Editor’s note: Following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025, the editors of Where Peter Is received many tributes to his life and reflections on his influence from past and current contributors, as well as podcast guests and friends of the site from all over the world. We will publish a few of these reflections every day leading up to the conclave. —ML
What Pope Francis Taught Me about Belovedness and Baptism
Pope Benedict XVI was the pope of my young adulthood and my intellectual and theological coming-of-age. Pope Francis was the pope of my adulthood — of coming to grips with precarity, loss of control, crisis, and hope. While I was well-studied in the way the world should be, I wasn’t very practiced in dealing with the world as it is. Francis taught me how.
So many of my journals and WPI pieces are filled with favorite quotes and images Pope Francis returned to again and again in his preaching — Christ’s dispelling the darkness of sin and death, the mercy of the Father revealed in the face of his Son; the apostles’ boat tossed by the stormy sea — a crisis that makes us wonder if perhaps Jesus is asleep. But two convictions shaped in me by Pope Francis have been key: belovedness and baptism.
When I was grief-stricken following the stillbirth of my fourth child, I needed to know God’s love was deeper than platitudes, and to hear that God was with me in my pain. Although I already knew that “God is Love,” the movement of that teaching from head to heart was not automatic. I found the promise of a delicate, consoling presence that promised to make goodness and meaning in the depths of my pain in Francis’s preaching.
Francis was certain of the abiding, comforting, and consoling presence of God who walks with his people. He raised the monstrance to an empty St. Peter’s Square to bless the Church and the world in March 2020 to remind us of this Real Presence. His other gestures of welcome and kindness, of embracing “Todos, todos, todos,” encouraged us to simply let God love us. As an experienced Jesuit novice director and provincial who guided many through the beginning of St. Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, Pope Francis knew that the first step in finding the courage to journey with God is to be convinced that we are beloved sinners.
But knowing we are loved and accompanied is only the first step. Knowing that God is with us, we can hear God’s call and courageously set out. We don’t have the luxury of time and understanding, healing all our wounds, processing all our hurts, or taking care of our own people or pet ideas before we put our gifts in the service of God and neighbor.
For me, this insight was like a key unlocking a new path. I don’t need to — and can’t — have it all figured out before I take the next step of service. I may falter, or even fail at times, but baptism empowers me to respond to what God asks. Francis invited us to recognize and step into our full baptismal call, participating in Christ’s priestly, prophetic, and royal offices without fear of failure — just as Francis did not fear failure. This encouragement has been a personal antidote to perfectionism. It has allowed me to let go of the anxious desire to see the outcome of my work or parenting before I begin.
Francis’s emphasis on the baptismal dignity and role of women also erased some of the patriarchal coloring that American Christianity had layered over my own grasp of Catholic feminism. Though he occasionally invoked cringe-inducing stereotypes of women, such as calling us the “strawberry on the cake,” he did take women and our baptismal identity deeply seriously in his preaching and reforms. He consistently highlighted the women of the Gospels, particularly at Christmas and Easter (I learned from Francis that Mary was in the Upper Room at Pentecost, a fact I somehow missed through 16 years of Catholic education). Being reminded of these prophetic women shaped my conviction of our place in the Church and in the world. He taught us–and made new canon law — that there is no distinction of male or female in ministries, rooted in baptism, that are open to lay people in the Church. He elevated lay women and men to roles of significance in the Vatican offices. Through the Synod on communion, participation and mission, he reoriented how we saw the Church to one of listening and collaboration, including by inviting lay people as full voting members. He taught us to pray. He trusted the wisdom and discernment of the baptized.
Pope Francis taught an often-cynical world with a vernacular of actions that spoke louder than words. As people grieve a spiritual and moral leader, a bridge-builder who traveled the world to remind them that God welcomes all, we hear the echoes in reflections from Catholic, secular, and non-Catholic figures alike of what he taught us about compassion and faith. There is no denying he was an effective teacher for this global audience. It took some years for many of us Catholics to discover that he was inviting all to serve the greater glory of God.
May we carry forward his commitment to compassionate outreach, authentic witness, and joyful faith as we steward the Church he shepherded so well.
If you would like to add your own reflection to this series, please send it via email by clicking on the “Article Submissions” tab above, with the subject line “Reflection.” The recommended length is 200-300 words. Longer submissions will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and may be subject to editing. We may not be able to publish all submissions.
Image: Vatican Media
Rachel Amiri is the former production editor of Where Peter Is and currently serves as communications specialist for the USA Central and Southern Province of the Society of Jesus. She has also appeared as the host of WPI Live. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with degrees in Theology and Political Science, and was deeply shaped by the thought of Pope Benedict XVI. She has worked in Catholic publishing as well as in healthcare as a FertilityCare Practitioner. Rachel is married to fellow WPI Contributor Daniel Amiri and resides in St. Louis, Missouri, where they are raising three children.
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