The death of a pope is a pivotal moment in world affairs. There are 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, roughly 18% of the total population. The Catholic Church is a presence in every country, providing spiritual leadership and doctrinal guidance in addition to operating vital institutions such as schools, hospitals, and charitable enterprises. The Catholic Church shaped Western civilization, and each utterance from its leader commands the globe’s attention.
This inevitably means church teaching intersects with politics, though the scope and tenor of involvement differ from one pontificate to the next. Pope Francis’s willingness — some would call it eagerness — to interpose himself in political issues made him a lightning rod. In America, his comments on non-doctrinal issues such as climate change and migration drew praise on the Left, which has, especially in the Trump era, claimed Francis as a moral ally.
So it was no surprise that prominent Democrats were particularly effusive in praising the late Francis on Monday. Former President Joe Biden described him on X as a “global symbol of compassion and social justice,” while former President Barack Obama said he was “the rare leader who made us want to be better people.”
But Francis did not fit neatly into the American Left-Right calculus. Francis was, for instance, a staunch opponent of abortion throughout his papacy and sharply contradicted Biden and the Left’s claim to stand for “compassion and social justice.” In his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, he linked abortion to his broader critique of “throwaway culture,” writing, “It is not ‘progressive’ to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life.”
His rhetoric on abortion intensified with time. “To get rid of a human being is like hiring a hitman to solve a problem,” he said in a 2018 homily at the Vatican.
On gender ideology, Francis similarly differed from Democratic Party mores. As fervor over transgender issues crescendoed in the United States, the pope’s disagreement grew more pointed. In a 2016 press conference aboard a papal flight, Francis decried the “ideological colonization” of Western gender ideology being imposed on developing countries through education and aid programs. Most recently, in a 2024 Vatican symposium, Francis described gender ideology as “the ugliest danger of our time.”
It is difficult to imagine Obama describing anyone else who took this view as a “leader who made us want to be better people,” much though it would properly apply.
American conservatives often regarded Francis with skepticism and suspicion. Despite his insistence on the sanctity of life and traditional notions on sex, the pope’s critique of American conservatism drew ire from the Right. He said capitalism was an expression of “a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.” He also criticized the U.S.’s border policies under Trump as “the greatest cruelty” and a “disgrace.” His promotion of progressive environmentalism included condemnation of fossil fuels. His statements on such matters often seemed ill-informed and shallow, and they tested the loyalties of traditional American Catholics who revered the office of the papacy but often found themselves personally disliking its occupant and his views.
POPE FRANCIS DIED OF CEREBRAL STROKE THAT LED TO HEART FAILURE
Francis’s political involvement sometimes militated against spiritual and doctrinal unity. His ambiguous language on doctrine caused frequent confusion and even alarm among Catholics. The 2016 Dubia, the formal set of questions submitted to Francis by four Cardinals seeking doctrinal clarification, underscored the profound unease many Catholics felt during his pontificate.
History will remember him for his social and environmental advocacy, pastoral approach to the papacy, and attempts to reform the church. Many will claim him as their champion, as figures on the American Left did Monday, and many will cast him in a less flattering light.