Faith in Action

 As the vast crowds patiently filed past his coffin in St Peter's Basilica, the message was unmistakeable: Pope Francis was, above all else, a pope for the people.

He strove to resist the splendour and remoteness that can come with the papacy. He chose simplicity in life and in death, from the moment he stepped out onto the balcony of St Peter's in 2013, asking the world to pray for him before he blessed them...

Francis stood out for his humility, his accessibility and his open heart. His model of leadership was one of presence, not power. He rejected the grand papal apartments in favour of a modest suite in the Cas Santa Marta. His language, too, was striking - he famously likened the church to a "field hospital": a place of immediate care and unconditional welcome, particularly for those wounded by life...

 

The Good Samaritan
George Frederick Watts (1817-1904)
Photo Credit: Manchester Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND] 

He never shied away from confronting the pain of the world. His very first official visit as Pope was to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, where so many migrants and refugees have perished trying to cross the Mediterranean. There he tossed a wreath into the sea in memory of the dead and condemned what he called the "globalisation of indifference". It was a clear statement of intent.

Francis would not lead the church from behind closed doors, but from the margins - where people were suffering, and where compassion was most needed.

His commitment to the poor, the forgotten and the vulnerable was rooted in personal experience. He had seen poverty up close in the barrios of Buenos Aries. As the first pope from the global south, he brought a different lens to the Vatican - one shaped by firsthand knowledge of inequality and injustice... When he talked about the structures that keep people poor, or the need for solidarity between nations, he was not theorising from afar; he was speaking as someone who had lived among the least... His words, as ever,  were for the powerful to hear - and for all of us to heed...

In a time of rising walls, deepening inequalities and shrinking compassion, he stood for the radical idea that love is still the answer. Love of the poor. Love of neighbour. Love of peace. Not abstractly, not as doctrine, but as lived, costly commitment.

(Cherie Blair, The Sunday Times, 2025)

A man who had much to teach all people including world politicians. Beware the trappings of status and the striving for material goods. Be wary of boastfulness  and concentrate your thoughts and your actions on the poor and the needy. Show compassion to those who are homeless and who are suffering. Bear witness to the evil of inequality and injustice.