For Ilya Smith, who grew up with the Luthensian and South Baptist, the teachings of Pope Francis, which focused on social justice and recognition of marginalization on influencing his decision to amend to Catholicism a year ago.
“He led the role model. He was very accepted. Acceptance of the LGBTQ community, acceptance of migrants and the understanding of different cultures,” said Smith, 22, a university student from Rocwell, North Carolina.
But with the death of Francis on Monday, eight and eight years old, the Catholic Church is at a crossroads: after 12 years of his leadership, does it continue on a progressive path to activate new followers with a holistic message, or return to the traditional roots at a time when some were eager to the ecclesiastical doctrine obligated to conservative customs and conservative classes?
For centuries, the traditional mass of the church was said in Latin and asked the priests to confront the altar with their appearance of the group, until the second Vatican Council in the 1960s sought to update the rituals. The changes made in local languages included and ordinary people became an integral part of service readings.
But in 2007, Francis’s ancestor, Pope Benedict XII, led to relaxation restrictions, allowing the celebration of the Latin bloc to return.
