Francis’s hopes for mankind
Mercy was the keyword of Pope Francis’s pastoral and ecclesial programme throughout his 12 years at the helm of the Church in the world
In his Apostolic Exortation Evangelii gaudium, issued on November 24, 2013, just eight months after he was elected to lead the Catholic Church in the world, Pope Francis set out the main goals of his vision and plans for the Church.
He had in mind, primarily, a Church of Mercy. Indeed, mercy was the keyword of his pastoral and ecclesial programme throughout his 12 years at the helm of the Church in the world.
“In God’s mercy, all of our infirmities find healing. His mercy, in fact, does not keep a distance: it seeks to encounter all forms of poverty and to free this world of so many types of slavery. Mercy desires to reach the wounds of all, to heal them,” he said on April 3, 2016, on the occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
The pope added that being apostles of mercy means touching and soothing the wounds that today afflict the bodies and souls of many of our brothers and sisters. “Curing these wounds, we profess Jesus, we make him present and alive; we allow others, who touch his mercy with their own hands, to recognise him as ‘Lord and God’ (Jn 20:28), as did the Apostle Thomas. This is the mission that he entrusts to us. So many people ask to be listened to and to be understood.”
Francis went on to say that the Gospel of mercy, to be proclaimed and written in our daily lives, seeks people with patient and open hearts, “good Samaritans” who understand compassion and silence before the mystery of each brother and sister. “The Gospel of mercy requires generous and joyful servants, people who love freely without expecting anything in return.”
A journey of hope
As it happened, Francis departed to the House of the Father on Easter Monday of the Church’s Jubilee Year of Hope, initiated by him on Christmas Eve 2024. He died hoping that the Jubilee Year can serve to set each of us on a renewed journey of hope, born of the experience of God’s unlimited mercy because, although God owes nothing to anyone, “he constantly bestows his grace and mercy upon all”.
In his World Day of Peace 2025 message, celebrated by the Church on the first day of each calendar year, Francis offered three proposals which he saw as capable of restoring dignity to the lives of entire peoples and enabling them to set them out anew on the journey of hope.
First, he renewed the appeal launched by Pope St John Paul II on theoccasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 to consider “reducing substantially, if not cancelling outright, the international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations”.
“In recognition of their ecological debt,” said Francis, “the more prosperous countries ought to feel called to do everything possible to forgive the debts of those countries that are in no condition to repay the amount they owe. Naturally, lest this prove merely an isolated act of charity that simply reboots the vicious cycle of financing and indebtedness, a new financial framework must be devised, leading to the creation of a global financial charter based on solidarity and harmony between peoples.”
He also solicited a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children. “Without hope for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world.”
Pope Francis died hoping that the Jubilee Year can serve to set each of us on a renewed journey of hope
The pope reiterated a concrete proposal close to his heart which he saw as a gesture that can help foster the culture of life, namely the elimination of the death penalty in all nations. “This penalty not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.”
Another appeal Francis launched “for the sake of future generations” was towards using at least a fixed percentage of the money earmarked for armaments to establish a global fund to eradicate hunger and facilitate in the poorer countries educational activities aimed at promoting sustainable development and combating climate change.
“We need to work at eliminating every pretext that encourages young people to regard their future as hopeless or dominated by the thirst to avenge the blood of their dear ones. The future is a gift meant to enable us to go beyond past failures and to pave new paths of peace.”
Purifying communication
Another inspiring message Pope Francis left us regarding mankind’s way ahead is the one he prepared for the upcoming World Communications Day (May 5), which draws attention to the concern that today too often communication is violent, aimed at striking and not at establishing the conditions for dialogue. The message maintains that it is necessary to disarm communication, to cleanse it of aggression.
Francis went to the Risen Lord hoping for a communication capable of making us fellow travellers, walking alongside our brothers and sisters and encouraging them to hope in these troubled times. A communication capable of speaking to the heart, arousing not passionate reactions of defensiveness and anger but attitudes of openness and friendship. A communication capable of focusing on beauty and hope even in the midst of apparently desperate situations and generating commitment, empathy and concern for others. A communication that can help us in “recognising the dignity of each human being and in working together to care for our common home”.
“I dream of a communication that does not peddle illusions or fears but is able to give reasons for hope,” pleaded the Holy Father.
“We must be healed of our ‘diseases’ of self-promotion and self-absorption and avoid the risk of shouting over others in order to make our voices heard. A good communicator ensures that those who listen, read or watch can be involved, can draw close, can get in touch with the best part of themselves and enter with these attitudes into the stories told.
“Communicating in this way helps us to become ‘pilgrims of hope’.”
Charles Buttigieg is a former PRO of the Archbishop’s Curia.