Georgetown’s final ‘Francis Factor’ panel remembers late pope’s legacy

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — In 2013, the odds against Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio being named pope were considered about 150 to 1.

That March 13, French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran intoned “Habemus Papam!” (We have a pope!”) from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, announcing that Cardinal Bergoglio — Pope Francis — had won the balloting of the College of Cardinals.

Anne Thompson, a reporter for NBC News who was there, remembered that the assembled throng in St. Peter’s Square initially responded with one voice: “Huh?”

Such a reaction could occur again.

Thompson said at a Georgetown University panel on May 6 that the new Pope Francis soon afterward “captured the imagination and heart of the entire world.” The panel discussion, on the eve of the Vatican conclave beginning May 7, was the final “Francis Factor” discussion for the university’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.

Participants were reluctant to predict future developments, but warm memories of the late pope’s personality and unwavering focus on the dispossessed flowed freely.

John Carr, founder of the Initiative, remembered the “incredible sight” of the pope following his speech to Congress in 2015 during his apostolic visit to the United States. The protocol normally would have had him attending a luncheon at the Capitol. Instead, the pope was driven directly to the office of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, where he had lunch with people in need.

In advance of his visit to the United States, via satellite, Pope Francis held a virtual town hall with three cities. One city was McAllen, Texas, and with a group gathered at Sacred Heart Catholic Church there, he famously singled out Sister Norma Pimentel, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus and the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

Her abiding memory “has to be the moment when he looked at me and said, ‘I love you very much,'” Sister Norma told the panel.

“One of the first things he said (as pope) was, ‘I am a sinner. I am a sinner who received the mercy of God,'” recalled Andrew Prevot, a Georgetown theology professor.

“That’s the most Ignatian thing I ever heard,” he said. “This is what it means to have a Jesuit pope.”

Initiative director Kim Daniels praised Pope Francis’ “dynamic open vision” offered especially to the poor, and his often-expressed philosophy that “the church must be a place of mercy freely given.”

“He met people where they were at,” Thompson said. “He spoke of faith as a person who practiced it. All these things that people could relate to.”

As for transforming the papacy, Thompson observed that Pope Francis “did not do well reining in the Curia” and he left the Vatican in debt with unfunded pension liabilities. But, she said, “he certainly made the church more global — the leadership of the church more global. That will have a significant impact.”

Rabbi Abraham Skorka, a personal friend of Pope Francis from their days in Argentina, when they wrote the book “On Heaven and Earth” together, praised the late pope.

“He had a special commitment with all the documents of the Second Vatican Council,” said Rabbi Skorka, a research fellow for Jewish studies at Georgetown. He called the pope “a very, very loyal friend” unafraid to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians and Ukraine and Russia.

But first, he said the late pope reminded him, “We have to purify our religious elements to use them as instruments of peace.”

“On most matters of faith and morals,” Prevot observed, Pope Francis “was pretty consistent” with his predecessors Pope Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II.

With respect to Pope Francis’ famous 2013 response “Who am I to judge” — “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” — Prevot described it as the pope’s attempt to say, “I’m trying to show what mercy looks like in a concrete situation.”

Sister Norma said what was “clear to all of us was his connection to humanity: looking for the goodness in others instead of turning them away. We don’t turn our backs on anyone but embrace them.”

Thompson, who participated in the discussion from St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, said there was “no clear consensus at the moment” on who should become the next pope. But she suggested the cardinals’ choice may end up being between “someone good at the business of the Catholic Church” and someone who is seen as continuity with Pope Francis.

“It’s a really tall order,” she said.

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