How the Papacy of the First Jesuit Pope Will Be Remembered in the Distant Future

Rev. Thomas Massaro, S.J., is Professor of Moral Theology at Fordham University in New York City.

Editors’ Note: This post was written and published prior to Pope Francis’s death.

Humankind has yet to invent a reliable crystal ball that would allow us to peer into the future with certainty. But historians do occasionally display a considerable level of confidence when they prognosticate. Specifically, these historians seem to relish the exercise of projecting the eventual legacies of contemporary leaders. Of course, one need not be a historian to engage in the parlor game of predicting how a public figure of our time will be remembered in the decades or centuries ahead.

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Dilexit Nos: Getting to the Heart of the Matter with Pope Francis

Greg Marcar is a senior researcher at the Nathaniel Bioethics Centre for Bioethics, Te Kupenga, and a research affiliate at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI), University of Otago (New Zealand). He is a coeditor of Søren Kierkegaard: Theologian of the Gospel (Wipf & Stock 2021) and Security, Religion, and the Rule of Law: International Perspectives (Routledge 2023). This post is based on Marcar’s contribution to The Nathaniel Report 74 (2024).

Almost 20 years ago, Pope Benedict XVI published his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (“God Is Love”) (DC 2005). In this encyclical, Benedict XVI referred to a Christian faith as one that “sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross” and “gives rise to love” (DC, para. 39). In his latest encyclical, Dilexit Nos (“He Loved Us”) (DN) published on 24 October 2024, Pope Francis continues his predecessor’s focus on divine and human love, as revealed most clearly in the heart of Jesus.

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A Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace Inspired by the Bountiful Love of God

Rev. Dr. Henriette Hutabarat Lebang, a pastor of Toraja Church in Indonesia, is chair of the advisory board of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia and one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches, representing Asian churches. The following post is based on her remarks during the panel “Religious Perspectives on Religious Freedom and Peace” at the ICLRS 31st Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 7 October 2024.

Can we experience religious freedom and peace in these challenging times of our modern age? This is the question that is often raised, especially in the midst of war, escalating conflicts, and violence in the world today. These conflicts are rampant, not only in the relationship between or among countries but also between different communities within one country, which, more often than not, are triggered by our failure to respect the pluralistic backgrounds of our people in the communities or regions in which we live.

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