Pope Francis and the Post-Secular World

Pope Francis was not only a church hierarch, but also a public politician, whose activities were based on the idea of compromise, something that is sorely lacking in interstate relations today. As a result, despite constant criticism, both conservatives and reformers in the Catholic clergy and flock respect the legacy of Francis. The authority of Pope Francis is global in nature, which also emphasizes the importance of the supra-religious, political meaning of his activities. This allowed him to act as a mediator in the most difficult situations. Under him, the Roman Catholic Church ceased to follow the course of society's development, adapting to what was happening outside of church life. Instead, a proactive position of the Holy See was formed on issues that were previously outside the competence of religious institutions. Perhaps, the legacy of Pope Francis shows a general movement towards a postsecular world, in which the importance of religion in society, in politics and in international relations increases significantly.

US President Donald Trump posted an image of himself as the Pope on his official social media accounts, causing a mixed reaction from Catholics around the world, “joking” that he would like to become the new Pope. The latest eccentric move by the 47^th US President once again highlights the growing role of religion in global politics at the global level, including in the West. The pontificate of the recently deceased Pope Francis (2013–2025) has a significant political dimension, its end providing grounds for assessing the changing nature of interactions between key actors in world politics.

Pope Francis was the first in many formal ways: the first pontiff from the New World, the first non-European to head the Holy See in 1,200 years [1] (although he was born in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrants who fled to Latin America from Europe to escape Mussolini's regime), the first Jesuit pope, and the first in several centuries to be elected to his post while his predecessor was still alive.

The fate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (1936–2025) was full of sharp twists and turns, ups and downs, but the distinctive features of his personality manifested themselves early and remained unchanged: asceticism and openness to complex dialogue. From the very beginning of his spiritual career in Argentina, the future Pope was remembered for being maximally accessible to his flock and open to communication with representatives of other faiths. [2] At the same time, he fulfilled his duty during the terrible years of the military junta (1976–1983). The ideal of a poor Church was clearly close to Bergoglio’s heart: even as a cardinal, he lived in a small apartment and preferred to travel by bus. He wore simpler clothes than his status would suggest and even the attribute required of pontiffs—the “Ring of the Fisherman”—was made of silver rather than the traditional gold.

It would be an exaggeration to say that Pope Francis managed to accomplish everything he had planned, despite having been at the top of the Catholic hierarchy for 12 years. Nevertheless, the Vatican under him clearly indicated its desire to become one of the world's special centers of power, and not only in “its” spiritual niche.

The period of Francis' papacy was by no means easy, either from the point of view of the internal situation in the organization entrusted to him (scandals involving the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests) and the processes of liberalization of society in the West and other traditional Catholic areas (discussions on same-sex marriage, abortion, women's rights), or in terms of the international situation: these years included the civil war in Syria, the Ukrainian crisis, a new conflict in Palestine in addition to others. With the mediation of Pope Francis, [3] diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba were restored after many decades in 2014. In 2016, a historic meeting of the heads of the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate—Pope Francis and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill—took place in Cuba.

Daniil Parenkov:
One Cross For Two

The Holy See has manifested itself as a political actor in the broadest sense, and not only in its traditional spheres. Pope Francis’s initiatives to develop interfaith dialogue (and, in particular, to establish relations with the Russian Orthodox Church) have shown that religion can serve as a platform for finding universal moral guidelines. This is especially important today, since one of the key principles underlying the Westphalian political system of the world—“the church outside of politics”—is becoming less and less relevant, which was especially highlighted by the Ukrainian conflict and church schism, the harsh politicization of the religious agenda in Ukraine and other countries.

Pope Francis has been personally involved in efforts to end the armed conflict in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, especially in 2022–2023. [4] Although he has not been able to achieve any visible success in the ceasefires in the special military operation or in the case of Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip, it must be acknowledged that only the Vatican among religious actors has managed to find itself in the role of a relatively neutral party—an important condition for mediation efforts. This is largely due to the so-called post secular attitudes of Pope Francis.

The term and concept of a post-secular society was first promoted at the turn of the 20^th and 21^st centuries by the German philosopher J. Habermas [5] as a response to the theory of secularization that emerged in the Age of Enlightenment. The essence of the post-secular concept comes down to overcoming the incompatibility of religion and the secular principle— an attitude that became basic in the era of Modernity. This leads not only to the strengthening of the religious factor in the socio-political sphere, from which religion has never completely disappeared—even in Western societies—but also to the imparting of a qualitatively new political subjectivity to religious actors. First, this is noticeable in the relationship between the church's own and global agendas.

Pope Francis has been more active than any of his predecessors in promoting the Holy See's viewpoint on key issues on the global agenda, as well as incorporating the global agenda into church life. This has affected a number of issues, in particular, the economy, ecology, and issues of the socio-political structure of the modern world.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis spoke out in the media about the immorality of the modern economic model, which does not allow for effective protective measures against the new coronavirus, since profit is prioritized. In addition, he warned about the dangers of a “hypervirtualized reality,” in which online communication has become the predominant format for communicating with the outside world for a significant part of the world due to quarantine measures taken by governments. Finally, against the backdrop of the widespread dissemination of conspiracy narratives about the harm of vaccination against the new coronavirus, he acted as a moral authority and was vaccinated in January 2021.

In 2015, the encyclical Laudato si' was published (“Praise be to you” in medieval Italian), reflecting the pontiff's views on the ecological crisis and criticizing the neoliberal model of globalization. Here, the Holy See is close to numerous environmental NGOs and non-profit organizations that also criticize predatory capitalism, consumer society and the irresponsible position of transnational corporations, as well as neoliberal governments, on many issues. The encyclical Laudato si' became the ecological doctrine of the Holy See and was intended to attract young people to Catholicism.

In his third encyclical—Fratelli Tutti (translated from Italian as “All brothers”)—Pope Francis focuses on the problems of poverty, inequality, and women's rights, again criticizing global capitalism, giving a positive assessment of ecumenism. The encyclical also touches on issues of global governance—UN reform, etc. Essentially, it is a socio-political manifesto. It is characteristic that the title of this key encyclical, deviating from the centuries-old tradition of naming encyclicals in Latin, is written in Italian, not Latin.

Of course, the post-secular trend as the acquisition of a new political quality by religious actors, using the example of the Holy See, poses many questions to researchers, the question of resources remains most important. The Roman Catholic Church has about 1.4 billion believers and 400 thousand priests. At the same time, the number of Catholic clergy and flock is decreasing in Europe, and this trend cannot be reversed, just as it is not possible to overcome the crisis of today’s church life. However, the numbers of clergy and flock are growing in Africa and Asia, which correlates with the global trend of shifting the center of gravity of world development to the countries of the Global South. However, it is unclear to what extent the postsecular model of the Holy See is suitable for other religious actors. They will probably not be able to move towards a postsecular society by simply copying, but they can borrow individual elements from the experience of the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Francis was not only a church hierarch, but also a public politician, whose activities were based on the idea of compromise, something that is sorely lacking in interstate relations today. As a result, despite constant criticism, both conservatives and reformers in the Catholic clergy and flock respect the legacy of Francis. The authority of Pope Francis is global in nature, which also emphasizes the importance of the supra-religious, political meaning of his activities. This allowed him to act as a mediator in the most difficult situations. Under him, the Roman Catholic Church ceased to follow the course of society's development, adapting to what was happening outside of church life. Instead, a proactive position of the Holy See was formed on issues that were previously outside the competence of religious institutions. Perhaps, the legacy of Pope Francis shows a general movement towards a postsecular world, in which the importance of religion in society, in politics and in international relations increases significantly.

1. The concepts of “Holy See” and “Vatican” are not identical, but from the point of view of established practice of word usage in the context of the topic, it is permissible to use them interchangeably.

2. At the funeral of Pope Francis on April 26, the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Anthony (Sevryuk), officially attended the funeral from the Russian Orthodox Church. In addition, Metropolitan Platon (Udovenko), who managed the Argentine diocese Russian Orthodox Church in 1973–1980 and 1993-2012 and was on good terms with Bishop Bergoglio .

3. For more details, see: Shebalina E.O. Religious actors in world politics and global security on the example of the Vatican (Holy See) // International security: Global and regional actors / Ed. M.M. Lebedeva, Yu.A. Nikitina. Moscow: Aspect Press, 2020. Pp. 289-293.

4. For more details see: Arteev S. P. New schism: church diplomacy And Ukrainian crisis / S. P. Arteev, M.I. Sigachev // Law And management. XXI century. – 2022. – V. 18, № 3(64). – P. 3-9. – DOI 10.24833/2073-8420-2022-3-64-3-9. – EDN KWVSXL; Arteev, S. P. Novy raskol / S. P. Arteev, M. I. Sigachev // Polity: Analysis. Chronicle. Forecast (Journal political philosophy and sociology policies). – 2024. – No. 2(113). – P. 97-118. – DOI 10.30570/2078-5089-2024-113-2-97-118. – EDN SOTUKF.

5. Globalism, Ideology and Traditions. Interview with Jürgen Habermas by Johann Arnason. – Thesis Eleven. – 2000. – Vol. 63, No. 1. – P. 1–10; Habermas Yu. Future human nature. M.: Ves' Mir, 2002.