Catholic theologians and other experts discussed the impact of Pope Francis’ pontificate on issues, particularly migration, as the pope remained in the hospital during a March 19 panel hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for several weeks, recently celebrated his 12th anniversary as pope. Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, archbishop emeritus of Boston and a close adviser to Pope Francis, said the pope has demonstrated an awareness of “the sufferings and the injustices of so many people” during his pontificate.
“And certainly what is happening in our world with so many tragic situations of war and famine and oppression that have caused people to look for a new home,” Cardinal O’Malley said, noting, “Here in Boston, the church is here because of the famine in Ireland.”
“One year after the famine, a third of the population of Boston was Irish Catholics,” he said. “And we were not particularly welcomed. They were not happy to see us. But I think we have made a contribution.”
Pope Francis, Cardinal O’Malley continued, “is anxious for migrants to be accepted and integrated into the countries that they are going to.”
“He talks about an exchange of gifts,” he said. “We certainly, when we received them with hospitality, received the gifts of their youth, their energy, their values, their faith, and the Holy Father, of course, is calling for a more humane and fraternal world.”
Pope Francis has called for respect for migrants around the globe and has rebuked the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants as a “major crisis.”
Anna Rowlands, the St. Hilda Chair in Catholic Social Thought and Practice at Durham University in England, said Pope Francis “places Catholic social teaching at the center of his pontificate and the center of the life of the church.”
“He doesn’t simply fixate in a way often the secular press does and secular discussion on who belongs, who doesn’t belong, who is allowed across a border, who isn’t allowed across a border,” Rowlands said. “He takes it back and roots much of what he says first of all in the notion that everybody is dignified.”
She said, “That reality means that we have to think about the question, not just of rights of entry, but much more.”
Inés San Martín, vice president of communications for The Pontifical Mission Societies, said Pope Francis was shaped by his own experience in Argentina, and “does very often talk about the importance of caring for the countries from where people are fleeing, going back to the roots as to why people are risking a six-month walk just not to get killed.”
Pope Francis was elected as the 266th successor of St. Peter in Rome 12 years ago on March 13, 2013, following the historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
The Holy Father made his first pastoral visit outside of Rome to the Italian island of Lampedusa, which served to provide refuge to migrants. Pope Francis said in his July 8, 2013, homily on the island he wanted “to challenge people’s consciences and lead them to reflection and a concrete change of heart.”
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington.
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