Pope Francis – Zichrono livracha

I was saddened this morning to learn of the passing of the 88 year-old Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina on December 17, 1936), who took as his Papal name “Francis” on March 13, 2013, after Saint Francis of Assisi (d. 1226), a Catholic mystic, poet, and friar who committed himself to a life of poverty and concern for the poor, animals and the environment. Pope Francis’ humility drew him to live, upon becoming Pope, not in the Papal palace, but in a simple apartment in the Vatican. Deeply concerned about the poor within the Church and around the world and about the environment, Pope Francis issued an encyclical called “Laudato Si” in which he expressed his concerns about the negative impact of global warming and climate change.

My colleague, Rabbi Ron Kronish, an interreligious peacebuilder living in Jerusalem, wrote movingly of Pope Francis in an article he called “A Rabbi’s Appreciation of Pope Francis: A man of peace” in the Jesuit Review (April 10, 2025) from which I have drawn a few quotations of Pope Francis. For Ron’s article, see https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2025/04/10/rabbi-kronish-ope-francis-250344

In his memoir, Life: My Story Through History (publ. 2024), Pope Francis wrote at length at the end of the first chapter about his memories of World War II and of the moral duty to welcome immigrants today:

“I want to repeat this, I want to shout it out: Please, let us welcome our brothers and sisters when they knock at the door. Because if they are properly integrated, if they are supported and looked after, they can make a big contribution to our lives. Like those Polish immigrants I knew as a child who fled the war, today’s migrants are just people looking for a better place who often find death instead. Too often, sadly, these brothers and sisters of ours, who want a little peace, encounter neither welcome nor solidarity, only an accusing finger. It is prejudice that corrupts the soul; it is wickedness that kills, and it is a dead end, a perversion. Let us not forget, for example, what happened to our Jewish brothers and sisters. And in their case, memories are plentiful.”

Pope Francis devoted an entire chapter to “The Extermination of the Jews” in which he recalled his earliest memories of the Holocaust:

“I have become fully aware of this drama, thanks to my teachers at school, my family, the study of history, and above all thanks to the stories of survivors who over the years have told me of their experiences of imprisonment in those death camps, places where human dignity was utterly crushed. I have heard many such stories, some of them from my friend, Rabbi Abraham Skorka [an Argentinian biophysicist, rabbi and author].”

In 2014, Pope Francis visited Yad Vashem in Jerusalem where he said:

“Remember us in your mercy. Grant us the grace to be ashamed of what we have done, to be ashamed of this massive idolatry, of having destroyed our own flesh, which you formed from the earth, to which you gave life with your own breath of life. Never again, Lord, never again.”

Following the vicious Hamas massacre of Israelis and others on October 7, 2023 and the war between Israel and Hamas, Pope Francis wrote a letter to “my Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel”:

“My heart is torn at the sight of what is happening in the Holy Land, by the power of so much division and so much hatred. The whole world looks on at what is happening in that land with apprehension and pain. These are feelings that express special closeness and affection for the peoples who inhabit the land which has witnessed the history of Revelation….this war has also produced divisive attitudes, sometimes taking the form of antisemitism and anti-Judaism. I can only reiterate what my predecessors also clearly stated many times: the relationship that binds us to you is particular and singular, without ever obscuring, naturally, the relationship that the Church has with others and the commitment towards them too.”

Francis rejected every form of anti-Judaism and antisemitism

“unequivocally condemning manifestations of hatred towards Jews and Judaism as a sin against God. Together with you, we, Catholics, are very concerned about the terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world. We had hoped that ‘never again’ would be a refrain heard by the new generations, yet now we see that the path ahead requires ever closer collaboration to eradicate these phenomena.”

He stressed the importance of pursuing peace as a religious obligation:

“In times of desolation, we have great difficulty seeing a future horizon in which light replaces darkness, in which friendship replaces hatred, in which cooperation replaces war. However, we, as Jews and Catholics, are witnesses to precisely such a horizon. And we must act, starting first and foremost from the Holy Land, where together we want to work for peace and justice, doing everything possible to create relationships capable of opening new horizons of light for everyone, Israelis and Palestinians.

Together, Jews and Catholics, we must commit ourselves to this path of friendship, solidarity and cooperation in seeking ways to repair a destroyed world, working together in every part of the world, and especially in the Holy Land, to recover the ability to see in the face of every person the image of God, in which we were created.”

Among my favorite films is the 2019 drama called “The Two Popes” in which Pope Benedict XVI, played by Anthony Hopkins, sought to convince Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, played by Jonathan Pryce, not only not to resign from the priesthood, but to take over the Papacy upon Benedict’s resignation, the first such resignation of any Pope since the 15th century. The movie, written by Anthony McCarten, is fiction as are the meetings described between the two Popes. However, their conversations, set in the Vatican, and growing friendship reflect the humanity of each Pope and their internal struggles with faith, life and history. “The Two Popes” is streaming on Netflix.

The world has lost a good man, a humble priest whose decency and deep commitment to peace and to the poor will be remembered not only by Catholics, but by the Jewish people and humankind as a whole for blessing.