{"id":20639,"date":"2025-04-24T10:03:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T10:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/after-pope-francis-progressive-christians-feel-vulnerable\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T10:03:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T10:03:24","slug":"after-pope-francis-progressive-christians-feel-vulnerable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/after-pope-francis-progressive-christians-feel-vulnerable\/","title":{"rendered":"After Pope Francis, Progressive Christians Feel Vulnerable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For 12 years, Pope Francis was the most powerful Christian on the world stage, using his voice to elevate the poor and the marginalized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Millions of progressive Christians in the United States, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, considered him to be a powerful counterweight to a rising conservative Christian power. He was the magnetic center for their values.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His death on Monday leaves behind a question gnawing inside their minds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a world without Pope Francis, where their values feel particularly vulnerable, where do they go from here?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis moment is critical now,\u201d Bishop Sean W. Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said. \u201cFor those of us who want to embody the Sermon on the Mount, and the Beatitudes, and the love that Jesus showed in the world, this is now more important than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pope Francis stood in contrast to a brand of Christianity that has increasing power in the United States. It is mixed with nationalism and, according to Bishop Rowe, is \u201cnot only fundamentally not Christian\u201d but \u201calso dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have to begin to step up and communicate this message in ways that are winsome and compelling,\u201d he added. \u201cPolitics are certainly co-opting Christian language and the Christian story. It is now ours to take that back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Trump has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/18\/us\/politics\/white-house-prayers.html\" title=\"\">embraced a strain of right-wing Christianity<\/a> that questions the separation of church and state, and its adherents largely backed the president\u2019s agenda. His vice president, JD Vance, is a Catholic convert who has used his interpretation of Catholic theology to justify the president\u2019s crackdown on immigration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many conservative Christians, including Protestants, viewed Pope Francis skeptically. To them, the pope was soft on doctrinal matters, and risked pushing all of Christendom to surrendering its core teachings. \u201cFrancis will go down in history as the pope of liberal gesture \u2014 the vicar of equivocation,\u201d R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/wng.org\/opinions\/the-death-of-pope-francis-1745251908\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">wrote in the evangelical magazine World<\/a> on Monday. \u201cJust when his church needed a firm hand and intellectual firepower, he responded with a shrug.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But other Christians across denominations, who saw Pope Francis as their moral compass, feel a new sense of urgency with his passing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Rev. William Barber II, a civil-rights leader and ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ denomination, said the loss of Pope Francis meant others must carry on his mission to the marginalized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe must now say, \u2018I am Pope Francis,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pope Francis \u201cwas an embodiment of who I see Jesus to be whenever I read the gospels,\u201d said Rev. Donna Claycomb Sokol, pastor of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Washington. \u201cI think about him kissing the feet of women in prison after washing them. I think about how he was consumed with visible joy whenever he was with a child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As the cardinals prepare to gather in Rome for the conclave, she wondered whether any of them could stand with the voice Pope Francis did. \u201cOr is Pope Francis one of a kind?\u201d she asked. \u201cWhat will they gravitate toward?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The question is particularly acute for progressive Catholics. Denise Murphy McGraw,<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>who worked to mobilize fellow Catholic voters for Kamala Harris last year from her home in upstate New York, worries about a younger generation of Catholic priests who have become more conservative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe are not getting that same sort of adherence to the Beatitudes, and that social justice that many people grew up with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Sister Jeanne Hagelskamp joined the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods almost 50 years ago because she wanted to spend her life working with the poor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In response to Pope Francis\u2019 attention to climate issues and his call in 2015 for nuns and priests to \u201cwake up the world,\u201d the women in her small community in Indiana began working in earnest on environmental policy, most recently supporting a bill that would preserve forests in the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That local work will continue, Sister Hagelskamp said. But she struggled through tears as she described what it meant to lose Pope Francis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe was an international figure that could talk about the things that most need to be talked about,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve lost our voice, we\u2019ve lost that public voice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, she said, people like her must step into the gap, at the precise moment that her country\u2019s cultural atmosphere and political powers have turned against them. \u201cWe know it\u2019s not always welcome,\u201d she said. \u201cYet we think that\u2019s what God calls us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and advocate for L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics who met frequently with Pope Francis at the Vatican, <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">drew a contrast between two moments of Catholic witness in the news in recent weeks. The first was Pope Francis\u2019 visit last week to Rome\u2019s main prison, an annual tradition. This year he was too frail to wash the prisoners\u2019 feet, as he has done in the past to commemorate Holy Thursday, but he met with dozens of inmates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The second moment was the visit by Representative Riley Moore, a Republican from West Virginia, to the prison in El Salvador where the United States wrongly deported a Maryland man with no criminal record. Mr. Moore, who is Catholic, smiled for a photograph in front of a cell containing several prisoners, giving two thumbs up to the camera.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe two pictures could not be more different, the two different paths in Christianity,\u201d Father Martin said. \u201cOne says we accompany people, no matter who they are, and the other says we turn our backs on them and mock them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The loss comes at a fraught moment for the once-robust tradition of progressive Christianity. Mainline Protestant denominations, which attract many progressive Christians, have seen their numbers and influence decline steadily in recent decades. The papacy is also open at the same time as the seat of the archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the global Anglican Communion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The percentage of Americans who are Catholics seems to have stabilized in recent years, but liberal Catholics are less likely to go to Mass and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/10\/us\/catholic-priests-conservative-politics.html\" title=\"\">almost no new priests<\/a> in the United States describe themselves as progressive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, went to Mass on Monday night with her husband, who is Catholic. After her sermon at the inauguration prayer service when she <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/22\/us\/trump-bishop-plea.html\" title=\"\">pleaded with Mr. Trump to have mercy<\/a>, many Christians have turned to her as a moral pillar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, that voice is gone, and she is grieving. Not just the loss of Pope Francis, but of what feels like a whole nation and moral universe, she said. Still, the job is to hope, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She pulled up Pope Francis\u2019 speech to Congress in 2015. \u201c\u2018Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of people,\u2019\u201d she read out loud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Her voice wavered, and then she paused to reflect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhatever happens in the rest of my lifetime or yours, some of us have to keep a candle burning. We can\u2019t let this go,\u201d she said. \u201cSomeday the pendulum will swing back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/24\/us\/pope-christians.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For 12 years, Pope Francis was the most powerful Christian on the world stage, using his voice to elevate the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[696,693,694,700,924,697,2502,925,6214],"class_list":["post-20639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us","tag-budde","tag-christians-and-christianity","tag-conservatism-us-politics","tag-episcopal-church","tag-francis","tag-mariann-edgar","tag-popes","tag-roman-catholic-church","tag-united-methodist-church"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>After Pope Francis, Progressive Christians Feel Vulnerable - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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