Ten years have passed since Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, the son of Italian immigrants, stepped on to the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to give his first speech as pope.
Casting away formality, he was dressed in simple white papal robes instead of the regal red ermine-trimmed cape usually worn by newly elected pontiffs. Speaking quietly, he thanked the euphoric crowd gathered in the square for the welcome while asking his audience to “pray for me”.
The next day, Pope Francis – a name chosen in honour of Francis of Assisi, the Italian saint who renounced a life of luxury to help the poor – returned to the Rome hotel in which he had stayed before the conclave to pick up his luggage and pay his bill. He substituted a plush apostolic apartment for a simple room within the Vatican walls and, unlike his predecessors, does not spend his summers in Castel Gandolfo, an opulent 12th-century fortress close to Rome.
If there is one person who is certain that Francis, 86, has maintained his humility over the past decade it is his cousin Delia Gai, who was among the Italian relatives he visited in the Piedmont province of Asti in November.
“We still call him Giorgio,” said Gai. “He is the ultimate person, and still has quite a strong head despite his age. I’m no expert but he has changed a lot of things [within the church] because his character is such that he works for the good.”
Whether it be his conciliatory tone towards LGBTQ+ people, the promotion of women, allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion or providing shelter to refugees, Francis has embraced an openness to progression in the Catholic church not seen in previous papacies.
“He’s so different from other popes,” said Robert Mickens, the Rome-based editor of the English-language edition of Catholic daily newspaper La Croix. “He’s very comfortable in his own skin – what you see is what you get – and there’s something fresh about that.”
Francis made his mark amid battles with a deeply conservative faction of the church, irked by his fixation on issues such as social inequality, the climate crisis and refugees.
“The change in the way the church has presented itself to the world has been profound,” said Austen Ivereigh, a journalist specialising in Catholicism and author of The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope.
“Ten years ago there was this retreat into defensive moralism. Francis has challenged that and focused on the heart of the gospel, which is the mercy of God and his preferential love for the poor … and on issues such as migration and the ecological crisis. He has also brought about a profound change in the way authority is exercised in the church –it is much more of a place of humble listening.”
Among the pope’s first achievements was to revamp the scandal-ridden Vatican Bank, although his efforts to clamp down on corruption have been somewhat tainted by the ongoing trial of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a former close aide accused of embezzlement.
But one of the biggest challenges of his papacy has been tackling the plethora of scandals over child sexual abuse by priests that continue to blight the church. During an unprecedented summit on the issue in 2019, Francis vowed to “spare no effort” in bringing to justice paedophile priests and the bishops who cover up their crimes. The Vatican subsequently established procedures for every diocese to report allegations of abuse and foster accountability for the actions of bishops and cardinals, while abolishing the rule of “pontifical secrecy” in an attempt to promote transparency.
However, groups representing people sexually abused by clergy argue that the church has so far failed to implement crucial reforms to canon law that would bring abusive priests to justice.
Others say they have struggled to make their stories heard. Sabastian Cuattromo and Silvia Piceda, the founders of the Argentinian group Adults for Children’s Rights, visited Rome last week in the hope of meeting the pope.
“Since 2013 we have asked to meet him many times,” Cuattromo, who was abused by a priest while at Catholic school in Buenos Aires, said during a press conference at Rome’s foreign press association. “Meeting us would have been a symbolic act to show closeness to the victims of crimes committed by priests in Buenos Aires, where he was bishop.”
On women’s rights, although Francis has shifted the dial by appointing women into some leadership roles in the Vatican, he has ruled out women serving as priests, saying last year that their ordination was “a theological problem”.
“You do feel sometimes that you need to be grateful for getting the crumbs that drop from the table rather than a place at the table,” said Pat Brown, a spokesperson for the Catholic Women’s Ordination.
Still, Brown praised Francis for doing “some wonderful things”, including inaugurating the Synod of Synodality, an event that brings together Catholics at parish level to discuss an array of topics including female priests, married priests and same-sex marriage. “He has got people talking about what they care about in the church, and hopefully major things will emerge,” she said.
Ivereigh described the synod, which began in October 2021 and ends in October 2024, as “the biggest listening exercise ever undertaken”. “People are invited to reflect on their experiences and what their hopes and dreams for the church are,” he added.
As Francis’s papacy enters its 11th year, he continues to maintain intrigue over his future. Now seen regularly with a cane or in a wheelchair because of a knee problem, he has often alluded to resigning, saying his late predecessor Benedict XVI opened up the door to papal resignations and that they should become the norm. Last week he told Swiss Radio: “I could quit if I wasn’t lucid.”
Mickens said he could decide to bow out once the synod process was completed, although the pontiff was “unpredictable” and liked to “throw people off balance”.
• This article was amended on 13 March 2023 because an earlier version referred to St Peter’s Cathedral; this has been corrected to St Peter’s Basilica.
