Pope Francis Refused to Be Silent on Gaza. Will His Successor Follow Suit?

Pope Francis, who died on April 21, was a rare beacon of hope for many Palestinians in the long months of the Gaza genocide. The pope refused to be silent on Gaza. For 18 months, he made nearly daily video calls in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, including recent calls he made from his hospital bed. He rang the Holy Family Church in Gaza City every night, speaking with church leaders and displaced Palestinians sheltering there, usually for about 15 minutes.

Pope Francis began one of his most memorable calls to parishioners in Gaza earlier this year by saying “As-salaam Alaikum” (“Peace be upon you”). The video of that call showed his intimate relationship with the small Palestinian Christian community that remains in Gaza, many of whom he came to know by name. His final call to the Gaza Strip, made two days before his death, lasted 30 seconds.

For many in Gaza, those phone calls were a ray of light that shone through the horrors of Israeli genocide, which has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. “His Holiness the pope was not an ordinary person,” Musa Antone, a Christian resident of Gaza, told CNN. “He was a man of faith who inquired about both Christians and Muslims.”

The surviving Christian community in Gaza now mourns Francis’s loss. “We felt like ‘Oh my God, we’re like orphans now,’” lamented George Anton, a local Catholic, and the emergency coordinator in the Holy Family church. “He was a real father to us. Pope Francis was like a shield for the Christians in the enclave. He was the fighter. He was fighting for our rights and for our protection.”

Kamal Anton, a 72-year-old who had taken shelter at the church amid the genocide, said: “During his call, he prayed for peace and resilience for us in Gaza. He never forgot the word ‘peace’ in any of his calls with us throughout the war. His support included all of us — Christians and Muslims alike. He prayed daily for our safety.”

In a tribute to the late pope, Palestinian theologian Munther Isaac wrote Monday: “He conveyed true compassion to Palestinians, most notably to those in Gaza during this genocide. The pope left our world today, and the occupation and the wall remained. Even worse, he left our world while a genocide continues to unfold.”

Pope Francis’s last public appearance was a plea to end the war in Gaza. In an Easter message one day before his death, the pope, visibly very sick, renewed his call for a ceasefire in Gaza, which he had repeated on several occasions throughout the ongoing genocide.

“I think of the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation,” the message said. “I appeal to the warring parties: Call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace!”

The pope’s appeal on Sunday came shortly after Israel slaughtered over 100 Palestinians across Gaza, including the tent camp of al-Mawasi, where displaced families and children were burned alive.

The appeal culminated Francis’s months-long antiwar legacy in Gaza. In 2024, the pope wrote that, “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” while calling for an international investigation. He called Israel’s genocide in Gaza “shameful,” “deplorable” and a “useless slaughter” of civilians. He also labeled Israel’s massacres of civilians in Gaza “terrorism.” In December, after an Israeli strike in Gaza killed Palestinian children, he said: “Children have been bombed. This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”

Last Christmas, in a bold symbolic gesture against genocide, Francis unveiled a Nativity scene portraying baby Jesus in a crib lined with a Palestinian Keffiyeh, which was likely inspired by Palestinian Rev. Munther Isaac’s iconic “Christ in the Rubble” Christmas sermon in Bethlehem.

Pope Francis’s support for the Palestinian people was not merely humanitarian; he also unequivocally recognized Palestinian independence and freedom. Ten years ago, when he visited Bethlehem, widely recognized as the birthplace of Jesus, he referred to the land as “the State of Palestine.” Shortly after, the Vatican signed a treaty recognizing the State of Palestine. “Yes, it’s a recognition that the state exists,” affirmed Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.

Pope Francis’s unwavering solidarity with Gaza stood in sharp contrast with the shameful complicity of the Western political class. “This campaign has made Pope Francis arguably the most consistent high-profile defender of the humanity of the Palestinian people during a period when the Israeli assault on Gaza has been pursued with relentless violence,” wrote John Nichols in The Nation.

Like his expressions of solidarity with the people of Gaza, Francis’s statements on immigration were a public rebuke to the Trump administration. The pope, who called President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants a “disgrace,” rejected Vice President J.D. Vance’s attempted appropriation of medieval-era Catholic teachings to justify Trump’s deportation campaign. When Vance attempted to interpret a certain Christian theology as saying that you should look after those closest to you before you worry about those abroad, the pope penned a rare open letter to U.S. bishops, saying: “No, you need to think about everyone.” (The pope’s last message on Gaza was a fitting prelude to his brief meeting with Vance on Sunday, who was among the last to visit the pontiff.)

Francis’s unwavering support for migrants against the backdrop of mounting anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. and Europe placed him in the crosshairs of far right populists like Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei, who called Francis a “filthy leftist.” Trump has fallen short of honoring the pope.

In a move that has caused some controversy within Israel, according to the Israeli news site Ynet, the foreign ministry in Israel sought to prevent its ambassadors from expressing condolences following the pope’s passing. Middle East Eye reports: “Without providing an explanation, the ministry instructed its missions and diplomats to delete any social media posts mourning the former pope, according to Yedioth Ahronoth” (a major Israeli newspaper). Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waited more than three days after Pope Francis’s death before finally offering his own condolences on Thursday, following backlash over the foreign ministry’s deletion of condolence tweets.

Certainly, Francis’s broad antiwar vision, which made him a champion of nuclear disarmament who opposed and denounced nuclear weapons as “immoral,” did not endear him to warmongers.

In remembering Pope Francis’s moral leadership in critiquing the genocide and advocating for the rights of immigrants, however, it is important not to erase the areas in which the pope failed to support urgent change on other social issues. He fell short of affirming same-sex marriage, supporting trans rights, lobbying for ordaining women as priests, or sparking fundamental reforms on clerical sexual abuses in the Catholic Church. As a result, some critics have argued that Francis was “at heart a conservative,” despite the substantive ways in which he was more progressive than his predecessor.

Amid urgent concerns about the ongoing genocide in Gaza and rising attacks on the LGBTQ community in the U.S. and beyond, Palestinians and progressive supporters of the church are nervously awaiting news about who the pope’s successor will be.

One notable candidate to replace Pope Francis is the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, a longtime advocate for the Christian minority in the Holy Land.

Cardinal Pizzaballa has praised the late pope’s moral clarity on Gaza, saying:

War is not just weapons. War is sometimes words. Pope Francis recently, especially in the last year, has been very outspoken about the situation of the Holy Land, calling for the liberation of the hostages, but also condemning the dramatic situation, the ongoing war in Gaza and the situation for Palestinians.

Cardinal Pizzaballa, an Italian Franciscan prelate, is the top Catholic in the Middle East with an archdiocese encompassing Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus. He has appealed for peace from both sides, and led a Christmas mass both in Gaza and Jerusalem. The cardinal, who visited Gaza in May 2024 after months of ceasefire negotiations, nearly one year after he offered to be exchanged for Gaza hostages, would be expected to continue some aspects of Francis’s leadership of the church, though he has publicly distanced himself from social issues that are more controversial within Catholicism, such as gender identity and gay marriage.

Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson and Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah — two other papal candidates — are also firmly conservative on issues of gender and sexual identity/orientation.

Cardinal Turkson, who was brought to the Vatican by Francis’s conservative predecessor, is best known outside of Vatican circles for his anti-LGBTQ views, having said: “We are not yet ready to accept stuff like that.” However, he has been vocal on issues such as climate crisis, poverty and economic justice.

Cardinal Sarah, who has branded himself as a “parallel authority” to Pope Francis, has defended clerical celibacy, denounced “gender ideology,” and refused any “theological dialogue” with Islam –– a stark departure from the late pontiff’s legacy, who made notable progress in interfaith relations, particularly with Muslims. As Katherine Kelaidis writes at Vox, it’s important to note that “millions of dollars have been spent pushing a conservative social agenda in Africa” — a dynamic at play in the rise of socially conservative church leaders like Cardinal Sarah.

One of the more progressive candidates is Cardinal José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça from Portugal, who holds relatively liberal views on same-sex relationships, and aligns himself with a feminist Benedictine sister who supports women’s ordination and abortion rights. According to the College of Cardinals Report website: “Tolentino has attracted considerable controversy during his priestly life, namely for sympathizing with heterodox and tolerant approaches to homosexuality (although never publicly speaking against Church teaching on this area) and allying himself with a radical feminist Benedictine sister who promotes abortion, women’s ordination, same-sex “marriage,” and the adoption of children by same-sex couples.”

Another more progressive candidate is Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, who hails from the Philippines. Described by some commentators as “Asian Francis,” the Filipino prelate has been praised for his commitment to social justice and equality, particularly for marginalized groups like LGBTQ people and the poor, though he simultaneously maintains a hardline anti-abortion stance.

In an op-ed for America, a monthly Jesuit magazine, Cardinal Tagle wrote: “In an interconnected world, global issues such as climate change, poverty and the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities call on us to work together.” The U.S.-based LGBTQ magazine Them describes how Tagle “reportedly led a Catholic social media initiative for Easter in the Philippines … to call for LGBTQ+ acceptance in churches. In 2019, Tagle called on Catholic youth to stop discriminating against or “labeling” LGBTQ+ people. However, like most of the candidates, Cardinal Tagle’s views on the Gaza genocide remain to be seen.

Meanwhile, Raymond Burke, the Wisconsin-born cardinal, and Trump’s favorite candidate — a rabid Islamophobe who is highly conservative and clashed with Pope Francis on issues ranging from LGBTQ rights and the role of women in the church, to immigration — is perfectly positioned to become Trump’s papal puppet in the Vatican if he is chosen.

Pope Francis’s bold political stance on Palestine will put to the test the apolitical and eerie silence among his progressive successors, few of whom have expressed substantial views on Palestine. One of the few who have done so is Matteo Zuppi, the cardinal from Bologna, who was Francis’s peace envoy between Russia and Ukraine, and has worked extensively to broker peace there. He been outspoken in the wake of October 7, calling for peace, urging the need to understand the “root causes” of the conflict. He also called Hamas “the worst enemy of the Palestinian people.” He visited Bethlehem, called for a ceasefire, and highlighted the suffering of Palestinian children.

The other candidate who has publicly expressed a view on Palestine is Pietro Parolin,the first person Francis made a cardinal, in 2014. As secretary of state, he was involved in the George W. Bush administration’s attempts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. He argued against deportation of Palestinians in Gaza in a rebuke to Trump’s plan, urged for lasting peace in Gaza and called for respect for humanitarian law. But he is hardly a liberal, especially on same-sex marriage, Church reforms and immigration, which he has blamed for “deep malaise” in Europe.

Most of the other candidates have hardly ever addressed Palestine, save for general allusions to peace. The issues of Palestine, social justice and immigration are inexorably linked, and many Palestine solidarity activists are hoping that the next pope will not fail to see that justice should be whole and not selective or partial.

Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, brought a limited yet desperately needed progressive spirit to the Catholic Church. For all his reluctance to bring about church reforms on social issues, he will still go down as a symbol of a more compassionate and tolerant Christianity; a steadfast voice of peace and opponent of genocide; and a defender of the oppressed in Gaza, immigrants and the poor. Judging from the list of potential candidates, a move rightward seems likely.

More than anything, Pope Francis’s unwavering humanity will be missed. To cite some of his last words: “May the principle of humanity never fail to be the hallmark of our daily actions. In the face of the cruelty of conflicts that involve defenseless civilians and attack schools, hospitals and humanitarian workers, we cannot allow ourselves to forget that it is not targets that are struck, but persons, each possessed of a soul and human dignity.”