Vatican Excommunicates Right Wing Fundamentalists in First Test of Leo’s Papacy

Andie Stewart

 July 9, 2026

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Photo by Christian Harb

On July 2, 2026, the Vatican announced formally that the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), a fundamentalist sect, had entered into schism by consecrating four Bishops without authorization from Pope Leo XIV, thereby incurring latae sententiae, or automatic, excommunication upon themselves. After months of intransigence in the face of outreach from Rome, SSPX carried through with plans it had announced initially last February, a highly-symbolic act timed to memorialize another instance, nearly four decades earlier, when their right wing founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre had incurred the same penalties for the same actions.

This was the first overt challenge to Leo’s papacy and his authority over the Church. Since his election nearly two years ago, right wing forces have been congregating to form an opposition bloc.

For instance, the illicit consecration ceremony SSPX held in Switzerland last Wednesday counted in attendance members of several right wing Italian political parties and various individual operatives were likewise attached to the ceremony. Steve Bannon has previously spoken highly of the sect on his podcast. The election of Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV has brought to the surface a long-simmering divide between progressive and conservative Catholics, one underwritten by immense amounts of money. It provides key insights into the Christian Nationalist psyche of people like Vice President J.D. Vance and the conservative majority of the Supreme Court.

The most temporal manifestation of this rivalry arose when the late Pope Francis implemented financial oversight reforms in the Vatican Bank, a longtime money laundering outlet for organized crime, authoritarian dictators, and the CIA. This included closure of suspicious accounts and revising the rules of eligibility to become a depositor. This in particular was a point of antagonism for the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, whose emails reveal communications with Bannon that sought to instigate a coordinated campaign against Pope Francis. One can imagine that Epstein either used the Vatican Bank or relied on those who did so to finance both licit and illicit operations in Eastern Europe. The email cache makes evident that Epstein trafficked women from the region and so it is possible to envision the utility of a Vatican Bank account as a source of clean and easily-accessed money.

The confrontation with the SSPX was never about the hobby-horses of the Latin Mass, or debates over the Second Vatican Council, or the meaning of the word “Tradition” in Catholic theology, it was a bald-faced act of insubordination trying to test limits. For example, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, an organization in full communion with Rome, offers the Latin Mass that SSPX insists would otherwise be lost were it not for these unauthorized consecrations. What truly laid behind the confrontation with SSPX was a power grab by those who subscribe to a strand of deeply-regressive and misogynist Catholicism that grants succor to various neo-fascist right ideologues in the European Union and the United States.

The next manifestation of this confrontation will be when Leo tries to reform the infamous Opus Dei, likewise known for its own litany of human rights abuses and cult-like practices. (Check out this interview with Gareth Gore for further insights.)

It has long been suspected that several Supreme Court Justices, such as Alito and Roberts, either belong to the group or at least receive ministry from an Opus Dei chapel that is located quite close to the Court building. Known for using outdated practices like corporal mortification of the flesh and other Medieval extremities, Leo has indicated his intention make the group more accountable to local Bishops, who frequently report friction with Opus Dei groups in their Dioceses. This fundamentally changes the status Pope John Paul II granted them as a Personal Prelature, a group allowed to function with complete autonomy and only beholden to the internal leadership, a near-vigilante status in theological terms that can and does enable tremendous abuse of power.

At the heart of Opus Dei lies a warped revision of Catholic theology. It embraces the Protestant Prosperity Gospel and rejects not just a preferential option for the poor but the basic tenet of the Church’s millennia-long ministry to the impoverished. Wealthy and elite members of Opus Dei are treated regally in their facilities by a coterie of low-income workers called numenaries, many from the Global South, who experience extraordinary hyper-exploitation. In spite of Christ’s claim about camels and needles, Opus Dei seems certain that the Kingdom of God is Within Your Bank Account, a religion every Libertarian dreams of.

This is not an unforeseen development given the harsh repression of Latin American Liberation Theology by John Paul II in the 1980s. As Carl Bernstein reported in his 1992 Time Magazine story ‘The Holy Alliance,’ the Polish pontiff worked closely with the Reagan administration to support the Solidarność labor union in the homeland of His Holiness, collaborating with the CIA and AFL-CIO to import technology and materiel necessary for its survival under martial law by the Communist government when it experienced extended repression. According to Gore’s reportage, the Pope envisioned deploying Opus Dei missionaries behind the Iron Curtain to support the Solidarność faction backed by Lech Walesa, part of the logic that governed his decision to grant them the unique and extraordinary status of Personal Prelature.

In this period, Reagan appointed the conservative Catholic businessman William Casey as Director of Central Intelligence, where he oversaw operations that supported the Polish while simultaneously backing the forces repressing the Latin Americans. Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, a Jesuit who served as Minister of Culture for the Nicaraguan Sandinista government, was publicly shamed and sanctioned in 1984 by the Pope when the Vatican plane landed on the tarmac. By contrast, there never were penalties for anti-government priests in Poland, instead their efforts were validated by the Pope. In August of that year, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, published his ‘Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation,’’ solidifying the Vatican stigma of heresy upon the entire movement in a way that enabled Contra death squads. Whether a calculated outcome or a true accident of history, John Paul effectively and successfully horse-traded Nicaragua for Poland. By anathematizing Liberation Theology so publicly and blatantly, shaming and shunning its membership as ‘Marxist’ heretics, the Vatican removed whatever shield of protection that was traditionally accorded the Church and clergy/religious by the ruling elite. The oligarchic and latifundia classes, previously put on the defensive by a social movement widely embraced by the faithful, suddenly found themselves granted a powerful tool necessary for the construction of a white terror. The radical base communities were massacred, nuns and priests were murdered, and the rich were empowered once again.

And all along, watching on the sidelines, was Fr. Robert Francis Prevost. He was an Augustinian in Chulucanas, Peru, during a period when Americans were being killed by Contras, arriving in 1985 after completing his seminary studies, where he had participated in anti-nuclear proliferation protests. What and how he thinks about those violent early days of his priesthood remains to be seen. But it is impossible to ignore the historic confluence of forces that bring about these new developments.

First published on Substack.

Andie Stewart is a documentary film maker and reporter who lives outside Providence.  His film, AARON BRIGGS AND THE HMS GASPEE, about the historical role of Brown University in the slave trade, is available for purchase on Amazon Instant Video or on DVD.

 

Vatican excommunicates Lefebvrists over unauthorised ordinations

Copyright AP Photo

By Stefania De Michele

Published on 02/07/2026 - EURONEWS

It comes after the controversial ordination of four new bishops carried out without papal approval.

The Vatican has declared the automatic excommunication of leading figures of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, the Lefebvrists, following the controversial ordination of four new bishops carried out without papal approval.

The decree, issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Prefect Víctor M. Fernández, describes the act as “of a schismatic nature” and refers to the sanctions provided under canon law for the crime of schism.

The decree states that Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, together with the newly ordained bishops Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry and Marc Hanappier, are considered excommunicated "latae sententiae".

A further sanction also applies to Bishop Bernard Fellay, named as a co-consecrator and therefore directly involved in what the Holy See judges an illicit act.

The decree also warns the faithful and clergy against aligning themselves with the position of the Society, stating that even simple participation in the schism would entail the same canonical penalty.

The consecration and the break with Rome

The decision comes after the episcopal consecration was held in Écône, Switzerland, presided over by de Galarreta, despite a direct appeal from the Pope to suspend the initiative.

The ordinations were carried out without papal mandate, which under canon law constitutes one of the most serious violations in the Church.

During the ceremony, the Superior General of the Society, Father Davide Pagliarani, defended the move, arguing that the community does not intend to separate itself from the Church but to “serve it in tradition,” reiterating the legitimacy of its doctrinal stance.

However, the official position of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X remains in clear conflict with that of the Holy See, which regards ordination without a papal mandate as an act that breaks ecclesial communion.

In the days leading up to the ceremony, the Pope had sent a direct appeal to the Society, asking it to halt the initiative and warning of the risk of an irreversible rupture. In his message, the Pontiff reaffirmed his willingness to continue dialogue, urging those responsible to “turn back” to avoid canonical and pastoral consequences.

According to the Vatican, a formal break would deprive the faithful of licit access to the sacraments and open a new phase of ecclesial tension.

A long-running conflict

The developments forms part of a long history of complex relations between the Society and Rome.

The traditionalist movement, founded by Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, emerged in opposition to several reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly the liturgical reform and the use of vernacular languages in Mass.

The most serious rupture occurred in 1988, when Lefebvre himself ordained four bishops without papal approval, prompting a declaration of excommunication that was later partially reconsidered.

An attempt at reconciliation was pursued by Pope Benedict XVI and marked the high point of the Holy See’s efforts to heal the rift with the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X.

Between 2007 and 2009, Joseph Ratzinger pursued a twofold strategy.

On the one hand, the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of 7 July 2007 liberalised the celebration of Mass according to the pre-conciliar rite, establishing the coexistence of two forms of the one Roman rite, with Paul VI’s Missal as the ordinary form and John XXIII’s 1962 Missal as the extraordinary form. It also clarified that the latter had never been legally abrogated and allowed any Latin-rite priest to celebrate it without the need for specific authorisation.

On the other hand, on 21 January 2009, the latae sententiae excommunication imposed on the four bishops ordained in 1988 by Monsignor Lefebvre was lifted, a gesture of détente aimed at fostering theological dialogue and removing one of the main canonical obstacles. It did not, however, automatically bring about full restoration of ecclesial communion, since the Lefebvrist bishops still lacked effective canonical recognition pending any full adherence to the teaching authority of the Second Vatican Council.

Nevertheless, despite these steps, subsequent attempts at dialogue did not lead to full institutional regularisation of the Society, hampered by persistent doctrinal disagreements over the conciliar texts. In the following years, the situation changed further with a gradual tightening on the liturgical front, culminating in the restrictions introduced by Pope Francis on the use of the old rite in the name of safeguarding ecclesial unity.

According to the Vatican, the current case reopens a wound that had never been completely healed. Church authorities stress that the act represents a serious breach of the unity of the Catholic Church, while the Society continues to describe its actions as an attempt to “stitch tradition back together” rather than a break with Rome.

It remains to be seen whether this rift will lead to a new phase of canonical isolation or whether channels of mediation between the parties will be reopened, in what is shaping up to be one of the most sensitive crises of recent years for the Catholic Church.

Vatican excommunicates six

ultraconservative bishops over ordination

Issued on: 02/07/2026 - FRANCE24

The Vatican excommunicated six bishops from the ultraconservative Society of St Pius X on Thursday, while warning that any lay believers who "formally adhere" to the fraternity would suffer the same fate. Reporting from Rome, FRANCE 24's Seema Gupta explains that the breakaway group deny key tenets of the Catholic Church, specifically its modernisation, interreligious dialogue and repairing ties with other Christian denominations.

Video by: Seema GUPTA

Pope Leo XIV's changes to labor code adapt to new brand of Vatican staffers

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Leo’s updates to the Vatican labor code attempt to streamline a Curia under pressure, from pension woes to a dwindling supply of clergy.

Pope Leo XIV attends a Christmas concert conducted by Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, who will be awarded the Ratzinger prize, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Claire Giangravé
December 12, 2025
RNS


VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Before leaving for his first apostolic trip to Turkey and Lebanon in November, Pope Leo XIV issued reforms to the Vatican’s labor laws. Both recognize the rapid changes in the makeup of the Catholic Church’s workforce and hope to bring the church’s employment practices into the 21st century.

The Rules for the Personnel of the Roman Curia, published Nov. 24, streamlined hiring procedures, set basic requirements for employees and spelled out anti-nepotism rules, all meant to accommodate a growing number of lay people in the ranks of the Curia, as the Vatican bureaucracy is known.

Working at the Vatican used to be considered an honor reserved mostly for clergy, but rising secularization and financial strain have made the work of a curial officer a less appetizing option. Working in the Curia offers certain advantages, such as tax exemptions and access to the Vatican’s grocery store and pharmacy, whose prices are generally lower than in Roman stores. But the Vatican has lagged behind Italy in providing attractive salaries and benefits.

Not only are lay people not incentivized to work at the Vatican, but few are trained, or inclined, to buy into the nonprofit mission of the Catholic city-state.

“If you have been a company manager and come to deal with the economy of the Curia as you would in any other organization, you have to understand that this economy is not oriented toward income but toward a specific purpose that is specific to the Church, and therefore at times you must accept losing numbers because you are required to achieve certain results,” said Bishop Juan Ignatio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Legislative Texts, in a meeting with Vatican reporters organized by the Pontifical Holy Cross University in Rome.

The Office of Labor of the Apostolic See “is continuously dedicated to updating the regulations, including the welfare and social security legislation for Curia employees,” Arrieta explained.

 A view of the canonization Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

In addition to placing hiring under the supervision of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, the new rules allow the Office of Labor of the Apostolic See to operate independently on employment matters, without getting bogged down in questions about how the Curia, a vast and highly hierarchical structure, is organized.

Given its modern shape in the 16th century, the Curia — the Latin term for a royal court — has been restructured several times since the early 1900s, most recently in the Praedicate Evangelium, the apostolic constitution promulgated by Pope Francis in 2022.

Leo’s reforms follow Francis’ constitution but reflect a change in tone in relating to the Vatican’s staff. Francis was not above publicly scolding the Roman Curia, especially in his Christmas addresses, accusing officials of hypocrisy, power-grabbing and insulation from the outside world. Leo, by contrast, appears to favor moving institutional levers to incentivize efficiency and accountability.

In his first meeting with Vatican employees after his election in May, Leo reminded them of the old saying, “Popes come and go, the Curia remains,” adding his thanks for their service.

The day before the meeting, the pope reinstated the practice of handing out a 500 euro bonus to employees for their work during the conclave. In August, Leo approved paternity leave and expanded benefits for families with disabled children. The reforms announced last month will make such changes easier to make.

FILE – Pope Leo XIV arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, on Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The laicization of the Curia is partly the result of declining vocations — people who feel called to be priests. In this atmosphere, good workers are hard to come by, ordained or not. “Hiring is not easy at the Vatican,” Arrieta explained, “especially because the bishops are rather reluctant to give you their best priests, since they need them for their own dioceses.”

As the number of qualified clergy dwindled, Francis promoted the role of lay people, particularly lay women, whose presence he also saw as a cultural and even theological boon. Leo has accelerated these efforts, most notably in a decree published Nov. 21 that amended the Fundamental Law of Vatican City State to allow a lay person to lead a Vatican commission. Sister Raffaella Petrini currently serves as the first lay president of the Pontifical Commission of Vatican City State and the Governorate and was appointed to this role by Francis in March 2025.

But if Leo’s new rules make working at the Vatican easier, they haven’t addressed other challenges facing the Vatican workforce. The Vatican pension fund, which has a shortfall estimated to be 600 to 800 million euros, is a serious long-term liability. In an open letter issued late last year, the Association of Vatican Lay Workers, the closest thing the Vatican has to a labor union, complained of a lack of information regarding the pension funds and called for greater transparency.

Meanwhile, 49 employees of the Vatican Museums — among the largest revenue streams at the Vatican — filed an unprecedented lawsuit at the Vatican, citing unsafe conditions, overwork and understaffing, putting an added pressure on the institution to raise its standards.

A May statement by the Vatican workers association said that the meeting with the pope was “an encouragement to continue dialoguing and building bridges.” But Leo has yet to show whether these early gestures will translate into a long-term strategy capable of confronting the Vatican’s looming financial and personnel crisis.

 

The dark side of time

Nuclear clock quest spins off a new dark matter detection method

Weizmann Institute of Science

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For nearly a century, scientists around the world have been searching for dark matter – an invisible substance believed to make up about 80 percent of the universe’s mass and needed to explain a variety of physical phenomena. Numerous methods have been used in attempts to detect dark matter, from trying to produce it in particle accelerators to searching for cosmic radiation that it might emit in space. Yet even today, very little is known about this matter’s fundamental properties. Although it operates in the background, dark matter is believed to influence visible matter, but in ways so subtle that they currently cannot be directly measured.

Scientists believe that if a nuclear clock is developed – one that uses the atomic nucleus to measure time with extreme precision – even the tiniest irregularities in its ticking could reveal dark matter’s influence. Last year, physicists in Germany and Colorado made a breakthrough toward building such a clock, using the radioactive element thorium-229. When researchers in Prof. Gilad Perez’s theoretical physics group at the Weizmann Institute of Science learned of this achievement, they recognized a new opportunity to advance the search for dark matter, even before a fully functional nuclear clock becomes a reality. In collaboration with the German team, they recently published a study in Physical Review X proposing a novel method for detecting dark matter’s influence on properties of the thorium-229 nucleus.

Much as pushing a child on a swing requires the right timing to maintain a smooth, consistent motion, an atomic nucleus also has an optimal oscillation frequency, known in physics as its resonance frequency. Radiation at precisely this frequency can cause the nucleus to “swing” like a pendulum between two quantum states: a ground state and a high-energy state. In most materials, this resonance frequency is high, requiring strong radiation to excite the nucleus. But in 1976, scientists discovered that thorium-229, a byproduct of the US nuclear program, was a rare exception. Its natural resonance frequency is low enough to be manipulated by standard laser technology using the relatively weak ultraviolet radiation. This made thorium-229 a promising candidate for the development of a nuclear clock, in which time is measured by the nucleus “swinging” between quantum states like a pendulum in a traditional clock. 

"A nuclear clock would be the ultimate detector – capable of sensing forces 10 trillion times weaker than gravity, with 100,000 times the resolution of today’s dark matter searches"

However, progress on the nuclear clock stalled at the very first stage, when scientists tried to measure the resonance frequency of thorium-229 with the utmost precision. To determine a nucleus’s resonance frequency, physicists shine a laser on it at varying frequencies and observe how much energy it absorbs or emits while transitioning between quantum states. From these results, they construct an absorption spectrum, and the frequency that causes peak absorption is taken as the nucleus’s resonance frequency.

For nearly five decades, scientists were unable to measure thorium-229’s resonance frequency with enough precision to build a nuclear clock, but last year brought two major advances. First, a group at the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB) published relatively accurate measurements. A few months later, a team from the University of Colorado released results that were several million times more precise.

“We still need even greater precision to develop a nuclear clock,” says Perez, “but we’ve already identified an opportunity to study dark matter.” He explains: “In a universe made up only of visible matter, the physical conditions and the absorption spectrum of any material would remain constant. But because dark matter surrounds us, its wave-like nature can subtly change the mass of atomic nuclei and cause temporary shifts in their absorption spectrum. We hypothesized that the ability to detect minute deviations in the absorption spectrum of thorium-229 with great precision could reveal dark matter’s influence and help us study its properties.”

Theoretical calculations made by the team – led by Dr. Wolfram Ratzinger from Perez’s group and other postdoctoral fellows – showed that the new measurements could detect dark matter’s influence even if it were 100 million times weaker than gravity, a force that is itself weak and rarely crosses our minds in daily life. “This is a region where no one has yet looked for dark matter,” says Ratzinger. “Our calculations show that it’s not enough to search for shifts in the resonance frequency alone. We need to identify changes across the entire absorption spectrum to detect dark matter’s effect. Although we haven’t found those changes yet, we’ve laid the groundwork to understand them when they do appear. Once we detect a deviation, we’ll be able to use its intensity and the frequency at which it appears to calculate the mass of the dark matter particle responsible. Later in the study, we also calculated how different dark matter models would affect thorium-229’s absorption spectrum. We hope this will ultimately help determine which models are accurate and what dark matter is actually made of.”

Meanwhile, laboratories around the world are continuing to refine the measurement of thorium-229’s resonance frequency, a process expected to take years. If a nuclear clock is eventually developed, it could revolutionize many fields, including Earth and space navigation, communications, power grid management and scientific research. Today’s most accurate timekeeping devices are atomic clocks, which rely on the oscillation of electrons between two quantum states. These are highly precise, but they have one significant drawback: They are vulnerable to electrical interference from the environment, which can affect their consistency. Nuclei of atoms, by contrast, are far less sensitive to such disturbances.

 

Science Numbers

According to a leading model of dark matter, the mysterious substance is made up of countless particles, each of which has a mass at least 1,000,000 times smaller than that of a single electron.

“When it comes to dark matter,” says Perez, “a thorium-229-based nuclear clock would be the ultimate detector. Right now, electrical interference limits our ability to use atomic clocks in the search. But a nuclear clock would let us detect incredibly slight deviations in its ticking – that is, tiny shifts in resonance frequency – which could reveal dark matter’s influence. We estimate it will enable us to detect forces 10 trillion times weaker than gravity, providing a resolution 100,000 times better than what we currently have in our search for dark matter.”

The European Research Council (ERC) recently awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to Prof. Perez’s group to support the continued development of this line of research. Also participating in the study were Prof. Elina Fuchs and Dr. Fiona Kirk from the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB), Braunschweig, Germany, and Leibniz University Hannover, Germany; Dr. Eric Madge and Chaitanya Paranjape from Perez’s group in Weizmann’s Particle Physics and Astrophysics Department; and Prof. Ekkehard Peik and Dr. Johannes Tiedau from the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB), Braunschweig, Germany.

 

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Journal

Physical Review X

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! 

As the first Latin American pope, Francis shifted the Catholic Church's center

(RNS) — Drawing on Latin American theology that emphasizes collaboration, developed in response to continued struggles with colonialism, Francis pushed for a Catholic Church with broader inclusion of people on the margins.

Nuns hold flowers and look at a memorial to the late Pope Francis outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Aleja Hertzler-McCain
April 22, 2025

(RNS) — When Pope Francis stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time back in 2013, he told the crowds below him that the College of Cardinals had gone “almost to the ends of the earth” to find the new bishop of Rome.

Over 500 years after papal bulls authorized the violent, colonial conquest of non-Christian peoples, paving the way for Catholicism to take root in the Americas, Francis was the first pope to emerge from those lands. Drawing on the region’s theology that emphasizes collaboration and developed in response to continued struggles with colonialism, Francis pushed for a Catholic Church with broader participation and inclusion of people on the margins, scholars told RNS before and after his death on Monday (April 21).

“We were, for several centuries, a church that reflected what they do in Europe — we repeated, copied Europe,” said Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer, a theology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, in Spanish.

Latin American bishops began to implement the teachings of the modernizing Second Vatican Council right after the council in the early 1960s. And as a result, “we try to be a church that is a source, a church that generates its own content, that generates the way we celebrate our rituals, that generates our priorities,” Bingemer said. Francis made sure those efforts grew “in a strong and exponential way.”

As archbishop of Argentina, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who would take the name Francis when he became pope in 2013, came up within the Latin American bishops’ conference, known as CELAM. That school of thought would become prominent during his papacy.

In 2007, he chaired the committee that drafted the final document for CELAM’s general conference in Aparecida, Brazil, which encouraged Catholics to be “missionary disciples” and described the church as the “home of the poor.” Both became key concepts six years later in Francis’ first apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium,” in which the new pope encouraged the church to “go forth,” share “the joy of the Gospel” and understand “God’s heart has a special place for the poor.”

FILE – Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, second from left, travels on the subway in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2008. (AP Photo/Pablo Leguizamon, File)

RELATED: On Good Friday, immigrant bishop says the Passion brings comfort to immigrant Catholics.

Once Francis directed his theology to the world, Bingemer, who previously witnessed his firm leadership in Aparecida, said one could still “feel the presence of Latin American theology, the Latin American reception of the Second Vatican Council.”

While Francis might have shied away from labeling his influences as “liberation theology” — which Pope Benedict XVI once accused of uncritically borrowing Marxist influences — Bingemer said Francis’ theological lineage was clearly linked back to it, placing a heavy emphasis on the “preferential option for the poor.”

Reflecting the impact of migration experiences on Latin America, Francis emphasized the dignity of migrants throughout his papacy. He visited the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea, a point of arrival for refugees and asylum-seekers, as his first trip outside of Rome. The new pope also celebrated Mass on an altar made of a painted boat, and he mourned “globalized indifference” and the migrants neglected by the world.

The Rev. Gustavo Morello, an Argentine Jesuit sociology professor at Boston College, said Francis’ papal policy was clearly marked by Argentine politics.

“ A key to understand Francis’ policy has been not progressive/conservative, not that distinction, but the distinction between peoples against elites,” a common tension within various ideological camps in Argentina, Morello said.

Pope Francis speaks to migrants, wearing white caps, during his visit to the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, July 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

Francis, known for his pastoral emphasis, focused on the people in front of him, Morello said, sometimes changing his mind when he saw people react against his decisions.

For example, after facing backlash when he dismissed accusations that Chilean leaders participated in covering up sexual abuse, Francis invited Chilean abuse survivors to the Vatican to ask for their forgiveness and to listen to them

RELATED: 135 cardinals will elect the next pope. Francis picked 108 of them.

As CELAM is also known for its open-ended discussions and collaborations, Latin American church leaders immediately recognized their theological tradition on display when Francis announced a new synod format in 2021 that would begin with widespread consultation of the faithful and conclude with assemblies that included laypeople and women alongside bishops. The listening and accompaniment in the process were termed “synodality” and became a key concept in the modern church.

“The notion of synodality is really taken to heart as listening first and putting aside one’s own agenda,” said Neomi De Anda, executive director of the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton in Ohio. “Really listening to one another is a notion of decolonization because that decenters everyone and centers the act and the possibility of listening.”

Pope Francis meets with Indigenous representatives in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, on Jan. 19, 2018. Standing with thousands of Indigenous Peruvians, Francis declared the Amazon the “heart of the church” and called for a three-fold defense of its life, land and cultures. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

De Anda, who has published research on decolonization, said that despite Francis’ efforts to apologize to Indigenous people for the church’s harm, “there’s still work to be done.”

“ There are big questions when it comes to decolonization and Christianity in general — about a religion that came from a colonizing perspective,” De Anda said. “And so, ‘how far can that be taken?’ I think is a fundamental question.”

Francis spoke forcefully against continuing colonialism, including about its impact on the environment and global conflicts.

Sister Ana María Siufi, a Sister of Mercy of the Americas, said Francis continuously denounced new colonization. He specifically focused on regions, including in Asia, Africa and Latin America, that had been heavily colonized and victims of “plundering, exploitation and domination by external debt,” she said in Spanish.

The pope’s environmental justice focus influenced Siufi in her own ministry in rural Argentine Patagonia that includes peasant and Indigenous Mapuche families. “Laudato Si’,” his environmental encyclical, “will continue to be one of the most extraordinary documents in the social and environmental doctrine” of the church, she said.

And for many Latin Americans and U.S. Latinos, Francis’ papacy allowed them to see their own faith traditions and culture take the highest stage in the church. His deep devotion to Mary, even asking to break tradition to be buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and his fandom for his hometown soccer club remained familiar signs of where he came from.

Pope Francis approaches priests with an Argentine flag as he arrives in Saint Peter’s Square for his inaugural Mass at the Vatican on March 19, 2013. (Photo by Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

But while he gained many fans and some prominent enemies becoming “the most relevant Argentinian figure in the 21st century,” Morello said inertia prevented Francis from recruiting more practicing Catholics in Latin America, where large majorities support at least some changes in the church’s teachings on gender and sexuality that Francis declined to back.
RELATED: Poll: Catholic support for women’s ordination rises in Latin America

Francis’ 2013 election was a nod to the fact that in 2010, Pew Research Center found that 39% of Catholics worldwide came from Latin America and the Caribbean, far outstripping the 24% of Catholics from Europe — the home continent of the most previous popes — representing a century-long shift of the church toward the Global South.

And shortly before his death, Vatican statistics confirmed that a majority of the world’s Catholics are now in Latin America and Africa, with 41% of global Catholics in Central and South America. The share of global Catholics in Africa rose to 20% in 2025, from 16% in 2010.

Africans have also been impacted by the Francis papacy, said the Rev. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, who is from Nigeria and is dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California, recalling the tremendous excitement in Kenya when Francis was elected.

“I saw Pope Francis’ Jesuit identity in the attention he paid to vulnerable people at the margins and the peripheries of the church and of society,” said Orobator, a delegate for Francis’ Synod on Synodality.

Pope Francis, second from left, watches traditional dancers perform at the Martyrs’ Stadium in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. Francis was in Congo and South Sudan for a six-day trip, hoping to bring comfort and encouragement to two countries that have been riven by poverty, conflicts and what he called a “colonialist mentality” that has exploited Africa for centuries.

 (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Catholics of all ideological backgrounds are now beginning to anticipate who might take the papacy next. Siufi said, “I think we all have fear — fear that this will cut short a process that we consider very healthy, this process of reform that must continue.”

The College of Cardinals determining the next pope now more closely reflects the global Catholic Church than the 2013 conclave. Today, 13% of cardinal-electors are from South America, 13% from Africa and 17% from Asia; less than half of cardinal-electors will be from Europe.

But regardless of what part of the global church he represents, the next pope should carry forward Francis’ humanity, Orobator said. Whether working to support the South Sudan peace process or arriving a half-hour early to synod sessions to bless, take selfies with and talk to delegates, “what stood out to me is his humanity, and his ability to connect with people in their situation, be it of joy or of pain,” Orobator said of Francis. “He focused on people.

“The Holy Spirit will inspire the cardinals during the conclave to elect a pope that the church and world need at this time,” he said.

Pope Francis, charismatic reformer and disruptor, dies at 88

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Francis leaves behind him a church still divided, but radically transformed.

Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi (“to the city and to the world”) blessing at the end of the Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, April 1, 2018. (Vatican Media via AP)

Claire Giangravé
April 21, 2025
RNS

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Francis, who sought to be a bridge maker as he led the Catholic Church in a time of deep polarization, died at 7:35 a.m. on Monday (April 21), at the age of 88, a day after surprising faithful in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday.

“He taught us to live the values ​​of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially toward the poorest and most marginalized,” read a Vatican statement by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is charged with overseeing the papal funeral and the election of the next pope.

Francis died of a cerebral stroke that put him into a coma and led to heart failure at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta, according to the Vatican. Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, the head of the Vatican’s health department, said in a statement Monday that the pope also experienced episodes of respiratory insufficiency, and had Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

The pope had been recovering from double pneumonia, for which he was hospitalized in mid-February and released after five weeks. Part of Francis’ lung had been removed at age 21 after a life-threatening pneumonia. As he aged, he suffered a number of ailments, from sciatica to cataracts to chronic knee pain, and visitors to the Vatican were accustomed to seeing the pope struggle to walk when not seated in a wheelchair.

With his pastoral style of leadership and his emphasis on mercy, however, Francis restored the credibility of the church in the eyes of Catholics and non-Catholics after decades of bad news about clergy sex abuse, financial scandals and decline in attendance at Catholic churches.

“The pontificate of Pope Francis has been a breath of fresh air for the Catholic Church globally. He was loved for his simplicity, humility, and warmth,” said Sandie Cornish, senior lecturer in theology at the Australian Catholic University and a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio celebrates a Mass in honor of Pope John Paul II at the Buenos Aires Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 4, 2005. Bergoglio, who took the name of Pope Francis, was elected on March 13, 2013, as the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, file)

“The first Jesuit Pope, the first Latin American Pope, the first Pope from outside Europe since the early church, Francis brought a fresh perspective ‘from below’ or ‘from the ends of the earth’ as he put it when he was elected,” Cornish added.

Francis was known for his commitment to welcoming migrants and refugees, the protection of the environment and support for the poor and marginalized, but he remained a polarizing figure for Catholics who mirror society’s political and ideological divisions. He was elected by his fellow cardinals in 2013 as a reformer who would restore credibility to the church’s troubled finances, restructure the Vatican’s Curial departments and the spiritual reform of the church’s leadership and faithful.

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Pope Francis succeeded Pope Benedict XVI as leader of the Catholic Church in 2013, after his predecessor shocked the Catholic world by stepping down as pontiff and took the title of emeritus pope. While Benedict remained silent, he was still regarded as a champion of conservative views in contrast to Francis’ softer approach to Catholic doctrine. His presence weighed on Francis’ tenure, despite joint efforts to present a united papacy, until Benedict’s death in 2022.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio to a family of Italian immigrants in Bueno Aires, Argentina, on Dec. 17, 1936, Francis spent his youth as a chemical technician and took occasional jobs as a bouncer and janitor. At 22 he began to follow a vocation to become a priest, and after two years as a novitiate he entered the Society of Jesus, the order known as the Jesuits, on March 12, 1960.

Ordained a priest in 1969, he became the provincial superior of the Jesuit order in Argentina in 1973, at a critical time known as the Dirty War, when the country’s military dictatorship relentlessly pursued and imprisoned its critics. Bergoglio was often criticized for not standing up to the regime. His relationship with the global Jesuit order was also strained due to his iron-fist leadership and opposition to liberation theology, which was becoming increasingly popular in Latin America.

Pope John Paul II greets the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, at the Vatican on June 29, 1998. (AP Photo/Sambucetti)

He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, quickly earning the title of “slum bishop” for his ministry in the city’s poverty-stricken favelas. In 2001, Pope John Paul II made Bergoglio a cardinal and appointed him to a number of Vatican Curial positions. He had an influential role in creating the Aparecida document, a 2007 statement by Latin America’s Catholic bishops emphasizing the importance of the family, the environment and evangelization.

At the conclave after John Paul’s death in 2005, Bergoglio was one of the cardinals spoken of as “papabile,” or a credible candidate for the papacy, but the cardinals chose the continuity of Benedict, who as Joseph Ratzinger had been John Paul’s fierce doctrinal chief, sometimes called “God’s Rottweiler.”

When, in 2013, the cardinals did make Bergoglio St. Peter’s 265th successor, he took the name “Francis” in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, known for his devotion to the poor and the environment. The unassuming “Buonasera” (good evening) that he uttered to the waiting faithful in St. Peter’s Square after his election foreshadowed his humble approach to the papacy. Eschewing the grander Apostolic Palace, Francis chose to live in the hotel-like room of Domus Sanctae Marthae and eat with other Curial members. He opted for simple clothing and jewelry, distancing himself from the pomp and regalia of his predecessors.

He immediately set about making much-needed structural and economic reforms, continuing the work started by Benedict in the Institute for Religious Works, known as the Vatican bank, but more sensationally allowing 10 individuals, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, to be tried for suspected fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. Francis stripped the powerful Secretariat of State of its investment assets and injected transparency into the Vatican’s acquisitions process. His Apostolic Constitution, Paredicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel), merged many Vatican departments, eliminated redundancies and promoted more involvement of lay Catholics.

Francis’ sometimes tough reforms won him determined opponents inside the Vatican, but he bolstered his position by selecting some 80% of the cardinals heading 10 consistories. He gave red hats to prelates from a wide range of countries, including some that never had a cardinal before, creating the most diverse College of Cardinals in the history of the church.

Pope Francis, sitting at right, participates in the opening session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Oct. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The pope sought to eliminate clericalism — the preferential treatment assumed by priests in the church that is as often awarded by lay Catholics. “The pope’s actions had the purpose of purifying the church to a great effect,” said Massimo Borghesi, a philosophy professor at the University of Perugia and author of “The Mind of Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s Intellectual Journey.”

Francis’ efforts “led to the great oppositions and contrasts that he faced within the church,” Borghesi added.

To reconcile these tensions, Francis took a keen interest in calling summits of bishops, known as synods, to address key challenges facing the church, and stirring new conversations and discussions about female ordination and a married priesthood, inevitably drawing vocal opposition. The three-year Synod on Synodality, ending in October 2024, aimed to take the pulse of Catholics all over the world and to expand the people and views that go into the church’s decision-making.

Yet Francis made few changes to Catholic teaching itself. He enshrined the church’s opposition to the death penalty within the catechism and opened the door for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist with the spiritual guidance of a priest. He took a stronger stance against nuclear weapons and restricted the definition of just war that had been used by politicians to justify foreign interventions.

But when it came to questions of homosexuality, the female priesthood, abortion or euthanasia, “Bergoglio didn’t change a thing,” Borghesi said. “Conservatives thought he was a progressive pope, but from a traditional and dogmatic view, he was a conservative,” the professor said. Francis spoke candidly in opposition to abortion and criticized gender theories as a form of “ideological colonization.”



Pope Francis

Instead, Francis took a pastoral approach, setting aside theology in favor of personal encounters with gay couples and their advocates in the church. He invited trans sex workers to Vatican events and encouraged the appointment of women to lead Vatican departments.

“It will be difficult to return to a harsh and severe pope who only insists on rules and doesn’t walk the path of mercy, which Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had already laid out, and is the way of the church in modern times,” Borghesi said. “I think there is no turning back from this.”

Francis took the reins of the Catholic Church at an all-time low in its popularity after years of bad news about bishops’ mishandling of clergy sexual abuse, capped by The Boston Globe’s 2002 “Spotlight” investigation showing countless cases of sexual abuse by clergy in the United States. The pope took on the abuse crisis by creating new laws obligating clergy to report abuse to the authorities, removed the pontifical secret from abuse cases and applied accountability measures in dioceses. At the Vatican, he created the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors with the goal of advising the church on how to prevent abuse cases in the future.

Francis’ efforts had mixed results. The Vatican commission was stymied by political wrangling and the pope himself seemed to lower his disciplinary standards for those close to him, such as Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who was found guilty of pedophilia by an Argentine court, and Bishop Juan Barros, who covered up for the infamous Chilean pedophile priest Fernando Karadima.

Francis also enacted restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass with his 2021 decree “Traditionis Custodes,” which was perceived as an attack on the most conservative factions in the church and in opposition with Benedict XVI’s opening toward the old rite.

Despite Francis’ failures, he did much to restore the church’s credibility in the world. “He was a pope who opened doors, leaving behind a church that speaks to all without fear,” Borghesi said. “This pope made the church acceptable and admirable once again after the grave scandals that marked the time that preceded his pontificate.”

Pope Francis greets Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, after an interreligious meeting at the Founder’s Memorial in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Francis left a powerful mark in the way the Catholic Church interacts with other religions. He promoted interreligious dialogue by focusing on what global faiths shared, rather than their theological differences, and pursued interfaith charitable efforts for the poor and the environment. In 2016 he signed a joint declaration against Christian persecution in the Middle East with the Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and in 2019 signed a historic document on Human Fraternity with Sunni Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar.

In his multiple foreign trips, Francis favored “the global peripheries,” choosing to visit countries in the Global South and those distant from the Western power centers.

Diplomatically, he juggled difficult relationships with Russia, China and the United States. He will be remembered as a pope who withdrew from the Atlantic alliance favored by his predecessor John Paul II while attempting to mediate a bridge with Beijing and the Kremlin. Under his papacy, the Vatican signed and renewed a controversial deal with China that gave Beijing a voice in the appointment of bishops, which critics say limited the pope in condemning human rights violations by the People’s Republic.

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Francis also strived to make the Vatican a mediator for peace in what he described as a “Third World War fought piecemeal” in Syria in 2013, Ukraine in 2022 and the 2023 war in the Holy Land. He also advocated for peace in South Sudan, Yemen and Myanmar.

Francis diligently kept to the Vatican’s tradition of remaining above the fray, even avoiding calling Russia the aggressor in Ukraine and holding numerous meetings with both parties in that conflict. The pope condemned terrorist attacks against Israel while pleading for the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Pope Francis blesses the faithful as he arrives at the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage site in Alberta, Canada, July 26, 2022. 

(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

“Pope Francis served the world, not just the Catholic Church,” said journalist Victor Gaetan, author of the book “God’s Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy, and America’s Armageddon.” “From the first months of his papacy, he worked quietly, and diligently, to promote peace. His engagement often made a difference, as in Syria in 2013 or Colombia in 2016. Other times, geopolitics undermined his diplomacy of dialogue and encounter.”

Francis successfully prioritized relations with the Arab world, Gaetan explained, leading to the first-time-ever invitations to visit the United Arab Emirates (2019) and Bahrain (2022), then to mutual recognition between Oman and the Holy See (2023).

“Pope Francis showed us that Christ-like diplomacy can be real, not just aspirational, and this differs from how global powers are running the world,” he said.

The pope’s refusal to take sides in a time of war, to double down on doctrine amid mounting secularism and to provide quick solutions in a fast-paced world contributed to making Francis a highly divisive figure in the history of the church. His opponents called him authoritarian and a heretic, some even asking that he step down as pope.

Pope Francis smiles during services at Croke Park, Dublin, on Aug. 25, 2018, during the World Meeting of Families 2018. (Photo by Maxwell Photography/WMOF2018)

His supporters praised him for fostering a climate of dialogue and frankness that allowed forms of criticism to be fearlessly expressed in the first place.

“He is a pope who opened the doors,” Borghesi said. “In little time, the pope was able to restore credibility to the church in the world. This pope cleared the air, allowing Catholics to meet the world of today with their head held high and with the desire to communicate the beauty of the Christian truth to the world.”

Francis leaves behind him a church still divided, but radically transformed. Cardinals meeting at the conclave to elect the next pope will have the task of deciding what identity the church should pursue from now on, knowing that the expectations of 1.3 billion Catholics and the world are forever changed.