Addressing a May 1 panel discussion on “The Legacy of Pope Francis and the Future of the Church,” Dominican Father Aquinas Guilbeau — the university chaplain and vice president of Ministry and Mission at The Catholic University of America, noted that legacies “are a tricky thing to nail down. They often take a while to develop and materialize.”
He was speaking on behalf of a panel of experts convened in the auditorium of CUA’s Conway School of Nursing in an event co-sponsored by the university and the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C.
And while legacies are indeed tricky, as the Catholic Church anticipates its 267th pontiff, it can’t help taking a look both back, and ahead.
So what will the legacy of Pope Francis — who died on Easter Monday, April 21 — eventually be?
“If you wanted to try to identify things that were significant developments under this papacy — whether they’ll be picked up by the next pope or popes is another issue entirely — there were obvious things,” reflected Joseph Capizzi, Ph.D., the dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at Catholic University, where he also serves as a professor of moral theology and ethics.
“One would be the emphasis on the synodal process. Aside from anybody’s judgment about the process, this was clearly something very important to him,” Capizzi said. “It is part of an effort to change some of the processes within the Church, in terms of how it deliberates about issues, so that could be something that — at least for some period of time — becomes a kind of constitutive feature of Pope Francis’ legacy.”
Pope Francis’ disdain of ceremony is another notable point, he said.
“Something that everybody has commented on was his attempts to remove some of the trappings of the office that (in previous papacies) made the pope seem less accessible,” continued Capizzi. “Again, if future popes retain those and maybe even push those forward, that will be part of a legacy.”
Ashley McGuire — a senior fellow with the Catholic Association, which identifies its mission as “a faithful Catholic voice in the public square” — emphasized Pope Francis’ insistence upon inclusion of those who are often forgotten.
“I think certainly he will be remembered for the way he redefined or refocused our attention on the margins and the marginalized — and included the elderly with the unborn; the immigrant; the poor; all together in what he called the integrated ecology,” she said.
The pontiff’s environmental teaching had a personal impact, McGuire shared.
“I’m somebody who recycles because of Pope Francis,” she said. “He really captured my attention on the issue of the environment, and the way he connected it with human life.”
McGuire also observed that — very much like Pope St. John Paul II — Francis “allowed himself to be elderly in a very public and vulnerable way, which I think sort of dignified the elderly state.”
Stephen P. White — the executive director of CUA’s The Catholic Project and a fellow in Catholic Studies Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center — suggested that Pope Francis’ relaxed public persona will doubtless linger in popular memory.
“The things that we remember now are not necessarily things that were in an encyclical or letter that he wrote,” White said. “The little snippets — the ‘smell of the sheep;’ the ‘who am I to judge – the informal comments of his pontificate are, in a way, a huge part of his legacy. It wasn’t just his decision to make himself available informally, but we live in a world in where that’s actually possible in way it wasn’t 30 or 50 years ago — maybe not even 25 years ago.”
White also recalled the first homily Pope Francis delivered — which took place the morning after he was elected, during the traditional Mass for the new pope and cardinal electors. “He talked about the need to proclaim Christ.”
“So for him,” continued White, “I think in everything he did, he really wanted this freshness with the proclamation of the Gospel — the Good News that Jesus Christ came, suffered, died, and rose from the dead to save us from sin. That’s the first and the last thing about him. That message didn’t always come across, for a lot of reasons,” White admitted, “but I think for me, in the immediate aftermath of his death, I think that stands out.”
Each of the panelists saw continuity between Pope Francis and previous pontiffs.
McGuire said Pope Francis expanded upon Pope Benedict XVI’s use of social media; Benedict XVI was the first pope in history to have a Twitter account.
White noted a continuous focus on humanity, with Pope St. John Paul II observing “the crisis of the human person,” while Pope Benedict XVI warned of “the dictatorship of relativism,” and Pope Francis lamented a “throw-away culture.”
Capizzi observed that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis both emphasized responsibility to and care for creation.
But a question remained: What will the cardinals gathered in conclave be looking for in the next pope?
“They want sort of a unicorn,” suggested White. “Someone who knows enough about the inside workings of the Vatican that they can reform it, but also enough of an outsider so they’re not the whole machine. There was a lot of talk about that’s what they were looking for in 2013,” he added. “Someone who understood Rome well enough, and understood the Curia well enough, but was not a creature of it. Every election is about draining the swamp — no matter what kind of election we’re talking about.”
Capizzi’s emphasis was more or less “back to basics.”
“I want a holy man; I want a good man. The purpose of the Church — it’s the Ark of God that carries the people of God through the secular age. We’re trying to pull as many people into the boat as possible, and keep them on the boat. That’s the task,” he said. “It’s evangelical. You’re the pastor; you’re the servant of the servants. This is your particular role.”
