Will Pope Leo XIV continue with the legacy?

George Harvey

The much-loved Pope Francis passed away on April 21, 2025. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the western hemisphere, and the first pope who had been born south of the equator.

A very unusual man for his opinions, he found fault with many forms of materialism, including consumerism and trickle-down economics. Especially endearing to all of us at Green Energy Times, he was an environmentalist and especially an advocate for the climate, which he made a focus of his papacy (Wikipedia, tinyurl.com/GETPopeFrancis1).

Pope Francis became pope on March 13, 2013 and very soon started putting an effort into environmental protection. Soon, he was advocating for action on climate change, the first pope to do so. We see this in one of his obituaries:

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said the U.N. was “greatly inspired” by Francis’ “commitment to the goals and ideals of our organization.”

“Pope Francis was a transcendent voice for peace, human dignity and social justice,” Guterres said in a statement. “He leaves behind a legacy of faith, service and compassion for all – especially those left on the margins of life or trapped by the horrors of conflict.”

Guterres also credited Pope Francis for helping to rally nearly 200 countries to sign the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international treaty meant to rally the global effort to address climate change and limit global warming. In September 2015, during Francis’ visit to U.N. headquarters in New York City, he delivered an address to world leaders gathered there that urged them to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, described by the U.N. as “the world’s roadmap for ending poverty, protecting the planet and tackling inequalities.” (ABC News, tinyurl.com/GETPopeFrancis2)Guterres recalled the Pope’s visit that year, saying, “Pope Francis also understood that protecting our common home is, at heart, a deeply moral mission and responsibility that belongs to every person.” He noted that the pope’s second encyclical, Laudato si’ (Praise be to you), which had already been delivered in May 2015, was a “major contribution to the global mobilization that resulted in the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change.” (UN News Agency, tinyurl.com/GETPopeFrancis3)

In Laudato si’, Pope Francis brought attention to environmental destruction, calling it “our sin.” He was referring to actions of all peoples and a need to confront the environmental universally. To do this, he called for a “broad cultural revolution.”

In June 2019, Pope Francis declared a worldwide “climate emergency,” The Guardian reported, “The Pope’s impassioned plea came as he met the leaders of some of the world’s biggest multinational oil companies in the Vatican on Friday to impress upon them the urgency and scale of the challenge, and their central role in tackling the emissions crisis.” Senior officers of BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, ConocoPhilips, and Chevron along with some major investors, responded by calling on governments to put in place carbon pricing to encourage low-carbon innovation (tinyurl.com/GETPopeFrancis4).

In 2019, Francis stated that ecocide was a sin and should be made “a fifth category of crimes against peace at the international level,” according to Stop Ecocide International (tinyurl.com/GETPopeFrancis5).

In October 2023, in advance of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), Francis issued the apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum (Praise God), in which he called for decisive action on the climate crisis and condemned climate change denial.

In May 2024, Francis organized a climate summit that issued a Planetary Protocol for Climate Change Resilience including three pillars: greenhouse gas emissions reduction (while prioritizing nature-based solutions), climate change adaptation, and societal transformation. The next month, Francis issued an apostolic letter titled Fratello sole (Brother sun, referring to Saint Francis’ Canticle of the Sun), ordering the Vatican to construct an agrivoltaics facility on its land holdings on the outskirts of Rome, as a gesture of the Church towards the environmental movement (Wikipedia, tinyurl.com/GETPopeFrancis6).

Just as I was starting to write this, I got an email from my daughter, in Italy with her husband while he is working there. After describing the long lines to file by the pope’s casket, she wrote:

The guards understandably move people through quickly given the numbers of people there, so of course it is not possible to linger at all. The one image that stays with me from seeing him, though, is that of his gentle hands, one on the other, now lifeless. I choked back a tear and marveled that one could grieve so for a person one has never met.

On the long, quiet, often wordless, walk home along the river, I carried with me the image of him and felt honored to be amongst the many who were there to say goodbye.

We stayed home on Saturday, being the funeral, as the streets were cordoned off and mobbed. We watched the news on the television. I was surprised to hear a news reader say that Papa Francesco would be buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore because it was a simpler church than the Basilica di San Pietro. 

There is nothing simple about the Santa Maria Maggiore. It is huge, just not quite as big as the Basilica di San Pietro. It is much older, with ornate Byzantine mosaics, medieval columns, gilded coffered ceilings, and intricately patterned marble floors. Having changed over the years, it is decorated in a mixture of styles, with baroque and renaissance paintings as well as medieval. The church is, however, warmer and more intimate than San Pietro, despite its massive size. It is also near the Termini train station in a working-class part of town. It seems to me to make perfect sense for Papa Francesco to prefer to be buried in the Santa Maria Maggiore – it is homey and warm, yet profound and deeply spiritual, and nestled amongst the poorest in the city, those he cared for most.

His emphasis on tolerance, forgiveness, kindness, and inclusivity are what I will remember most. He makes me want to be more like him, a better person.

Pope Leo XIV and the Climate

The College of Cardinals has made available a list of Cardinals along brief biographical information and facts about them. Among the facts are the positions individual Cardinals stand on various issues. One category is “Climate Change.” Here is the position of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, according to the College of Cardinals:

“Prevost is outspoken about the need for urgent action on climate change. He recently stressed that the Church must move ‘from words to action,’ warning against the ‘harmful’ consequences of unchecked technological development and advocating for a reciprocal, non-tyrannical relationship with the environment.” (tinyurl.com/PopesClimatePosition)

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected and is now Pope Leo XIV.

We at Green Energy Times take a hopeful position that Pope Leo XIV will be one of the leaders who can guide the people of the world to live sustainable lifestyles.