The Joint Public Issues Team is holding space with all who are grieving for Pope Francis, especially our siblings in the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis was a tireless advocate for social and eco justice, whose ministry included crying out for justice for the poorest and most marginalised and for the environment in which we live.
Pope Francis leaves us with powerful calls to action on social justice, eco justice, and peace. As we prepare to launch a new campaign on eco-justice this Summer, JPIT will be encouraged and challenged by His Holiness’s Laudato Si.
In this 2015 encyclical, the late Pope called for all people to renew our efforts on partnering with all of creation to work for justice. He remarked, ‘Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the past 200 years’.
As member churches spoke out solidarity with all of those grieving, they also remarked on Pope Francis’s commitment to justice and peace. The General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Lynn Green, reflected on Pope Francis’s ‘commitment to advocating for vulnerable and marginalised people on a range of issues’. The Methodist Church spoke of ‘profound compassion for those who are poor and marginalised’, and highlighted the late Pope giving ‘particular emphasis to God’s demand for global justice.’ In an article considering Pope Francis’s life and legacy, the United Reformed Church remarked that ‘Francis was, in many ways, a radical when it came to the status quo.’
In their tribute to the late Pope, our companions in the Church of Scotland shared his prayer, which offers a compelling ethic of justice-seeking in light of the cross:
“Grant that we Christians may live the Gospel,
discovering Christ in each human being,
recognizing him crucified
in the sufferings of the abandoned
and forgotten of our world,
and risen in each brother or sister
who makes a new start.
Amen.”
As we join in our common task of discovering Christ in each human being, may we be encouraged by these words:
“To all people of good will who are working for social justice: never tire of working for a more just world, marked by greater solidarity!”
Pope Francis (1936-2025)