Perhaps no pope has ever spurred such a need for deep and heartfelt reflection on oneself and the world as Francis did, not only in a substantial part of Catholicism but also among a large number of nonbelievers. But rarely has a pope aroused so much hostility as well, and not only among those whose thinking and actions he openly opposed on such central issues as migration, wars, the climate, inequality, technology, economics and so many others.

The hostility also came – and especially so – from among much of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Vatican, a real den of shady dealings, cynicism and absence of the spirit of the Gospels. That is what Francis had to deal with as pope, with great caution, especially on so-called “sensitive” issues such as abortion, end-of-life, gender, divorce, female and secular priesthood, etc., which his opponents (now jockeying for revenge) have always put before the Gospel imperatives of caring for creation, victims, the poor, the marginalized, the suffering. And then, there is no politician who hasn’t paid formal homage to Pope Francis and his encyclical Laudato Si, and who isn’t paying it once more now after his death. But not a single one of them, anywhere in the world, has taken its........

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