i think he reached out to people immediately on his election He spoke the language that they understood He showed he was extraordinarily humble asking for their blessing and that really was striking for many people And then he continued a pontificate which was non-judgmental which was reaching out to try and talk to people and I I think he revolutionized the church with the whole process of codality that which was the last years of his of his pontificate He also I think no pope in history has reached the Muslim street the Muslim world in the way Francis did I think no you would have to there are one or two popes in history who have been very close to the poor but Francis put the poor at the center of his pontificate from day one he took the name Francis and throughout his pontificate the poor were always at the heart of his message of his attention and he wanted the church to put them at the center of his attention he said it's the gospel he he he was seen in the world as a force a spiritual force and a force for humanizing the world He was reminding people of their own humanity And he was trying to bring the best out of people and read beyond their public face and their public statement to see what was in their hearts He he was known as a pope who could read hearts Pope Francis's greatest contribution was his leadership He emulated what he advocated His entire leadership style was predicated on humility and service and love He entreated all of us to encounter and accompany other people especially people very different than ourselves He not only restored our faith in God honestly he restored our faith in humankind So when Pope Francis was elected in 2013 I I I can tell you I remember watching it and everyone was ecstatic when we heard Habos Papa a new pope And then when they said Burggalio we were in a bit of shock Not just because it was the first Jesuit but the church hadn't seen a pope from a religious order since 1831 with the election of Pope Gregory the 16th the commod monk So you know you're you're you're going oh you know 170ome years first religious first Jesuit And I would say that being a religious order priest and eventually bishop uh influenced his papacy and I think is behind his great impact So let me let me just take uh one thing that I think he did brilliantly as in saying that we should go out to the peripheries He really prioritized the needs of the people where they were over in a sense the primacy of the magisterium and the official teachings of the church He never changed anything official but his starting point was always where are people in their local community in their parish in their family And let me use that as my starting point in bringing them closer to God One of Pope Francis's biggest contributions to the life of the church in the US and across the world has been his ability to accompany us to walk alongside God's people to trust God's people and in so doing to encourage us to envision a world where we are builders of hope especially when working with migrants and refugees And for that we are grateful Pope Francis legacy is one of spiritual renewal and structural reform It offers a dynamic hopeful vision of the church as a home with open doors open to everybody From that first moment on the balcony when he bowed and asked for the people's blessing before he gave his own to the reforms opening leadership roles to women and lay people Francis has moved the church forward toward the vision of Vatican 2 a more participatory missionary church that goes out to those on the margins and binds their wounds like the field hospital church were called to be His reforms aren't about breaking with tradition but about being faithful to the gospel in new times and new contexts Not about worshiping embers as he likes to say but about keeping the fire burning And what began with a name that no pope had ever chosen before Francis has resulted in a church that's renewed in its mission of mercy humble yet bold traditional yet innovative and above all keeping its doors open to all especially those lying wounded by the roadside I think Pope Francis's greatest impact on the Catholic Church in the world has been his emphasis on mercy At least for me as somebody in the United States where we talk so much about doctrine and do this and do that or that is clearly right or that is clearly wrong I think the Holy Father emphasizing mercy changes the focus for us a bit right because the goal of the church is to help people grow in holiness love of God and to attain heaven But perhaps our approach uh not being one of mercy in and of itself can turn people away even from that possibility And the Holy Father I think always offers that hope to people who generally have been at least in the United States as we talk about the faith as we talk about what evil is that we point to clear behaviors of people that it could be seen as condemning and that there's no way that God will love you There's no way for you to go to heaven there's no hope for you And so with the Holy Father emphasizing mercy I think brings hope into the equation and also really encourages the clergy to rethink who they are what their role is how they serve the Lord When the Holy Father said that the clergy need to smell like their sheep I think that that that is very very different It means you need to be with them You need to shelter them You need to love them You need to hug them You need to suffer with them You need to walk with them Yes Teach the truths of the faith but also have compassion and understand how people are living and how you might best be the voice of Christ in their lives in times of darkness doubt selflo even Where does Christ speak to them how can you accompany them um and the Holy Father saying that I think changes things and also emphasizing the margins that we need to be on the margins I mean do we even look at who's not here you even that awakening to which ones of our brothers and sisters in Christ are not present that we need to go out like the shepherd looking for the one lost sheep Who are we going out to serve and I think that's a very important message for us to hear particularly in the United States where it seems like we can be seduced by temporal power by looking to elected officials as saviors when we already have one Jesus Christ And also I met with the pope for two hours at his house in Casa Santa Marta And one thing that really struck me also is when I spoke to him about the number of African-Americans um leaving the church in the United States because of our experience within the church itself among our brothers and sisters from our own clergy from our shepherds the experience of racism and the way the Holy Father looked me in the eyes and said "Don't go." I wish every person that was ever considering leaving the church because of how they've been failed by our brothers and sisters in Christ by our own bishops by our clergy would have been able to receive that message from the pope because it was one where I felt Christ's love emanating from him I felt so strengthened when he said that don't leave you know stay tell them that Holy Father loves them And I believe it I believe it sincerely because he was able to instead of receiving that message with any kind of defensiveness just so open and so loving and and so pleading to stay The Holy Father loves you God loves you Stay was just what I needed And I think it's also going to help in these times that we're facing in our country when we are experiencing what I would only call uh resegregation to a time before um civil rights laws were enacted to a time before that there were executive orders um protecting civil rights All that has been undone we see a renaming of uh military bases to take the names of Confederate generals although the law prohibits it So we have now used other uh military who have the same name as those Confederate generals to name the places after that There's just so much and it does feel like in a time when the church in the United States can't even name racism can't even name it as a sin name the examples of it coming from the highest offices in the land We need to remember the voice of Christ We need to remember the invitation from the Holy Father Please stay Don't go And to that I'm grateful I think Francis's greatest contribution was the idea that we have to reform ourselves in order to be authentic witnesses to others It's humility It's really realizing that we ourselves need to change before we can think about changing others Remember back in 2013 when uh he was elected the the Roman Curia was a mess And part of the reason the the cardinals elected him was because they thought he was a tough Jesuit who in four or five years would reform the Curia But what Francis realizes you can't just reform the curia This just isn't a bureaucratic issue It's not a procedural issue You need to reform the whole church It's part and parcel of the whole thing He's such a missionary pope going to the margins going to the peripheries He preaches that constantly being out in the streets And people are like "Well why are you focusing on reforming the church why are you focusing on things like cidality?" It's because these two things go hand in hand That's his greatest contribution That in order to be authentic witnesses to others in order to convince others we have to reform ourselves We have to look at ourselves first That first interview that he gave with Antonio Spadaro when Father Anthony asked him "Who are you?" He said "I'm a sinner That's the first thing you have to realize about me I'm a sinner." And he said 'I don't mean it in just some abstract way I really am He said when he he used to go to p when he would go to prisons on all of his visits he would go to prisons his first thought is why are they here why not me that's what he brought to the church and to the world I think Pope Francis has left just an absolutely remarkable legacy and and the way I would frame it is that he has provided a unique moral voice in the world Now you know in a certain sense it can sound kind of common place Of course the pope is going to offer a moral voice but with him it's a little bit different It has been a remarkable journey of uh actually I would call it a prophetic journey because he's spoken to the world about issues that uh really matter and and also embrace all of humanity for example uh in Latoya on the care of our common home and also with regard to uh the questions of peace in the world and migrants Uh so these are issues really that embrace the whole of humanity and I think his moral voice is not only strong and clear but it's also credible and uh and it's credible because he has engaged in such a way with the people who were affected whether they are migrants or people from uh asylum seekers uh migrants who are fleeing from war I so there's a credibility about the man that is just remarkable and and really when you think about it in our world there we really don't have anyone else like that Now one of the the the things that strikes me in a particular way about what he has left us is is truly an implementation of the vision of the second Vatican council At the very beginning of the document on the church uh that constitution on the church says that the church is in the manner of a sacrament that is to say an instrument and a sign of the unity of all humanity in God and and he has been I I would say re let relentless in his preaching and his teaching and his statements He made all of this clear to people in a way that was just that we are one family and uh I I find that just extraordinary And then of course this you know goes on because uh all the efforts that he directed uh for cinidality to be on the road together it it's all very coherent I think his moral vision vision for the future of humanity uh and then the the the notion of sin cadidality being on the road together as a kind of if you will almost an instrument to uh implement that is is just uh remarkable We should all be so grateful for what he gave us I think Pope Francis's greatest impact on the world has been his pastoral approach He's displayed a kind of closeness to people an understanding of the messiness of all of our lives that I think has previously not been seen at that level Um one thing that immediately comes to mind is his famous quote "Who am I to judge about a gay priest?" Right francis not only changed the approach of the church to be a more pastoral one uh in terms of its rhetoric he also made those changes more concrete in his doctrinal decisions He allowed the blessings of same-sex couples for example And those little steps I think made huge waves around the world They for one thing got so much attention in our coverage at America But you can tell from the messages as he's neared the end of his pontificate that this is something that really touched people's hearts I've heard from so many people who are not Catholic anymore or who maybe never were religious who have a real fondness for this man because of the compassion that he's shown And I think that that is going to be the biggest impact that he has on the Catholic Church especially its perception in the world as a whole is that you know maybe it's not such a a closed-minded place as it can often be made out to be [Music]