His Holiness Pope Francis made his transition on the morning after Easter Sunday, after he delivered an Easter blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, and after he toured St. Peter’s Square in his popemobile. His doctors had advised him to take two months of convalescence, but this pope, this man of the people, wanted to be with them until the very end. He was of the people, and he wanted to reach them, touch them. Now he is gone.

The world will miss this humble Pope, a man who eschewed pomp and pageantry, instead embracing piety and populism. As a cardinal in Argentina, he rode the subway rather than a limo. As Pope, he opted for more modest accommodations than the papal palace and dined with Vatican employees. He used the word “gay” – no other Pope had – and insisted that homosexual brothers and sisters had a place in the church, and in heaven. He did not go so far as to embrace gay marriage, but his modest step in the right direction caused resistance among other church leaders.

This pope was an advocate for social and economic justice, frequently addressing the economic gap between developed nations and those still developing. He embraced the concept of climate justice, releasing an encyclical on climate change, He wrote. “Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years.” The encyclical (papal letter) was issued in 2015 and called for urgent action to combat climate change, protect the environment, and promote sustainable development.

Leaders, said the Pope, must hear “both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”. Pope Francis was a spokesperson for the least and the left out, visiting prisons wherever he went, and washing the feet of prisoners to emphasize mutual humanity. He was an advocate for immigrants, stating in 2024 that those who knowingly and intentionally harm immigrants are creating a “grave sin”. He called for a “global governance based on justice, fraternity and solidarity”

While countries around the world, the United States among them, are closing border and instituting harsh measures against migrants, Pope Francis advocated for their rights.

Pope Francis was also a strong proponent of DEI. He appointed 163 cardinals since he assumed his papacy in 2013, diversifying the College of Cardinals by including members from countries that had never been represented, including cardinals from Mongolia, South Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire. This diverse set of cardinals will choose the next Pope. Will they embrace the Pope Francis approach to inclusion, advocacy, and equity, or will they revert to the narrow white approach to the papacy, with the majority of leaders being European?

African Americans have a distinct, if not large, presence in the Catholic church. Just six percent of us are Catholic. But the Catholic church has had an impact on Black Americans, especially in its role in education. Often Catholic schools were not as harshly segregated as public schools, and in some cases, schools that focused on Black students were much better equipped than other schools.

For example, my mom, Proteone Marie Alexandria Malveaux, attended Our Mother of Sorrows High School in Biloxi, Mississippi. The school was administered by the Josephite Fathers, a religious order dedicated to serving African American Catholics. The nuns who staffed the school were the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, an order dedicated to serving Native American and African American communities. Partly because of her experience at Our Mother of Sorrows, Mom was a devout Catholic. She was impatient with my criticism of the Catholic Church as colonizing oppressors, encouraging me, to “find the good” in the church, despite its many flaws.

Pope Francis was radically different from the colonizing popes who encouraged European powers to “civilize” Africans. In many instances, instead, Pope Francis has denounced racism and discrimination, and expressed solidarity with the murdered George Floyd, the slaughtered congregants at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, and many others. In many ways, President Francis was anti-Trump, embracing immigration, climate change, DEI, and economic justice. In making a decision, the Cardinals will decide whether to move forward with a dynamic Pope Francis agenda, or whether they will move backwards to the exclusionary values of the past.

Black America had an advocate in Pope Francis. Will we have another in the next Pope?