Francis − a pope who cared deeply for the poor and opened up the Catholic Church

  Pope Francis, the Catholic Church’s first Latin American pontiff, 
has died, the Vatican announced on April 21, 2025. He was 88. Francis had served as pope for 12 eventful years, after being elected on March 13, 2013 after the surprise resignation of Benedict XVI.

  Prior to becoming pope, he was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, and was the first person from the Americas to be elected to the papacy. He was also the first pope to choose Francis as his name, thus honoring St. Francis of Assisi, a 13th-century mystic whose love for nature and the poor have inspired Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

60 years after JFK, Biden as second Catholic president offers a refresh in church’s political role

  Running to become the first Catholic president of the United States in 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy told an audience of wary Protestant ministers that “if the time should come … when my office would require me to violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office.”

  Sixty years later, Joe Biden has become the second Roman Catholic to win the White House, and some prominent Catholics and bishops now appear to believe that the only way a Catholic should hold office is if putting conscience before what the law says about culture war issues like abortion. Five decades of abortion politics have taken a toll.

The Intersection of youth activism and faith-based values

  At times, young activists have been accused of being apathetic to the world around them, but history shows that they have played an important role in efforts to achieve critical change through progressive social movements. Today, student activists—some of whom are motivated by their faith—continue to drive such movements. On March 24, 2018, more than one month after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., students organized the March for Our Lives, a massive rally demanding policy change to prevent gun violence and increase public safety. With an estimated 800,000 people in Washington, D.C., joined by approximately 800 sister marches across the country and throughout the world, the March for Our Lives was one of the largest youth protests since the Vietnam War.

Lauren Kokum: Voting with values that work for all

  Each year, the Family Research Council sponsors the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. The summit postures itself as the “premiere conservative event” in the nation—one that sets a framework for “values voters.” As in years past, this year’s summit agenda included traditional marriage, religious liberty, sanctity of life, and limited government.

  For decades, social conservatives have championed these issues—which supposedly encompass the entire values universe—along with the discriminatory policies they entail. But this year, the summit was easily upstaged by the prophetic and political nature of an international visitor: Pope Francis. During his U.S. visit in the days leading up to the event, the pope preached a starkly different message—one that was merciful and welcoming rather than judgmental.

Pope Francis and access to justice

  Pope Francis—leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and a global celebrity with fans from many faith traditions—is visiting the United States for the first time beginning tomorrow. He brings with him strong messages regarding many of the nation’s most pressing justice issues, including economic inequality, mass incarceration, and climate change.

Charles C. Haynes: Remembering the Holocaust, speaking the truth

  In another of his patented truth-to-power moments, Pope Francis triggered international debate last week by having the temerity to call genocide “genocide.”

  Speaking at Sunday Mass on April 12, the pontiff described the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by Turks 100 years ago as “the first genocide of the 20th century” – a characterization of that horrific episode strongly supported by the evidence of history.

Claire Markham: How would Pope Francis vote?

  Pope Francis is one of the most popular religious leaders in the world, with a fan base that stretches far beyond the 1.2 billion members of the Catholic Church. His admirers include millions of worshippers in other faith traditions, as well as millions of people who are not religious. Pope Francis is popular for many reasons: He is joyful, nonjudgmental, loving, smart, humorous, self-aware, humble, inclusive, and unpredictable. In other words, one thing the pope is not is a politician.

Sally Steenland: Repairing Christianity’s damaged brand

  One of the saddest and most damaging consequences of the Religious Right’s grip on partisan power over the past three decades has been the tarnishing of Christianity.

  Since the 1980s, the Religious Right—an organized political force consisting of extremely conservative Christians—has inserted its theological views into federal and state laws and attempted to impose its doctrines on a diverse, pluralistic nation. Leaders in the Religious Right have partnered with conservatives in the Republican Party to oppose LGBT equality, women’s reproductive health and rights, the teaching of evolution in schools, government safety net programs for the poor, and more.

Sally Steenland: There’s more than one way to start a revolution

  At a time when religion is a damaged brand to many people—especially the young—and when it seems synonymous with intolerance and bigotry rather than justice and mercy, the recent words of Pope Francis are occasion for joy. Or as Equally Blessed, a Catholic support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, people put it, his words are "rain on a parched land."