The Anscombe Centre Pays Tribute to the Memory of Pope Francis (1936–2025)

The Anscombe Bioethics Centre would like to honour the memory of Pope Francis, who after serious illness died of a stroke and heart failure on Easter Monday morning. The joy of Eastertide is made bittersweet by the passing of a much-loved Pontiff.

Pope Francis’s concern for the poor, the sick, the unborn child, the migrant or those who suffer due to war or social and economic injustice, and his call on us to meet people, as he did, in the muck and mire of their individual situation, was a pastoral focus on the simple humility and self-giving practicality that he believed should characterise Christian charity.

This manifested strongly when it came to his teachings concerning bioethical subjects, which he expressed with a bracing earthiness that was accessible to ordinary people. His concern for the poor led him to criticise exploitative practices such as surrogacy, and a ‘throw-away culture’ which directly affected the most vulnerable members of the human family, expressed in the practices of abortion and assisted suicide, critiquing the counterfeit compassion that seeks to justify them.

In the New Year, he stated that:

All life must be protected, at every moment, from conception to natural death, because no child is a mistake or guilty of existing, just as no elderly or sick person may be deprived of hope and discarded.

In addition to these prophetic teachings against actions that demonstrate a failure of love, he emphasised the importance of meaningful care and love for those suffering from the deprivations of age and severe illness.

Particularly now, in the run-up the Third Reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, Pope Francis’s witness of compassion and care is radically relevant. His broader witness to the Church’s ‘preferential option for the poor’ will be an enduring legacy, as will be the grace and mercy given to those many souls whom his Pontificate and personal contact touched profoundly.

May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.