Pope Francis Has United the World—Against Himself

In the nearly 12 years since his inauguration, Pope Francis has received praise and criticism in almost equal measure for his outspoken stance on political issues.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Argentine assumed the papacy in 2013 following the historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. He has since used the pulpit to advocate for human rights, ecumenism with other Christian denominations and, in line with his papal namesake Francis of Assisi, environmental stewardship.

Francis' progressive attitudes toward such issues as abortion and women's rights garnered him acclaim early on—Time magazine dubbing him "the people's pope" in 2013 while handing him their Person of the Year honor—and some have viewed his leadership as a much-needed revamp for the Catholic Church.

However, his outspokenness has been met with at least as much outrage as it has praise, with many across the globe taking issue with Francis' stances on immigration and geopolitics.

Newsweek reached out to the Vatican press office via email for comment.

Pope Francis vs. Donald Trump

In Francis' most recent intervention into the world of politics, the pope sent a letter to American bishops on Tuesday condemning United States President Donald Trump's mass deportation program.

"What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly," his letter read.

The statement echoed his 2016 remark, made during Trump's first presidential campaign, that anyone who built a wall to keep out migrants was "not a Christian" and was immediately greeted with fury from American conservatives.

Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, who is Catholic, said Francis should "stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us," with supporters of the president taking to social media to issue similar criticisms.

Ukraine

The Church has repeatedly offered to mediate negotiations to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the pope himself has held cordial meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

However, Francis' comments on the Russia-Ukraine war's origins and potential resolutions have also drawn the ire of Ukraine, beginning when he said that Russia's invasion was "perhaps provoked" by the eastward expansion of NATO.

In March 2024, Pope Francis said that Kyiv should display the "courage of the white flag" and negotiate with Moscow despite the country's hostility to this idea at the time.

A former Ukrainian official said of these comments: "It does seem strange that the pope doesn't urge to defend Ukraine, doesn't condemn Russia as an aggressor who killed tens of thousands of people, doesn't urge Putin to stop, but calls on Ukraine to raise the white flag instead."

"Our flag is a yellow and blue one," Ukraine's then-Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba posted on X, formerly Twitter. "This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags."

Ukraine's ambassador to the Vatican compared Francis' comments to those advocating for capitulation to Adolf Hitler during World War II.

Without referring to the comments directly, Zelensky issued a pointed address days later thanking Ukrainian chaplains who had joined in the military efforts.

"This is what the church is—it is together with people," the president said, "not two and a half thousand kilometers away somewhere, virtually mediating between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you."

Pope Francis again drew scrutiny in late 2024 when he referred to the warring nations as "brothers." Some saw this as an endorsement of Russia's proposed reintegration of Ukraine into its territory, and others as creating an inappropriate equivalence between the two parties.

Gaza

The pope has not shied away from injecting a third Abrahamic perspective into the conflict between Israel and Palestine, repeatedly calling for a ceasefire while condemning Israel's military actions.

Following Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent bombardment of Gaza, Francis used his Christmas address to criticize the "appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims" and called for Israel to immediately address the "desperate humanitarian situation" in the Gaza Strip.

In December 2024, excerpts from his new autobiography were released in which the pope suggested that descriptions of Israel's actions as "genocide" could have merit.

"According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide," the passage read. "We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies."

In response, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli penned an open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio in which he said that the pope's comments amounted to a "trivialization of the term 'genocide' — a trivialization that comes dangerously close to Holocaust denial."

During his 2025 "State of the World" address, the majority of which was delivered by an aide on his behalf due to illness, the pope again lamented the humanitarian situation in Gaza, calling it "shameful."

"We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians or the attacking of infrastructures necessary for their survival," the address read. "We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country's energy network has been hit."

Following the speech, the Jewish Chronicle reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar had summoned the Apostolic Nuncio to Israel Adolfo Yllana to express his "strong displeasure" over the comments and accused Francis of applying "double standards" in the conflict.

How Popular Is Pope Francis?

His forays into debates on immigration and geopolitics, as well as his perceived lack of action on the Church's long-running sex abuse scandals, have seen Francis' popularity decline since 2013.

A survey of U.S. Catholics released by Pew in April found that 75 percent viewed Pope Francis favorably, down eight points from a similar poll in 2021 and 15 percent lower than his peak popularity rating of 90 percent in early 2015.

The survey revealed a pronounced partisan split, with 89 percent of Democrat-leaning respondents holding a positive view of Francis, compared to 63 percent of Republicans.

Around nine in ten Catholics who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party have a favorable view of him, compared to 63 percent of Catholics who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party.

Similar dips were recorded across Latin America, according to a separate Pew poll, with the sharpest drop off between 2013 and 2024 recorded in Argentina—whose president, Javier Milei, had previously referred to Francis as an "imbecile" and a "disgusting lefty."

What People Are Saying

Historian and theologian Thomas Worcester, co-editor of the essay collection The Papacy since 1500 (2015), told Newsweek that much of the reaction to the statements of Francis was a symptom of modern age technology, which had brought about "immediate responses—often rather careless responses."

Despite the furor over some of the pope's actions, he said that criticism of Francis had been "matched and more by praise" and that the pope was still popular in much of the world, especially outside the U.S.

While he acknowledged that Francis' approach to reforming the church had drawn scrutiny from Catholic leaders and others, he said this was mainly from "far-right voices, yearning to return to an earlier, more clerical model of the church."

British writer Paul Vallely told Newsweek: "Given the polarized nature of our world, popes are always divisive figures in some ways. That was true of Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II in different ways."

Vallely is the author of Francis' 2013 biography Pope Francis: Untying the Knots, followed up in 2015 with Pope Francis: The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism.

He told Newsweek that Francis' central desire for "a poor church for the poor" has "resonated with most of the world's Catholics," but that there were some, particularly wealthy figures, who were "uncomfortable, and even hostile, to Francis because of this."

"Among Catholics globally, Pope Francis is an immensely well-loved figure," Vallely said. "Divisions among Catholics in the United States are seriously unrepresentative of the views of Catholics globally, in my experience."

Catherine Clifford, a theologian and historian at Saint Paul University, told Newsweek that Francis was still "very popular" among most of the Catholic Church's ordinary members. However, "there is some resistance to his style of leadership among some bishops, most notably in the U.S."

The decline in the pope's popularity, Clifford said, could be viewed in the context of the wider decline in the Church's appeal due to its failure to root out sexual abuse.

"The crisis of sexual abuse, where too many bishops showed themselves all too willing to prioritize the reputation and financial interests of the church over the protection of the vulnerable, has brought to light a troubling failure of church governance and led to the disaffection of many committed Catholics," she said.

However, she added that "Francis has worked hard to face the reality of these crises head-on" and that "Christians from all stripes have welcomed his efforts to speak out in the face of the crises of forced migrations, climate change, social and economic injustice."

What Happens Next

As he approaches the final chapter of his life, and by extension, his papacy, 88-year-old Francis shows no signs of shying away from the public profile and perceived moral authority that comes with the papacy.

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Update 2/14/25, 9:55 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to clarify Gideon Sa'ar's comments.