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The release on Sunday of the first photograph of Pope Francis since his admission to the Gemelli hospital in Rome was an uplifting moment for the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics. In a message published by the Vatican, he said that he continued to feel “fragile” and was “facing a period of trial”. But after battling pneumonia in both lungs for more than a month, he is now off the critical list.
How long the 88-year-old pontiff is able to carry on in St Peter’s chair, though, is another matter. Rumours have inevitably swirled regarding a possible resignation – following the precedent set by his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Though he has overcome multiple health issues to pursue an active and dynamic papacy, a prolonged period of illness may lead him to contemplate stepping down if he can no longer carry out a pastoral role effectively.
Progressives both inside and outside the church must hope that he is able to continue for a good while yet. The pope’s enforced absence from the world stage has served as a reminder of his importance, as universal values are repudiated and cast aside in the name of a narrow and aggressive national self-interest.
The weaponisation of Christianity as a means of cultural exclusion, and as a justification for illiberal policymaking, has been a key feature of this shift in the zeitgeist. The latest egregious example is JD Vance, the US vice-president and Catholic convert, who on Sunday reportedly attended mass in Washington with the visiting British foreign secretary, David Lammy.
In February, Mr Vance defended the Trump administration’s mass deportations and savage cuts to international aid by recasting the Catholic idea of ordo amoris, or the right ordering of one’s love, as a justification for nativism. Just prior to falling ill, the pope sent an extraordinary and excoriating response to US bishops. Citing the parable of the good samaritan, he described the “true” ordo amoris as the love that “builds a fraternity open to all, without exception”. Focusing solely on family, community or national identity, he added, “introduces an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest”.
It is something of a paradox that the head of the Catholic church – a deeply hierarchical institution that the pope has striven to reform – has become one of the west’s most combative defenders of liberal democratic values. But in relation to migration, the climate emergency and the rise of the oppressive form of rightwing communitarianism espoused by Mr Vance, Francis has been an influential and often lonely progressive voice.
As that witness nears its end – although hopefully not imminently – the pope has wisely been making moves to protect his legacy. The likelihood of a traditionalist counter-revolution has been diminished by the energetic creation of new “cardinal electors” – almost three-quarters of the cardinals who will vote in the next conclave were his choices. Last month he appointed an Italian nun as the first female governor of Vatican City, and there have been other moves to safeguard the modernising spirit of his papacy.
An eventual power struggle is inevitable, in which Mr Vance and Washington’s other high-profile Maga Catholic, Steve Bannon, may try to bring a Trumpian influence to bear. For now though, it is good to see the vice-president’s arch-antagonist in the Vatican apparently on the mend. His advocacy on behalf of “the global common good” has never been more relevant.
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