According to a very widespread rumor, to the late Pope Francisco He was more supported by atheists, especially socialists and communists, than Christians. His public image would be similar to those of those political leaders who strive to please those who will never vote. And the test would be that he invited Javier Cercas, a renowned atheist, to accompany him to the trip to Mongolia he made in 2023. They have not stopped to think of those who criticize Francisco that maybe he was also using Fence. As much as it was, the writer had received a Christian education and, even more, his mother was very interested in the promise of resurrection that appears in the New Testament. It was a risky, but not crazy bet. AND Francisco It was not wrong: the key question that Fence He made him during the trip was if he could tell his mother that he would see his late husband (and father of Fence) when he died. And the Pope answered the laconically: “Of course.” Indeed, yes Cristo I would not have resurrected Christianity would have been more than a very successful moral, economic and political option in Europe and, through America and other parts of the world. Something that, by the way, would continue to be even if it was true that Cristo Risen. Now thousands of atheists are reading, in the book of Fencethe history of the resurrection of Cristo. Who won the invitation to travel together? So much Fence as Francisco. View that apostolic cunning, we cannot omit analyze the political and financial legacy of Francisco.
While Francisco has liked almost all as a spiritual leader, he has only convinced as a political leader in half of the Catholics and the third part of Muslims and atheists “
At least in the Spanish case, sociological data contradict the rumor that Francisco The atheists like Christians more. In fact, a large majority of Spanish Catholics prefer that the successor of Francisco It seems a lot, while only half of the Muslims and atheists share that opinion. The church is better after the papacy of Francisco For a large majority of Catholics, but only for half of Muslims and atheists. In summary, Francisco He liked Spanish Catholics more than atheists and Muslims. And that has nothing surprising, because it was still the head of the Catholic Church, ancient entity in which they do not militate neither Muslims, nor atheists. It is normal for suffering pontiffs to like Catholics more than atheists. Even more, of the last three popes, half of the Spaniards prefer Franciscoa quarter to John Paul II And less than twenty part to Benedict XVI. This means that people are oriented much more by earthly than theological criteria, otherwise the order of preferences would be fair.
An extremely clarifying fact is that while Francisco He has liked almost all as a spiritual leader, he has only convinced as a political leader in half of the Catholics and the third part of Muslims and atheists. That indicates that atheists and Muslims have accepted it more as a preacher than as a politician. Nor is it surprising. Muslims and atheists have spiky the doctrinal facets of Francisco With the ones that coincided the most, but they never wanted Catholics, nor the Church, influence the political world too much. If we went into details, the panorama would be clarified even more. Catholics have liked all facets of the preaching of Francisco. Instead, atheists support immigrants (migrants in their jargon), the poor, homosexuals and transsexuals, but completely reject the opposition of Francisco to abortion and euthanasia. Both the communist Yolanda DíazMinister of Labor of the Spanish Government, as the socialist Isabel Celaá, Spanish ambassador to the Vatican, they have praised the sensitivity of Francisco With sexual minorities and the poor, but they are party partisans and euthanasia. They praised a Franciscobut they intended to suppress religious teaching, both at the secondary and university level. They liked it Franciscobut not the concerted centers, nor the Catholic universities. Remember the immortal phrase of the then Minister of Education, today afflicted ambassador: children are not of the fathers (or of the mothers). Just the opposite of what many Catholics thought.
The Holy See closed 2024 with a deficit of 84 million euros “
For their part, Muslims praised the disposition to the interreligious dialogue of Francisco. He arrived so much that, when asked about the Islamic attack against the editors of the humorous magazine Charlie Hebdothat they had been horny in a vignette of Muhammadthe unexpected response of the Pope was that, if you get into someone’s mother, you risk their children to slap you. However, that comprehensive attitude of Francisco He never prevented Muslims from radically opposing homosexuals and transsexuals, severely punishable people in Islamic countries. No matter how Franciscoatheists and the Muslims, never renounced any of the discrepancies they had with him. In turn, he ever resigned from his deep Christian convictions. There was, then, approach, but not fusion.
Another aspect to consider is the financial legacy of Francisco. To summarize: the Holy See closed 2024 with a deficit of 84 million euros. And that despite Francisco He had imposed cuts in all dicasteries and had called for new forms of financing. The problem is very serious because everything available from the San Pedro Obolvulgar alms of the faithful. So the Holy See faces a certain risk of bankruptcy, which would prevent dicasteries could continue to function and pay the wages and pensions of its workers. The attention of Francisco To the peripheral countries, but half of the financing of the Holy See comes from American Catholics, without whose contributions would automatically enter bankruptcy. So the cardinal electors will have to seek a balance between consolidating the social processes initiated by Francisco and save your institution’s economic bankruptcy. The preferential church option for the poor and peripheries seems irreversible, but it also seems that their finances are based on donations of the most wealthy Catholics, which do not reside precisely in Asia, or in Africa. Also in that the cardinals will have to think when they hear order “extra omnes!”
