Pope Francis received an outpouring of praise for his compassion, humility, and global leadership—not least as a champion for confronting the climate emergency—after the Vatican announced Monday that the pontiff had died at age 88.

Just months after he was elected in 2013, Francis signalled “a shift in tone and priorities: a Catholic Church less focused on judgment and more open to dialogue, inclusion, and social justice,” CBC recalls. “Longtime Vatican observers say that along with Francis’s radical refocusing of Church priorities came a hierarchical overhaul, one that will leave as lasting a mark as his revisioning of the Church’s role in the modern world,” while making the institution “more globally attuned and outward-facing.”

A major milestone in Francis’ papacy was his 180-page encyclical on climate change, Laudato Si’ (Praise Be), published in June 2015.

“Science and technology are not neutral; from the beginning to the end of a process, various intentions and possibilities are in play and can take on distinct shapes,” he wrote. “Nobody is suggesting a return to the Stone Age, but we do need to slow down and look at reality in a different way, to appropriate the positive and sustainable progress which has been made, but also to recover the values and the great goals swept away by our unrestrained delusions of grandeur.”

The encyclical cited climate change as “one small sign of the ethical, cultural, and spiritual crisis of modernity,” reflected in a “structurally perverse” and unequal economic system.

“We all know that it is not possible to sustain the present level of consumption in developed countries and wealthier sectors of society, where the habit of wasting and discarding has reached unprecedented levels,” Francis wrote. “The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we still have not solved the problem of poverty.”

That observation reflected Francis’ origins as a front-line priest in Argentina, where people are now mourning him as a “father of the poor,” Al Jazeera reports. “In the earliest days of his papacy, the Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose to reside in the modest Vatican guest house instead of the apostolic palace, swapped a chauffeured limo for an economy car, and tread in simple black shoes—signalling the Church was under new management,” CBC writes. “Dogma would no longer dominate the agenda. In its place: compassion, outreach and humility.”

Climate author and activist Bill McKibben, a founder of the Third Act seniors’ climate network, recalls Francis as “perhaps the world’s greatest environmental champion” in his The Crucial Years newsletter.

“I had always felt buoyed by his remarkable spirit,” McKibben writes. “If he could bring new hope and energy to an institution as hidebound as the Vatican, there was reason for all of us to go on working on our own hidebound institutions—and if he could stand so completely in solidarity with the world’s poor and vulnerable, then it gave the rest of us something to aim for.”

McKibben praises Laudato Si’ as “the most important document of his papacy and arguably the most important piece of writing so far this millennium.” The book-length encyclical “exists as a response to the climate crisis,” he writes, and “was absolutely crucial in the lead-up to the Paris climate talks, consolidating elite opinion behind the idea that some kind of deal was required.” But it also “uses the climate crisis to talk in broad and powerful terms about modernity.”

After the encyclical was released, McKibben recalls, Francis “ordered the Vatican to begin construction of a field of solar panels on land it owned near Rome—an agrivoltaic project that would produce not just food but enough solar power to entirely power the city-state that is the Vatican. It is designed, in his words, to provide ‘the complete energy sustenance of Vatican City State’.”

Meaning that the Vatican “will soon be the first nation powered entirely by the sun,” McKibben says.

In 2022, Francis delivered what CBC calls a “landmark apology” for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system—“first to a delegation of Indigenous leaders at the Vatican, and then again in Maskwacis, Alta., and several more times as he toured Canada.”

“Francis’s relationship with Indigenous peoples is profound, because he was the first pope to ever apologize for the church’s wrongdoing with our peoples. And more importantly, he asked for forgiveness,” Phil Fontaine, a residential school survivor and former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, told CBC’s As It Happens show. “He understood that burden was on the church to bring out the truth of the church’s treatment of Aboriginal peoples, in particular, the residential school experience. And he was prepared to do something about that challenge.”

The leaders of Canada’s three major political parties praised Francis during campaign events Monday. Liberal leader Mark Carney “declared that the pope’s example shows the need to ensure financial markets don’t overshadow human values of compassion,” the Toronto Star reports, “and pointed to Pope Francis’s view that environmental degradation and social injustice are linked.”

Francis “was a voice of moral clarity, spiritual courage, and boundless compassion. He was in many respects the world’s conscience, never hesitating to challenge the powerful on behalf of the vulnerable,” Carney, a practicing Catholic, said in a statement.

“Through his teachings and actions, Pope Francis redefined the moral responsibilities of leadership in the 21st century. In Laudato si’ (Praised Be), his landmark encyclical, he gave voice to ‘the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor’, reminding us that ecological degradation and social injustice are deeply intertwined and demand our shared, urgent leadership.”

As a participant in the pope’s Council for Inclusive Capitalism, “I saw firsthand his unwavering commitment to placing human dignity at the centre of our economic and political systems,” Carney added. Then at a meeting at the Vatican in 2014, “Pope Francis issued a challenge that has guided me ever since. He likened humanity to wine—rich, diverse, full of spirit—and the market to grappa—distilled, intense, and at times disconnected. He called on us to ‘turn grappa back into wine’, to reintegrate human values into our economic lives.”

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre acknowledged Francis’ “humility, compassion, and steadfast faith,” the Star says, adding that “there have been countless millions of Catholics and non-Catholics that have been inspired by his leadership in faith and other domains. Our prayers are with all Catholics as they lay to rest the head of the Catholic Church, and we are in solidarity in remembering him and honouring his contributions.”

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said the pope “didn’t just preach humility and compassion—he lived it. And in doing so, he earned the respect of millions.” Singh called the 2022 residential school apology a “meaningful step toward truth and accountability—one that brought deep emotions for many Indigenous families and communities.”