‘There can be no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and respect for the views of others.’
It is both fitting and moving that Pope Francis included these words in what was to be his final public address, delivered on his behalf by Master of Liturgical Ceremonies Archbishop Diego Ravelli to a crowd of over 20,000 people at the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday.
Throughout his 12-year papacy, Francis was a committed friend to the poor and the marginalised, a vocal advocate for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and other fundamental human rights, and a man who spoke truth to power right up to the final days of his pontificate.
At a time when leaders of such humility and integrity appear to be in increasingly short supply, it is essential that his successor follows his example.
A defender of human dignity
In June 2014, Francis opened a two-day conference on ‘International Religious Freedom and the Global Clash of Values’ at the Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta (LUMSA) university in Rome by affirming that freedom of religion is ‘a fundamental human right which reflects the highest human dignity.’
‘Religious freedom is not only that of private thought or worship,’ he continued. ‘It is the liberty to live, both privately and publicly, according to the ethical principles resulting from found truth.’
At the time, his comments were delivered against the backdrop of a brutal offensive by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, with the terrorists having seized the city of Mosul, which had a significant Christian population, just ten days earlier. Thousands of non-Sunni men, women and children were subsequently killed or enslaved under IS occupation, and tens of thousands of Christians would soon emigrate to neighbouring countries.
Over the following years, Francis remained vocally engaged on the atrocities unfolding in the region, and in March 2021 – after IS had lost most of the territory it held – he made the first ever papal visit to Iraq, a move that brought significant hope to the country’s Christian communities who by this point had been reduced to a fraction of the million that once lived there.
One Christian who had fled Mosul in 2014 later told the Associated Press that the pope’s visit had ‘made us feel loved and heard, and it helped heal our wounds after everything that happened here.’
Indeed, bringing hope to and speaking out on behalf of communities experiencing severe human rights violations on account of their religion or belief would be a key theme of Francis’ papacy.
During his historic 2015 visit to the Central African Republic, which was preparing for elections but remained unstable due to deadly violence by sectarian militias, the pope insisted on visiting Koudoukou central mosque in PK5, a volatile Muslim neighbourhood in the capital, Bangui. Previously, no Christians could enter PK5, but Al Jazeera reports that as the pope made his way there, ‘crowds of Christians followed him in. People who had lost touch cried as they embraced each other.’
In November 2017 he visited Myanmar/Burma and Bangladesh, months after the military of the former had conducted merciless ‘clearance operations’ against the predominantly Muslim Rohingya community which ultimately saw thousands killed and over 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh, and which has since been widely recognised as genocide.
While initially criticised by rights groups for neglecting to use the term ‘Rohingya’ during the first part of the visit, he later poignantly told a group of 16 refugees at an interfaith meeting in Dhaka that ‘the presence of God today is also called Rohingya’. He would go on to regularly call for action as crises continued to unfold in Myanmar – including when a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the country on 28 March, just weeks before his passing.
Towards the end of his papacy, he spoke out on multiple occasions against the increasing repression of the Roman Catholic Church in Nicaragua. In February 2023 he expressed concern and prayed publicly for the Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, a prominent critic of the Nicaraguan regime who had been sentenced to 26 years in prison and was later released into exile in January 2024, while in December 2024 he wrote a letter of solidarity to Catholics in the country, emphasising ‘we do not cease to ask Jesus to keep you always in His hand.’
And as war raged in Gaza, his was the most prominent and persistent voice calling for a ceasefire, an end to the siege, and the release of all hostages. It has also emerged since his death that every night at around 8pm he would make a video call to the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City, which currently shelters around 500 people, including several Muslims, and has functioned as a base for food, water and medical assistance for thousands in the surrounding area. His final call, a brief audio conversation, took place two days before his death.
A legacy to build on
Such efforts are just a snapshot. From Indonesia to Kazakhstan to Sri Lanka to Ukraine, Francis would often highlight the fundamental importance of FoRB, human rights and peaceful co-existence in countries where such concepts were – and in some cases remain – under grave threat.
Sometimes there were concerning oversights, such as the widely criticised and repeatedly extended deal between the Vatican and China on the appointment of Catholic bishops, which some viewed as lending a degree of legitimacy to the Chinese Communist Party amidst its ongoing crackdown on religious communities, including the Uyghurs, even though Francis notably called for freedom of worship for Catholics in China on the World Day of Prayer for the Church in the country in 2023.
Overall, however, Francis leaves a legacy of championing human rights, particularly the right to FoRB as articulated in Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, and of course in Article 18 of both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
It is a legacy that Pope Francis’ successor must take forward and take further, and one that CSW joins with the Catholic world in remembering and celebrating as it looks to the future.
‘…the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.’
– Section 2 of the Dignitatis Humanae of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican
By CSW’s CEO Scot Bower