Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s choice of the name Francis immediately signaled the doctrinal orientation of his pontificate. Following in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi, the new Bishop of Rome embraced three guiding principles: love for the poor, care for our common home, and a commitment to a culture of encounter and peace. Although critics sometimes labeled this approach as populist, Pope Francis explicitly rejected that characterization. In truth, his outlook was open, transnational, and pluralistic—the very opposite of European populist movements.

From his earliest symbolic gestures—refusing the papal apartments and embracing migrants in Lampedusa—Bergoglio embodied a “Church that goes forth,” one that engages the world not with doctrinal arrogance, but with a spirit of service. His language, stripped of curial formalism, brought the papacy closer to the people, while his identity as the pope “from the ends of the earth” shifted the Church’s center of gravity away from Europe toward the world’s peripheries, fostering a new alliance among faiths, cultures, and peoples. In this dossier, we offer a series of reflections on the legacy of his pontificate and the future prospects of the Church.