Francis joins the Lord in church’s holiest season

For most practising Catholics, entering eternal life at Easter, the most important season in the Christian calendar, would be seen as a privilege. Pope Francis, who died aged 88 on Monday morning, Rome time, would be no exception. “Christ is risen! These words capture the entire meaning of our existence, for we were not made for death but for life,” he said in his last X post on Easter Sunday. His death was no surprise, even to those who affectionately regarded him as being “as tough as an old boot”. After recovering from more than five weeks in hospital, from February 14 to March 23, with double pneumonia, bronchitis, breathing difficulties and minor kidney failure, Francis had recently resumed some public appearances, including being wheeled out to greet the faithful at Vatican audiences and meeting US Vice-President JD Vance. The first Pope from the Americas and the southern hemisphere, Francis’s pontificate made history and was always going to produce surprises.

Francis, the first Jesuit Pope, was beloved by moderates in the church. As Anthony Albanese said, Francis was “a modernist” who was “truly inspirational in his modest way of life and at his weekly audiences, he demonstrated his commitment to peace, equality and inclusion”. Peter Dutton said Francis was “driven by Christ’s values of mercy and forgiveness” and would be remembered as having served God with the utmost devotion. Mr Dutton invoked Francis’s last Christmas message, where he said “God’s mercy can do all things … It unties every knot; it tears down every wall of division; God’s mercy dispels hatred and the spirit of revenge.”

The large groups of people from all corners of the world, of all faiths and none, that Francis met found him engaging and compassionate. His advocacy for the poor and disadvantaged were well known. As the first Pope to take the name of St Francis of Assisi, Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher says, Francis “signalled the centrality of humility and mercy, and of love for God, creation and the poor”. He also humbly asked his hearers for prayers.

Never afraid of controversy, Francis knew that many in the church objected to his agenda for political reasons, especially his green, anti-market writings and advocacy for refugees that sometimes extended beyond generosity to virtual open borders. The full details of the controversial pact between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party could take years to emerge. Traditional Catholics, a growing group in the church, were saddened by him trying to stop the traditional Latin mass.

Before he was Pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, was runner-up to Pope Benedict at his election in April 2005, and after Benedict’s shock resignation Bergoglio was elected on March 13, 2013. At pre-conclave meetings, Francis argued the case for professional, transparent financial reform, drawing strong support from his brother cardinals who knew that anxiety over corruption and finances was a factor in Benedict’s decision to resign. True to his word, Francis brought Australia’s Cardinal George Pell to the Vatican to head a new body, as prefect for the Secretariat of the Economy. It was a harder process than Francis anticipated. Pell was prepared to take the tough decisions needed on audits, accounting for each Vatican department and transparency in financial management. Francis, however, had close friends among the Vatican “old guard” who vehemently opposed reform and sought to block it at every turn. For all that, Francis did back some of Pell’s reforms, cracking down on nepotism and officials appointing relatives to lucrative contracts.

In a fortnight, after the official mourning period for Francis, who has chosen not to be buried in the crypt of St Peter’s Basilica beside most of his recent predecessors but in the beautiful Roman Basilica dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, St Mary Major, voting in one of the most unpredictable, significant conclaves will begin in the Sistine Chapel. It will be a fascinating process, largely because many of the electors barely know each other. Unlike John Paul II and Benedict, Francis hardly ever brought the cardinals together, despite the fact it is their role to advise him. His appointments have also been unpredictable, to say the least. Large cities such as Los Angeles missed out; Francis appointed cardinals from the peripheries such as Mongolia and Brunei.

In broad terms, some at the conclave will be pushing for a return to the approaches of St John Paul and Benedict; others will want to take Francis’s vision for a “synodal” church with widespread consultation between laity and clergy, prepared to look at radical departures from established practices, further. At this stage, however, it is not clear where newer cardinals from developing countries stand politically and theologically. Whoever walks out on to the balcony at the end of the process will also be significant in light of strategic challenges facing democratic nations, such as Ukraine and European states from the reassertion of communism.