The National Catholic Register’s Rome correspondent Edward Pentin told Newsmax on Monday that Pope Francis, who died Monday at 88, leaves behind a “checkered legacy” of bringing the marginalized into the church while antagonizing the traditional faithful.
“I think he’s going to be remembered, largely, for opening the church up, at least in the public perception, to everybody, particularly those on the periphery, those who perhaps didn’t look at the church, didn’t think the church was welcoming to them,” Pentin said on “Wake Up America.” “I think that’s probably one of the main things he’ll be remembered for. But the flip side of that is that he’ll also be remembered because he did that. I think there was a lot of discussion, a lot of controversy within the church, which I think didn’t really get into the public eye, but there was a lot of division in the church, a lot of concerns about the pope’s direction. They felt that he was perhaps going too far, that his idea of mercy was perhaps too broad, and that there was a lot of unease about it. So, I think it’s going to be interesting to see how that’s all addressed in the coming weeks and the next pope.”
Francis’ death was announced from the Vatican early Monday by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an American member of the church hierarchy who is reportedly now the Vatican’s de facto administrator.
Francis, the second oldest pope in church history, had long struggled with lung issues and had recently been released from the hospital following five weeks of treatment for double pneumonia that began Feb. 14.
While Francis has been perceived by many as the very welcoming public face of the Catholic Church, Pentin said that how he is remembered really depends on “who you ask.”
“Generally speaking, I think the public perception is a very positive one about that, because, obviously, Christ loves everybody and he wanted to convey that and to bring everybody in,” he said. “At the same time, though, there is the question of, as many theologians will say, the question of truth and orthodoxy and the doctrinal truth, the teachings of the church that have been revealed over the centuries to the church, and whether those were sufficiently upheld during this pontificate. I think there was a lot of criticism that it wasn’t.”
In a recent article about Francis for Newsmax Magazine, the NCR correspondent said he stressed that the pope “has this checkered legacy – one that’s very positive on the one hand, very negative on the other.”
“I tried to really encapsulate that in that article, to show just how he’ll be seen as, as I say, very positive, very negative, but different parts,” Pentin said. “The traditional wing of the church found him very difficult to basically work with because he didn’t really try to curry favor with them; in fact, quite the opposite. He was quite hostile to traditional faithful, those who are really trying to uphold the church’s teaching and liturgy, and I think that is going to be a mark against him.”
GET TODAY :
is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America with more than 30 million people watching!
Reuters Institute reports is one of the top news brands in the U.S.
You need to watch today.
Get it with great shows from Rob Schmitt, Greta Van Susteren, Greg Kelly, Carl Higbie, Rob Finnerty – and many more!
Find the channel on your cable system –
Sign up for and get , our streaming channel and our military channel World at War.
Find hundreds of shows, movies and specials.
Even get Jon Voight’s special series and President Trump’s comedy programs and much more!
Watch on your smartphone or home TV app.
Watch anytime, anywhere!
Start your now:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Comments