section_path: Legacy
section_name: Legacy
paragraph_text: Legacy
  
  Francis's papacy coincided with a period of widespread change and reckoning within the global Catholic order and within society at large. Throughout his papacy, he was noted for his support for the plight of refugees, migrants, and the impoverished. Since their beginnings, he had been outspoken in his criticism of the wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, DR Congo, and Myanmar, notwithstanding numerous other conflicts and acts of suppression against the civilian population globally. He appointed more than 80% of the cardinals that elected his successor, notably reducing the European share of the College of Cardinals from a majority to a plurality. He was celebrated for his outreach to China and the African continent, his tolerance towards differing faith communities, and his attention to younger Catholic adherents and the changing nature of the faith. Additionally, he formalized the church's policy of opposition to the death penalty in all cases.
  
  Under his papacy, women remained banned from becoming priests, joining the Diaconate, or being appointed to the College of Bishops or Cardinals. However, Francis made significant strides towards increasing women's presence in the senior and central administration of the church. He was the first to grant them voting rights within the Synod of Bishops, and increased their presence in functions and institutions of the Church that had previously been restricted to or dominated by men. He has nonetheless been criticized by some as having only produced reform within existing frameworks of gender division within the Catholic Church, doing little to advance serious, radical reform of its institutions to ensure an ideal of inclusion and parity.
  
  He set himself apart from other Popes in upholding the Church's departure from the Tridentine mass, which had only been loosely enforced by both predecessors whose reign occurred after the institution of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Though it was not banned outright during his tenure, he nonetheless greatly increased Vatican oversight over the facilitation of the ritual, and restricted the right of new priests to engage in the practice. Some have stated his view as having been that "the Tridentine liturgy a symbol of the rejection of Vatican II itself as well as of the pope's teachings."
  
  In 2022, he issued the first apology by the Vatican for its role in the cultural erasure and forced assimilation of First Nations peoples in Canada from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. His endorsement of the conditional blessing of same-sex couples earned him praise from many progressive outlets within and outside the Church. Some groups, though, have been critical of the extent of his tolerance on various LGBTQ issues, particularly the question of his acceptance of transgender identity and his answer to the larger issue of homosexuality, queer identity, and sin. The progressive stances he held drew significant criticism from conservative elements within the college.