On April 21, the world grieved the death of 88-year-old Jorge Mario Bergoglio, widely known as Pope Francis, who had succumbed to pneumonia after leading and serving the Catholic Church for over twelve years. Francis left an incredible legacy, and as NBC News explains, contributed to notable progression within the Catholic Church, serving as a true symbol of love and inclusivity. This is corroborated by BVH senior and confirmed Catholic Karen Baeza, who has seen the value in Pope Francis’s work and admires it.
“Even though Catholicism is more on the conservative side, Francis was a very progressive Pope, which was nice. At the end of the day, he was pivotal for our time and it is sad to see him go,” Baeza said. “Pope Francis liked to connect with his people and he allowed people of different communities to be involved in the church. I liked how he was so welcoming and open, which shifted the nature of Catholicism as a whole.”
According to the Pew Research Center, over 80 percent of Catholics expressed a favorable opinion about Pope Francis and the work he did. Francis made monumental contributions to create a more welcoming church, ranging from accepting everyone to blessing other groups ostracized from society, as junior and Catholic mentor Louis Nguyen explains.
“He blessed female prisoners, which was something I supported. As Catholics, we are called to live like Jesus, and that is exactly what he did. He cared for the marginalized and people who were not cared for in our society. Despite our politically divided world today, he still managed to make our world a better place,” Nguyen said.
Francis’s legacy is extremely notable, and followers within the BVH community such as sophomore Andrew Maywood have hopes that Pope Francis’s successor will continue his legacy and the progress he has paved.
“Catholics believe that whoever is chosen is the right pick in the end, but I think it is very important to uphold his legacy. He marked a change in the tide as the first Southern Hemisphere pope, which makes up seventy percent of Catholics,” Maywood said.“It is important that [the new pope] upholds their values and what they want. It would be a shame if all the work [Pope Francis] did was reversed because of different values.”
As The New York Times explains, Robert Francis Pervost, now known as Pope Leo XIV, was officially chosen by the Conclave on May 8 as the first North American pope. As he begins to fill his role in the church, Catholics within BVH and around the world hope that he will uphold their faith and demonstrate compassion.
“We hope he is strong and willing to serve Catholicism and the rest of the world. [I hope] he can uphold what Jesus taught–which is to be compassionate and caring, but still sometimes turn away from societal norms and serve his faith,” Nguyen said.
