“Who on earth is that?” was the urgent query in the world’s newsrooms as the new Pope appeared on the balcony in 2013. For a certainty it was none of the favourites. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was scarcely known outside Vatican circles, the specialised religious press and his native South America. I had been covering the Papal Conclave for Sky Television and had not given him a second thought.
From the start he struck a different note, refusing to live in the palace, washing the feet of prisoners, embracing disabled pilgrims in St Peter’s Square and in short following the example of the early apostles. He changed not a whit of church teaching but, because he always sounded so liberal, people assumed he had so thus he pleased everyone: the liberals who thought things had changed, the traditional who knew they hadn’t.
What everybody will remember is that literally hours before he died, Pope Francis, not wanting to let down the crowds which had massed in the Square for the most important celebration in the Church’s year, was greeting people from his popemobile, blessing babies, giving rosaries to US Vice-President JD Vance, staying active to the end.
He could so easily have retired. After all, Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, the keeper of the doctrine, had done just that when as Pope Benedict he broke the tradition of centuries and became the Pope Emeritus.
If he, the arch traditionalist and doctrinal expert, said it was acceptable then it was widely predicted that future popes might follow suit but clearly Francis preferred the example of Pope John Paul, who also, old and ill, saw his papal reign through to the end.
Whoever succeeds him will inherit a challenge in a war-torn and secular world but it now appears that the latest generation has an active interest in Christianity and so there is a spark of bright hope, which could be fanned into a flame to shine across the globe.
