On March 13, 2013, after his election, Pope Francis appeared for the first time in the "loggia" of St. Peter's Basilica.
EIGHT YEARS OF FRANCIS' PONTIFICATE: A LOOK BACK AT THE MILESTONES
On March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit, South American pope and also the first to bear the name Francis. These eight years of pontificate have been characterized by initiatives and reforms aimed at involving all Christians in a new missionary thrust with the goal of bringing the love of Jesus to all humanity.
Proximity, synodality and missionary impulse: these are the cornerstones of the pontificate of Francis, elected eight years ago to the throne of Peter. The perspective of his pontificate starts from below, from the attention given to the peripheries. Inviting people to rediscover "the original freshness of the Gospel," he asks the faithful for a new fervor and dynamism so that the love of Jesus can reach the whole world. The Church desired by the Argentine Pope is a Church "on the way out," with "open doors," a "field hospital" that is not afraid of the "revolution of tenderness" or the "miracle of kindness."
2013: Evangelii gaudium, programmatic text of the Pontificate
2014: The Family
2015: Safeguarding creation
2016:The extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy
2017: 2017: The institution of the World Day of the Poor
2018: The Agreement with China
(Español) 2018: La lucha contra los abusos
2019: Fraternity, peace and Christian unity
2020:Prayer in the pandemic
Apostolic journeys and a look at the peripheries
Economic and financial reforms
Some statistical data
The first pope to bear the name Francis, the first Jesuit and the first native of Latin America, but also the first pontiff of modern times elected following the resignation of his predecessor, Jorge Mario Bergoglio began his pontificate under the sign of novelty, including the celebration of daily Mass presided over at St. Martha's House, where he decided to reside, which is another novelty. In his short homilies, delivered rigorously in the style of a parish priest, the Pope establishes a direct dialogue with the faithful, urging them to an immediate confrontation with the Word of God.
But 2013 was also marked by the publication of the apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, a true programmatic manifesto of the new pontificate, in which Francis calls for a new evangelization characterized by joy, as well as for the reform of ecclesial structures and the conversion of the papacy, so that they are more missionary and closer to the meaning intended by Jesus. To this end, also in 2013, he instituted a Council of Cardinals whose task was to study a draft revision of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus of the Roman Curia, dating from 1988.
The family is the pastoral focus of Pope Francis' 2014 year, with an extraordinary Synod. For the Pontiff, contemporary individualistic society severely attacks the family, jeopardizing the rights of children and parents, especially in the area of moral and religious education. The theme of the family will then find its climax in the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, published on April 8, 2016, in which Francis emphasizes the importance and beauty of the family based on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, but also looks realistically at the fragilities experienced by some people, such as remarried divorcees, encouraging pastors to discern.
Regarding reforms, a significant measure of 2014 was the creation of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, whose purpose is to propose initiatives to the Pontiff to "promote the responsibility of particular Churches in the protection of all minors and vulnerable adults."
On the diplomatic front, Pope Francis' 2014 was marked by two major initiatives: the first was the Invocation for Peace in the Holy Land, held on June 8 in the Vatican gardens with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, just days after the Pope's visit there. The second is the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. A goal for which the Pontiff himself has worked through letters sent to the heads of state of both countries.
2015 is the year of the safeguarding of Creation: on May 24, Francis signs the encyclical Laudato si' on the care of the common home, whose Cartesian axis is integral ecology, one in which care for nature, fairness towards the poor and commitment to society are inseparable. In this regard, the Pontiff has instituted the "World Day of Prayer for the Integrity of Creation", of an ecumenical character, to be celebrated every year on September 1, following the tradition instituted a few years earlier by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In the meantime, work on the new Apostolic Constitution of the Roman Curia continued. That same year the "Vatileaks 2" affair exploded, about the leak of confidential Holy See documents. "A deplorable act," said the Pope during the Angelus on November 8, because "the theft of documents is a crime." After a trial at the Vatican tribunal, the case closed in July 2016, with two convictions and two acquittals.
Mercy is most certainly the common thread of 2016: this is the year in which the Extraordinary Jubilee convened by Francis on the theme "Be merciful like the Father" takes place. The concern for "the least of these" is expressed in the "Fridays of Mercy", that is to say, the private visits that the Pontiff makes to structures dedicated to welcoming the poor, the sick, the marginalized. It is a Jubilee that sees the possibility of opening a Holy Door in every church in the world. Francis himself, even before opening the one in St. Peter's Basilica, opened another, highly symbolic one: the one in the cathedral of Bangui, Central African Republic, where he went on an apostolic trip in November 2015.
In 2016, moreover, a historic event took place on the ecumenical level: on February 12, in Cuba, the Bishop of Rome met the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill. Together they sign a joint declaration, in which they commit to respond to the challenges of the contemporary world, including ending the persecution of Christians and wars, promoting interreligious dialogue, helping migrants and refugees, and protecting life and the family.
The year 2017 was also marked by an act that is part of this diplomacy of peace carried by Francis: on September 20, 2017, at the United Nations in New York, the Holy See was among the first countries to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
On the pastoral level, the year is marked by the celebration of the first World Day of the Poor: an anniversary that wants to be - emphasizes the Pope - a reminder that it is precisely in the needy that "the presence of Jesus is manifested." Therefore, they "open the way to heaven" and are our "passport to paradise."
There were two highlights in Pope Francis' 2018. At the pastoral level, the Synod on Youth was an important moment of ecclesial reflection. To young people, the Pontiff asked "to listen, to be close, to witness," because "faith is a matter of encounter, not theory." This call will find its extension in the post-Synodal apostolic exhortation Christus vivit, signed in 2019. In this document, Francis asks young people not to shrink from the challenges of the contemporary world and to devote their attention to the least of these.
On the diplomatic front, the major news of that year was the provisional agreement between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China, signed in Beijing on September 22, 2018, regarding the appointment of bishops. In 2020, the agreement will be renewed for two years.
The year 2018 will also be marked by the drama of abuses committed by some members of the clergy: the cases of Cardinal George Pell, tried in Australia and then acquitted after 13 months spent unjustly in prison, and of the former Chilean priest Ferdinand Karadima, subsequently dismissed by Francis from the clerical state, as well as the publication of the Pennsylvania Report in the United States, underline the importance of the fight against this crime.
In August, at the end of his apostolic trip to Ireland, Francis recited a penitential prayer to ask for forgiveness on behalf of the Church. During the same period, the McCarrick case, which concerns the former Cardinal-Archbishop of Washington, responsible for sexual abuse of minors and who will be dismissed from the clerical state in 2019, is taking center stage in the media. The Holy See will respond to the case with a Special Report (link to full text in English), prepared by the Secretariat of State at the behest of the Pope and released on November 10, 2020.
The fight against abuse continues throughout 2019 with the Summit on the Protection of Minors. From this meeting comes the Motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi, which introduces the obligation for clerics and religious to report abuse, while each diocese must have a system easily accessible to the public to receive reports. In addition, in December, through a rescript, the pope abolished papal secrecy in cases of sexual abuse.
The year 2019 serves as a backdrop for three major gestures: the first is the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Common Coexistence, signed by the Pope and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyeb, in Abu Dhabi on February 4. The document, which is an important milestone in the relations between Christianity and Islam, encourages the strengthening of interreligious dialogue and promotes mutual respect, condemning terrorism and violence.
The second important gesture is the organization of a spiritual retreat at the Vatican for civil and ecclesiastical leaders from South Sudan. The meeting took place in April and ended with a surprising act: Francis knelt down and kissed the feet of the President of the Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, and the vice-presidents designate present, among them his opponent Riek Machar. He does this to "implore that the fire of war be extinguished once and for all" in this young African country.
The third gesture, finally, is in the direction of Christian unity: on June 29, Francis gave a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople fragments of the relics of Saint Peter. As the Pontiff himself wrote in a Letter to Patriarch Bartholomew, this gift "is intended as a confirmation of the path our Churches have taken to grow closer together."
In 2020, the year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Pope Francis remained close to the faithful with the constant power of prayer. The "Statio Orbis" presided over on March 27 by the Pope, alone, in front of a deserted and rain-soaked St. Peter's square, remains imprinted in the memory of the world. Technology has also made it possible to shorten the distances necessary to contain contagions: for some time, the general audiences and the recitation of the Angelus were broadcast live by audio-video, as were the morning Masses at Saint Martha's House.
In February, Pope Francis' fifth apostolic exhortation was published. Querida Amazonia, which gathers the fruits of the special synod for Amazonia, held in the Vatican in 2019, and in October, the third encyclical, Fratelli tutti, which, further explicating the salient features of this pontificate, calls for fraternity and social friendship and reaffirms the no to war in order to build a better world, with the commitment of all.
The year 2020, the first without any international travel for a Pope since 1978, ended with the announcement of the apostolic trip to Iraq, which finally ended last Monday. Despite rumors of cancellation, this historic trip, the first by a Pope to the land of Abraham, finally took place in good conditions.
After a 15-month hiatus due to the pandemic, Francis has resumed bringing the light and beauty of the Gospel to the world, turning his gaze once again to the peripheries, where "brotherhood and hope" are urgently needed.
His first trip as Pope, on July 8, 2013, was to Lampedusa: from this island, a destination for desperate landings, the Pope will turn the world's spotlight on the drama of migration, a major theme of his pontificate. The Pope often repeats that migrants are first and foremost people, not just numbers or social issues, and he does so not only in words, but also in deeds. Just think of the decision taken in April 2016, after returning from a visit to the refugee camp of Lesbos: in the papal flight, Francis welcomed 12 Syrian refugees and accompanied them to Rome, so that they could be assisted.
As part of the reforms, in August 2019, with a Chirograph, the Pope renews the status of the IOR, introducing the figure of the external auditor to verify the accounts. This decision is followed, at the end of 2020, by the new status of the Financial Information Authority, which will now be called Authority for Supervision and Financial Information (Asif), and by the Motu proprio On certain competences in economic-financial matters, by which the management of funds and goods of the Secretariat of State, including the Pence of St. Peter, is transferred to the Apsa, while the oversight role of the Secretariat for the Economy is strengthened.