As he began his papacy, the Argentinian Jorge Bergoglio SJ, known to the world as Pope Francis, indicated that he would lead a humanitarian-democratic rehabilitation of the Catholic Church as it continued to shepherd its flock towards the future. While his commitment expressed many left progressive politics and policies, it also informed his primary responsibility, and skewed the way he understood his role as guardian of the Church’s judgments on faith and morals.
Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis continued to demonstrate a self-elevating sentimentalism rooted in cosmic standards of justice and applied it to different world problems he deemed crucial, such as illegal immigration, climate change, or economic inequality. He saw himself as a pope of the future, showing the Church how to keep up with the times. Instead, his legacy already seems passé.
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