words are not buried with him. Like Francis, we, too, need to become pests. We can start by recalling some of Francis’ most radical positions.
On the environment
No papal encyclical has caught global and public attention like Laudato Si’, published in 2015. In the last decade, Francis’ words prompted dioceses to divest from fossil fuels, inspired climate activists, and sparked a global movement.
Most readers of Laudato Si’ note that Francis calls us to hear both “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” but his entreaties to respond to those cries have so far proven to be too much for world leaders. Explicitly criticizing market-led solutions as well as “green” rhetoric that treats the poor as “collateral damage,” the pope’s message on the environment is as plain and simple as his white cassock: people and planet over profit.
Francis also directly critiques the idea of infinite economic growth on a finite planet. In a passage echoing degrowth economists, Francis suggests that “the time has come to accept decreased growth in some parts of the world, in order to provide resources for other places to experience healthy growth.” Easier said than done, but not impossible.
Francis’ prophetic words on the climate only began in Laudato Si’. Over the course of his papacy, he suggested “ecocide” ought to be considered a legitimate crime committed by corporations, demanded greater urgency at U.N. Conference of the Parties meetings on climate change, and called for multilateral climate processes to “be drastic, intense and count on the commitment of all.”
On economics
“The marketplace, by itself, cannot resolve every problem, however much we are asked to believe this dogma of neoliberal faith,” wrote Francis in his second encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. “Whatever the challenge, this impoverished and repetitive school of thought always offers the same recipes. Neoliberalism simply reproduces itself by resorting to the magic theories of ‘spillover’ or ‘trickle’ – without using the name – as the only solution to societal problems.”
“Neoliberalism” is a term often restricted to the academy or the occasional pundit. Generally speaking, it names an ideology that assumes the market and private interests are the most efficient means of organizing society. At its most extreme, the job of the state is to facilitate a smooth environment for businesses and consumption, privatizing goods and services as much as possible. By addressing neoliberalism directly, Francis called out the prevailing economic ideology of our time. For Francis, unlocking and unleashing private capital is clearly not the solution to our global problems.
In Fratelli Tutti, Francis offers sketches of an alternative economy, saying it should be one based on solidarity, including a “popular economy” and “community production.” But Francis has also referenced heterodox economists by name, making it more difficult to dismiss his calls for economic justice, pointing toward more detailed analysis than an encyclical can offer. In his 2020 book Let Us Dream, Francis recommends the work of Mariana Mazzucato and Kate Raworth, who have been involved in Vatican efforts to rethink the economy. Both emphasize the importance of public investment and the need to create much stronger regulations on the market, making an economy that works for people rather than the other way around.
On peace
Already in 2014, Francis began suggesting that we were living through a third world war, but one fought “piecemeal.” Whereas World War I and World War II were fought with huge armies between great powers on discrete battlefields, today our violence is dispersed, complex, and increasing. As war in Ukraine and Gaza escalated, and as violence proliferated in Haiti, Sudan and South Sudan, Myanmar, and so many other places, Francis found himself constantly making appeals for peace. In his final blessing for the world, known as the “Urbi et Orbi,” Francis named these crises and more, again highlighting the ubiquity of violence in today’s world.
Peace has been a constant priority for Francis. In 2015, he accused Christians who make money off manufacturing weapons of being hypocrites. The arms industry was a usual culprit for the pope. In one address, he held up a 25-year-old engineer who refused to take a job that involved making weapons as a “hero.”
Francis also called for resisting the idea that peace is the result of greater military and police forces. In Evangelii Gaudium, he writes that:
“Until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples are reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence. The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode. When a society – whether local, national or global – is willing to leave a part of itself on the fringes, no political programmes or resources spent on law enforcement or surveillance systems can indefinitely guarantee tranquility.”
Peace is not about restraining the marginalized but building structures of participation and equality.
Francis’ proximity to the Palestinians has been especially evident. He called Gaza’s only Catholic church, Holy Family, every night by phone. In a recent book, Francis pointed out that some experts have referred to the situation in Gaza as a genocide, and he called for further investigating “whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.” He has routinely called for a ceasefire.
Making pests of ourselves
On these and other issues — like migration, hunger, and technology — Francis has desperately and bluntly challenged the powerful, including politicians, bankers, and his own clerics, to attune themselves to the voice of the oppressed. The cascade of compliments from those in power might give the impression that his words found listening ears, but any honest look at the world around us shows this is not true.
To take only one example, Francis’ papacy overlapped three U.S. presidents — Obama, Biden, and Trump — all of whom have offered kind words in light of his death. While Pope Francis pushed for deep climate reforms during each of their administrations, the U.S. remains far and away the worst offender for carbon emissions per capita. Other examples, like the pope’s constant demand to end the violence in Gaza, prove the point more graphically. The fact is, while those offering praises for Francis, in the U.S. and elsewhere, may be sincere in their personal appreciation, when it comes to making real, ambitious, material changes, they refused to hear him speak.
While Francis’ words may not be gaining traction among the powerful, he never put his confidence in the powerful. Instead, Francis believed in the networks of solidarity among grassroots communities and movements around the world.
In Laudate Deum, confronted with the failures of multilateral efforts to stop climate change, he reminds us that “the demands that rise up from below throughout the world, where activists from very different countries help and support one another, can end up pressuring the sources of power.” Here, too, Francis gave us more than vague impressions.
Since 2014, the Vatican has contributed to this process by hosting encounters between the church and grassroots organizations around the world in a series of World Meetings of Popular Movements, addressing issues related to land, work, and housing. Movements as diverse as Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (or Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra), the National Slum Dwellers Federation in India, and Faith in Action (formerly PICO) in the United States have all participated. It is here, in the fertile soil of encounter and organizing among the people, that Francis sees the seeds of an alternative society. The pope provided the right suggestion, that by linking our struggles across the globe, we can create the pressure we need to make real change. It is up to us to show up.
The problems Francis confronted are huge and daunting, but he reminds us that hope is created in organized movements of people who are willing to amplify the voices of the oppressed. As he puts it in Laudate Deum: “To say that there is nothing to hope for would be suicidal, for it would mean exposing all humanity, especially the poorest, to the worst impacts of climate change.” We owe it to ourselves and to one another to create that hope.
In his final testament, Francis stated that his “tomb should be in the ground; simple, without particular ornamentation, bearing only the inscription: Franciscus.”
May he continue to pester us, and may we become pests ourselves in his memory.
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