Pope Francis stood with the marginalised against a world built on domination
After 12 years in the papacy, Pope Francis has left behind a legacy that some Catholics view as controversial, but one that stayed closer to the true spirit of the Gospels: to stand with the last and the marginalised, always and everywhere.
The first, and likely the last, Jesuit to be appointed Pope, Francis fully embodied the revolutionary attitude that his order has long represented within Catholicism.
After all, the Catholic Church's most transformative event in modern history, the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, saw the Jesuits play a crucial role as intellectual and theological enablers.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, an Argentinian and the first Pope from the Global South, never hesitated to criticise turbo-capitalism and unregulated markets - two defining features of western liberal democracies - for the state of the world.
From this perspective, his two most important reflections were contained in his encyclical letters: Laudato Si (Praise be to you, my Lord), on the care of our common home, released in May 2015, and Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers), on fraternity and social friendship, released in October 2020.
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Both were inspired by the life and teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi, whose name he chose as his guide and inspiration upon his election.
Common home
The Pope's message was unequivocal, yet many of the world leaders who today hypocritically mourn his passing never lifted a finger to welcome or put his teachings into practice.
At best, they ignored them; at worst, they did the exact opposite.
Laudato Si is a heartfelt appeal to save planet Earth from the "irresponsible use and abuse" by its own inhabitants. As Pope Francis writes: "The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air, and in all forms of life."
The Pope's message was unequivocal, yet many of the world leaders who today hypocritically mourn his passing never lifted a finger to put his teachings into practice
Quoting extensively from his predecessors - Paul VI, Saint John Paul II, and Benedict XVI - Francis warned against unchecked human activity, the reckless exploitation of nature, the risk of ecological catastrophe, and the urgent need for radical change in humanity's conduct.
He criticised the tendency to see no other meaning in the natural environment beyond its immediate use and consumption, and he called for the elimination of the structural causes of dysfunction in the world economy.
He urged a correction of growth models that had proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment.
Pope Francis reiterated the urgent challenge to protect what he called "our common home," urging humanity to seek sustainable and integral development and to initiate a new dialogue on shaping the planet's future.
Fraternity
It is deeply depressing to see how far backwards the world has gone since the encyclical was released 10 years ago.
The so-called Green Transition appears to be driven primarily by China, while the US and Europe seem increasingly hesitant, focusing more on a new arms race than on ecological transformation.
Sadly, the US and China, whose cooperation is crucial to saving the planet, are locked in deepening political, economic, commercial, technological, and military confrontation.
China remains the world's largest polluter, but it has at least embarked on a vast effort to promote a green transition.
By contrast, under Donald Trump, the US no longer seems to believe in the necessity of combating climate change. Instead, it has approved significant measures to revive the use of fossil fuels and to disengage from international commitments to reduce emissions to agreed levels.
Europe, as usual, appears confused.
The encyclical Fratelli Tutti was published during the dark period of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the so-called great power competition was allegedly intensifying global tensions.
The text once again echoed the example of Saint Francis - still relevant 800 years later - who, during the Crusades, visited Sultan Malik al-Kamil in Egypt to deliver a message of fraternity.
The encyclical referred to the pandemic as an event that exposed humankind's false securities and its inability to work together to confront global challenges. It noted that all the hyperconnectivity celebrated by the so-called "techno-optimists" could not prevent the increasing fragmentation witnessed everywhere.
Then it delivered one of its most powerful warnings: "Anyone who thinks that the only lesson to be learned was the need to improve what we were already doing, or to refine existing systems and regulations, is denying reality."
Common good
It is difficult to find a more authoritative statement urging the world's top decision-makers, especially those in western liberal democracies, to change their approach and abandon the so-called TINA ideology ("There Is No Alternative") and the "Build Back Better" slogan coined at the time.
In a nutshell, Francis's message was: "Build Back Differently" by paying attention to the poorest and the weakest - those who had been left behind, the marginalised.
Ultimately, it was a call for a complete overhaul of the political and economic order.
Francis denounced the worrying regression of the international system, with "ancient conflicts thought long buried...breaking out anew" and the rise of "myopic, extremist, resentful and aggressive nationalism...new forms of selfishness and a loss of social sense under the guise of defending national interests".
He also criticised the use of the phrase "opening up to the world", widely promoted in the economic and financial sectors, for its tendency to mean only "opening to foreign interests or to the freedom of economic powers to invest without obstacles or complications in all countries", while disregarding the common good "in order to impose a single cultural model".
In other words, he denounced western cultural and economic hegemony.
A warning
Francis warned that globalisation had made people neighbours, not brothers, and that a "massified world" focused on individual interests had left human beings "more alone than ever".
This model of globalism, he wrote, "strengthens the identity of the more powerful...while diminishing the identity of the weaker and poorer regions".
He also warned of the "end of historical consciousness", pointing to the erasure of collective memory, the rejection of elders' wisdom, and a culture among the youth that had become "shallow, uprooted and distrustful".
Words like democracy, freedom and justice, he argued, have been twisted 'into tools for domination…meaningless tags used to justify any action'
He called these developments "new forms of cultural colonisation" – resulting in peoples who, having abandoned their traditions, end up losing their "spiritual identity", "moral consistency", and ultimately their "intellectual, economic and political independence".
Most powerfully, he warned of the manipulation of language itself: "a way to weaken historical consciousness...is to empty great words of their meaning."
Words like democracy, freedom and justice, he argued, have been twisted "into tools for domination…meaningless tags used to justify any action".
He added, with prophetic force: "The best way to dominate and gain control over people is to spread despair and discouragement, even under the guise of defending certain values."
The resonance with the current rhetoric of western governments could not be clearer.
Francis also anticipated today's polarised climate: "hyperbole, extremism and polarisation have become political tools… one denies the right of others to exist or to have an opinion".
He called the bluff on human rights, writing: "They are not equal for all...In today's world, many forms of injustice persist...fed by reductive anthropological visions and by a profit-based economic model that does not hesitate to exploit, discard, and even kill human beings."
One of his most damning insights was this: "War, terrorist attacks, racial or religious persecution...are judged differently depending on how convenient it proves for certain, primarily economic, interests. What is true as long as it is convenient… stops being true once it becomes inconvenient."
Shepherd of souls
Francis condemned the building of walls, calling instead for bridges.
He rejected the fear of outsiders, writing: "Whatever comes from [outside] cannot be trusted...It is the territory of the barbarian."
He warned that this mindset now dominates even the most so-called enlightened democracies, obsessed with migration and driven by a civilisational logic of fear.
He undertook 47 apostolic journeys, including to war-torn Iraq. He never ceased calling for compassion and hospitality for migrants and refugees.
He championed interreligious dialogue and consistently challenged the international community to confront its complicity in the violence unfolding in Ukraine, Gaza and beyond.
He believed we are not living in an era of change, but a change of era.
Even as his health deteriorated, he remained a shepherd of souls to the very end. On 20 April, gravely ill, he addressed believers in St Peter's Square for Easter - and descended among them for one final gesture of closeness.
The next day, having completed his last act of service, he returned to the house of the Lord.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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