5 Great Achievements of Pope Francis' First 5 Years

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On December 17, 1936 Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Mario and Regina Bergoglio. Who knew in 2013, he would become the first non-European pope in over 1,000 years. Pope Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. Many may not know that prior to beginning seminary studies, Pope Francis worked briefly as a chemical technologist and nightclub bouncer. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1969.

The Pope has been acknowledged on several occasions for his humility, concern for the poor population and the conversation about interfaith. While his papacy is much less formal, than his predecessors, there’s no doubt that he is impacting so many lives. Although he maintains traditional views regarding abortion, marriage, ordination of women and clerical celibacy, he opposes consumerism, irresponsible development and believes we, the people, must take action on climate change. Pope Francis has also worked hard to make the church more open and welcoming to others.

There is no doubt that Pope Francis has done a tremendous amount of great work during his short time in papacy. Not only has he not allowed preconceived notions to influence his efforts, but he has also made sure that his morals, ethics and values are laid out for the entire world to see and understand. Let’s look at some of the greatest achievements Pope Francis has had so far.

The United States and Cuba

One of the biggest international diplomacy efforts that Pope Francis has worked on is helping to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. During the Trump administration, there has been deliberations on what deals were negotiated under the Obama administration; however, the work that Pope Francis put into the ruling in April 2015 is a huge stepping stone. On April 14, 2015, the administration announced that Cuba would be removed from the United States State Sponsors of Terrorism list – on May 29, 2015 the ruling became official. Ultimately, this marked a further departure by the United States from the Cold War conflict and its strain on the Cuba and United States relationship.

During this time, a prisoner exchange took place between the United States and Cuba. In December 2014, Raul Castro publicly thanked Pope Francis and the Catholic Church, as a whole, for their role in leading secret talks between the U.S. and Cuban prisoner exchange. Pope Francis’ efforts also lifted blocks, which were established in 1959, to block the building of Catholic churches.

Bank Reformation

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During the first months of Francis’ papacy, the Institute for the Works of Religion decided it would be beneficial is the bank was more transparent within its financial dealings. The Works of Religion is oftentimes referred to at the Vatican Bank.

Before Pope Francis, there have been extensive allegations of corruption and money laundering – and the bank is directly connected. In efforts to instill a better checks and balance system, Pope Francis appointed a commission to advise him about the bank reformation and the finances. He hired a firm, the Promontory Financial Group, to carry out a comprehensive investigation of all customer accounts of the bank and other allegations surrounding the organization.

In 2015, Pope Francis replaced four of the five cardinal overseers of the Vatican Bank, who had been confirmed in their positions during the final days of Benedict XVI’s papacy. For the first time, in a long time, experts and clerks were looking into how the bank was ran. Soon Ernst von Freyberg was put in charge. Pope Francis has advised officials that he would be willing to close the bank if reforms were not successful or proved to be too difficult to manage.

Poverty

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Poverty has been a constant issue that Pope Francis has made as one of his papacy’s top diplomatic efforts. Pope Francis has urged world leaders to prevent excessive monetary ambitions, which he has pronounced as a similar situation in comparison to idolatry of money. He has also urged world leaders to provide more welfare aid to those in need.

Pope Francis deplores modern slavery and with the assistance of world group leaders, from other religions, he signed a declaration promising to create action worldwide in effort to completely eliminate slavery in 2020. The Pope has stood on several podiums deeming slavery as a crime against humanity. In 2015, during his New Year mass, Pope Francis pressed people from all cultures and religions to combat human trafficking and modern slavery. He went on to emphasize that all human beings are essentially brothers and sisters and have the right to live a free life.

LGBT Rights

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Unlike others within the Catholic community, Pope Francis has taken a stand to ultimately support LGBT rights. In an interview in July 2013 Pope Francis said, “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this in a beautiful way, saying…no one should marginalize these people for this, they must be integrated into society.” Several LGBT supporters believed these remarks are encouraged change of tone from the papacy – so much so that the American LGBT magazine ‘The Advocate’ named Pope Francis their Person of the Year for 2013.

Despite the Vatican’s talks, afterwards, stating that they do not support gay unions, Pope Francis believes all people should be given a chance without judgment – and deserve to be accompanied spiritually by himself and/or the Catholic faith. All in all, Pope Francis believes in pastoral care for all people, no matter who they choose to spend their life with.

Buddhist Blessing

Pope Francis has made a valiant effort to unite the Catholic and Buddhism fronts. Conversations began June 2015 when Buddhist and Catholic religious and social leaders met at the Vatican. The event was hosted by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. While attending the event, Pope Francis spoke in favor of Buddhists and Catholics working together to address serious social problems. After the conference speech, Pope Francis received a Buddhist blessing.

Then on November 27, 2017, Pope Francis became the first pope ever to visit Myanmar – a Buddhist country. Pope Francis spent four days at Myanmar and met with the Myanmar cardinal and the military’s most senior general. During the visit, Pope Francis made sure he avoided the word ‘rohingya’, which is highly frowned upon in their culture. The Pope later told journalists that he wanted the dialogue to continue, so even though he didn’t believe in their practices and mistreatments, he didn’t want to shut down potential conversations that could eventually benefit others.