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May 2025
35m 59s

WOF 488: The Legacy of Pope Francis

BISHOP ROBERT BARRON
About this episode

Pope Francis passed away at the age of eighty-eight on Easter Monday. He was the first pope from Latin America, the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope to take the name “Francis,” after St. Francis of Assisi. What stood out in his twelve-year pontificate? How does his papacy compare with those of his immediate predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope St. John Paul II? What should we continue to champion from Francis’ legacy as the Church charts her course into the future? Today we discuss Pope Francis’ influence on both the Church and the world.

A listener asks how to deal with regret from the past. 

00:00 | Introduction
01:21 | Meeting Pope Francis
04:33 | Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI
06:36 | Pope Francis as first Latin-American pope
08:10 | Pope Francis as first Jesuit pope
10:22 | Pope Francis as first to be called “Francis”
11:09 | Master of the beau geste
13:36 | The Church as “field hospital”
15:16 | Resisting a “technocratic mindset”
19:01 | Clarifying the “universal designation of goods”
21:24 | Understanding the “two popes”
26:11 | Concerns about Francis’s papacy
29:37 | Pope Francis’s perception of the American church
32:25 | Honoring Pope Francis’s legacy
33:50 | Listener question: How do I let go of regrets?
35:24 | Join the Word on Fire Institute

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