Lenten prayers for Pope Francis

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Lent “is a chance for everybody to make a new start and experience the grace of God,” the Rev. Christopher Collins, the vice president for mission at the University of St. Thomas, said as he headed to a mass on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of a Lenten season in which Pope Francis, 88 and ailing in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, would be on the minds and prayers of the faithful.

Including Bernard Hebda, archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who recently wrote on X (Twitter) that “On this Feast of the Chair of Peter, we join Catholics and those of good will around the globe in praying for Pope Francis: May he be restored to good health and be comforted at this critical time by our prayers and the maternal intercession of Mary, Help of the Sick.”

Hebda, whose flock includes approximately 720,000 Catholics in 186 parishes, politely declined through a spokesperson to directly comment on the pontiff. And it’s in fact fraught to analyze his legacy when the world’s nearly 1.3 billion Catholics, and many more of other faith traditions, hope and pray that he soon recovers and returns.

But it’s safe to say his impact is already historic on several levels, starting with his home country: Argentina, where he was born Jorge Bergoglio.

“As a Latin American, he has been shaped by the history of a continent that is heir to European and other forms of colonization, dictatorships, violence, socio-political instability, and much human suffering,” said Miguel H. Diaz, who served as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See during the Obama administration.

Diaz, now at Loyola University Chicago, added in an email interview that “Pope Francis is also heir to the rich cultural, literary, artistic, and religious traditions that have shaped the peoples of the Americas. Religiously speaking, the continent gave birth in the late ’60s to liberation theology and the ‘preferential option for the poor.’ ”

The pope, said Collins, “came from the developing world, and he brought a perspective of the Global South. That shines through in his prioritization of and care for immigrants and refugees, especially those vulnerable populations moving around the world without a lot of security.”

Some of those Collins mentioned moving around the world have found a home in America — at least for now. In fact, more than four in 10 U.S. Catholics are immigrants (29%) or children of immigrants (14%), according to a new Pew Research Center analysis released earlier this month.

Many, but not all, are from Latin America, which is one factor in the fact that the share of U.S. Catholics identifying as Hispanic is increasing. Overall, Pew reports, 54% of the country’s Catholic population is white, 36% Hispanic, 4% Asian and 2% Black (2% identify with another race), and nationally about 20% of U.S. adults identify as Catholic, a figure that’s relatively steady but slightly lower than the 24% who said so in 2007.

The pope’s “prioritization of the poor, especially refugees, is an expression of the gospel and mission of the church,” said Collins. To emphasize that expression, on World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2019, Francis inaugurated a 20-foot bronze sculpture depicting 140 displaced people — including Mary and Joseph — spanning historical eras and diverse cultures.

Titled “Angels Unawares,” it was the first new sculpture installed in St. Peter’s Square in 400 years, and at its unveiling the pope said he wanted it there “so that it would be a reminder to everyone of the evangelical challenge of welcoming.”

That challenge isn’t the only one the church has faced before and during Francis’ papacy. Continuing controversies like the sexual-abuse scandal scar to this day, and many in and outside the church have pronounced and profound disagreements on the role of women in the church as well as LGBTQ+, reproductive-rights and other issues roiling not just religions but the rest of society in the U.S. and beyond.

The pontiff’s response to these and other dynamics — including what Collins identified as another major marker of Francis’ tenure, “Laudato Si',” his encyclical on the environment — has resulted in an at-times polarized perspective on the pope, including in America, where there’s a notable 19-percentage-point gap between Democratic and Republican Catholics in the 78% who view him favorably. That overall approval level, Pew states, is about even to the 74% who expressed approval of Pope Benedict at the end of his papacy, but below the 93% approval rating for John Paul II at the end of his historic tenure.

Francis’ encyclical, said Collins, is “also really about the poor who suffer most when the environment is degraded.” Overall, the pope, concluded Collins, has not “been afraid to speak the truth as he saw it, regardless of whether people are going to get on board with him.”

But ultimately, beyond his sacred take on social issues, it is the abiding truth that he sees in the faith that has been Francis’ signature, Collins said.

“Pope Francis’ greatest legacy,” said Diaz, “is his invitation for nations and for each one of us to reject human indifference, especially as he has reminded us again and again, rejecting the social, cultural, economic and political practices that marginalize, inflict much suffering, and exclude members of our human family. From the beginning his message has been to listen to the needs of others and to reject an idolatrous approach to self, community, and nations.”

Collins believes the pope’s “greatest success was really prioritizing that Christianity is about the person of Jesus and how he ministered to people and treated people, and [the pope has] attempted to recalibrate the life of the church along those same lines. It’s really kind of simple, but to imitate the person of Jesus and make things concrete and not abstract.”

On the first Thursday of Lent, the pope’s presence was still not concrete, but his sentiments were not abstract.

As the faithful thanked Pope Francis, he in turn thanked them via a recorded message for St. Peter’s Square worshipers — and the world.

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health from the square. I accompany you from here. May God bless you and the Virgin protect you. Thank you,” said Pope Francis, who continues to fight the good fight.