Pope Francis, the first leader of the Catholic Church from the global South, used his papacy to condemn the grotesque and worsening inequality that disfigures the world, as near-inconceivably vast fortunes are amassed by a handful of tycoons while poverty and hunger afflict billions.

His denunciation of Western financial institutions as imposing a “new colonialism” through forced austerity programmes on poorer countries aligned with much Marxist analysis, and if his savaging of the culture of destructive profiteering that dominates the West as “the dung of the devil” quoted fourth-century bishop Basil of Caesarea, the allusion to the arrogance and decadence of Rome before its fall held a message of its own.

Francis’s outspoken advocacy of refugees shamed the far-right politicians of the US, Italy, Hungary, Poland and other countries whose “faith” is just a stick to beat others. Most importantly of all, his daily phone calls to the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza were a refusal to accept the erasure of a people suffering siege and genocide at the hands of Israel and its allies the United States, Britain and the EU. 

The Catholic Church has not often been a friend to left and progressive forces, and is not one now. As an institution, it has been guilty of horrific crimes. Francis, though, raised his voice for peace, humanity and social justice at a time when not just conservative but liberal and social-democratic politicians have come to stand for their opposites. He will be missed.