No offense, meat eaters and representatives of the vegetable community, but I’m a vegetarian.
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Jesuit Superior General Father Arturo Sosa, SJ, center, speaks about Pope Francis at a press conference at the Jesuit general curia in Rome on April 24, 2025. / Credit: Hannah Brockhaus/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 24, 2025 / 17:28 pm (CNA).
Father Arturo Sosa, SJ, superior general of the Society of Jesus, reflected on the first Jesuit pope in a press conference on Thursday, saying Francis “did not seek to please everyone” or to measure himself by a popularity index.
“Once he chose to be a disciple of Jesus, his deep motivation in life was to put God’s will into practice,” Sosa said, calling the late pontiff “a man of prayer, who asked for prayers to make decisions according to the will of God.”
During the press conference, held in the Jesuit general curia in Rome, Sosa also answered a question about what qualities are needed in the next pope. “Undoubtedly, we are looking for another man of God,” he said.
“And after that, for me, it is important to have a pope with a universal outlook,” he added, drawing a distinction with what he called an “international outlook.”
The Jesuit superior defended Francis against accusations he caused controversy — like with Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican’s declaration on same-sex blessings — or fell short in some areas by saying he was not the source of problems in the Church but inherited problems that were already there.
“Pope Francis helped put the difference of positions on the table” and provoked dialogue, Sosa said, stressing that the late pope wanted to listen to everyone.
“I don’t think of Pope Francis as a reformer,” Sosa also said. “I think of him as someone who continued the reform that the Church has always carried out.”
About Francis’ record on abuse, Sosa said the pope “always acknowledged his limitations, his mistakes, and his slowness” to respond to cases. “This is not about giving Pope Francis a medal or giving him a grade but about learning about potential criticism and mistakes.”
“With regard to abuse cases, I think the Church is not in the same place when Pope Francis was elected. That’s without a doubt. It hasn’t been a straight line… but the Church has advanced in that direction,” he added.
According to the superior general, Pope Francis’ most urgent legacy for today will be his calls for peace: “I think Pope Francis has shouted in every moment, on every occasion, about peace.”
“The world needs peace and peace is built by us,” Sosa added. “Peace means to put aside any other priority than people and the dignity of people. And peace means justice with the poor. I think the constant prayer and the constant argument about peace by Pope Francis is a very important message for today.”
Pope Francis, who joined the Society of Jesus in 1958, was the first-ever Jesuit to be pope. During his international trips, he would always spend time with local Jesuits in the countries he visited. He also met with Jesuits in Rome during their 36th general congregation on Oct. 24, 2016.
“He established a very fraternal relationship with the Jesuits,” Sosa said on April 24. “We will end this period of Pope Francis thanking the Lord.”
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Freedom comes when we do not settle back into our familiar habits but instead, choose to forge a brighter path forward.
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(RNS) — The order came on Feb. 21, 1939, seven months before the start of World War II. All German Jews, it stated, “must surrender any objects made of gold, platinum or silver, as well as precious stones and pearls, in their possession.”
Most Jews complied, filling pawnshops across Germany with tons of precious metals — much of which were melted down and used to help Germany’s war efforts. But a tranche of items survived, including hundreds of household items: Shabbat candlesticks, kiddush wine cups, spice boxes, thimbles and lots of silverware, especially spoons and ladles, which made their way to museums across Germany.
AnnaMaria Abernathy, a Boston-area resident, knew nothing about the Nazi party’s “silver levy,” or “Silberzwangsabgabe.” But a few years ago, she learned that a silver kiddush cup belonging to Friedrich Sigmund Marx might now be hers. Abernathy had an uncle by that name, a former resident of Munich who died in the Theresienstadt labor camp.
Earlier this month, Abernathy, now 95, and her three daughters traveled to Munich for a conference put on by Matthias Weniger, a curator from the Bavarian National Museum who was working feverishly to return these pieces of silver to the descendants of Jewish families who surrendered their heirlooms as part of the Nazi silver levy.
The 76 family members who gathered in Munich came from Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Israel and Spain. They all had relatives who perished in the Holocaust — people like Abernathy’s aunt, uncle and grandmother, killed by the Nazis or their collaborators.
The family members at the conference had already received their heirlooms, but the Munich Conference on the 1939 Silver Levy and Reunion of Descendants was an opportunity for them to come together and share stories. The group visited a cemetery and a Munich synagogue. They heard from experts on the Jewish settlement in Bavaria and about what became of all the silver seized in the lead-up to the war.
“I thought it would be helpful to bring families together and to talk about these common or similar experiences and not be so isolated,” said Weniger who heads the museum’s provenance research.
There’s an urgency to those restitution efforts. “You come really close to the last owners in some instances,” Weniger said.
On Thursday (April 24), Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel honors the estimated 220,800 living Holocaust survivors in over 90 countries around the world, according to a survey by the Claims Conference, a nonprofit that secures material compensation for Holocaust survivors. Those numbers are rapidly dropping as more survivors die each year.
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The Bavarian National Museum is trying to speed up restitutions.
Beginning in the 1930s, the museum was allowed to acquire some 350 silver objects belonging to Jews. Most of the pieces were returned in the 1950s and 1960s, when German authorities let it be known that people could claim them. But about 110 silver objects remained.
Beginning in 2019, Weniger took over provenance research at the museum and began actively looking for the heirs.
The silver objects’ histories were mostly well-documented. They came from pawnshops that listed the names of the owners or had coded them in ways Weniger was able to decipher. Using the inventories, and a good bit of detective work, Weniger tracked down the descendants by combing through obituary and genealogy databases.
These prosaic objects were not Klimts, Picassos or Cézannes, artwork also confiscated from Jewish families by the Nazis and the subject of much media attention over the years. But they were intimately connected to the everyday lives of their owners. Weniger made several trips to the U.S. and to Israel to personally return the objects.
It turned out, the Kiddush cup thought to be owned by Abernathy’s uncle belonged to someone else. But by then, the rightful ownership of the cup had become secondary. Abernathy had already taken a great interest in the restitution project and asked Weniger to help her apply for memorial plaques for her grandmother, aunt and uncle. He was glad to help.
The city of Munich has placed 275 brushed stainless steel and gold-plated plaques called Erinnerungszeichen on buildings and street posts, honoring the 10,000 city residents who lost their lives during the Holocaust. Abernathy and her daughters attended the plaque dedications along with other conference members.
Abernathy was born in Germany, but in 1934, as the first Nazi discrimination laws took hold, her father, a banker, lost his job, as did many other Jews, and the family relocated to Italy. In 1939, months before the start of the war, the family secured visas to the U.S. and settled in Kansas City.
Abernathy’s paternal grandmother, Minna Hirschberg, and Minna’s daughter Erna and husband, Friedrich, or Fritz, were not so lucky. Minna and Fritz died in Theresienstadt; Erna was killed in Auschwitz. Confirmation of their deaths came only after the war.
“It affected my family very strongly,” Abernathy said in a phone conversation from the retirement community where she now lives. “I think I sort of blocked feelings about it.”
In the 1960s, Abernathy reconnected with second cousins on her mother’s side, now living in California, but then the families lost touch. Through the Munich museum’s restitution project, she reconnected with them.
“Rather than receiving a silver object we didn’t know existed or belonged to us, we have received a gift of gold in reconnecting our family,” Abernathy said at the ceremony unveiling the plaques earlier this month.
As for the kiddush cup, it ended up going to a family that had fled Germany in 1939 and settled in New York City. Abernathy met the granddaughter of the cup owner on the Munich trip.
Gabrielle Rossmer Gropman’s grandfather, named Sigmund Marx, survived the war and made it to New York City in 1940 with his wife, Emma. The cup owned by the couple in Munich likely dates back to the 17th century. Gropman said she decided the cup should go to her nephew who is living in New York City and has two small children.
Weniger has 20 pieces of silver left in the museum’s collection, and he is confident he will be able to return a dozen to descendants of the original owners. About seven or eight pieces will remain because the descendants either were not interested in reclaiming the objects or didn’t sign the paperwork.
Trained as an art historian in medieval and Renaissance art, Weniger said restitution work has become his true passion.
“This work is so different and so much more meaningful,” he said. “You cannot repair what happened, but you can at least contribute a bit. I think everyone should do this.”
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(RNS) — The world is saddened by the loss of Pope Francis, the pope who reminded us what Christianity is truly about. From the first moment he appeared publicly on March 13, 2013, greeting the crowd from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, we knew he was going to be different from other popes. By making a purposeful choice not to wear the red mozzetta — a short cape traditionally worn by popes that resembles royal vestments — he delivered his first message: the church should be a church for the poor, the vulnerable, and the marginalized.
To understand Francis, you have to understand that he was Latin American, and the first pope from that continent in the history of the church. Our countries were colonized by Catholic powers that brought the faith to our lands. In the process, these colonizing forces committed many injustices, many with institutional religious support. The resulting caste systems led to deep class divisions that persist today. Many of us in Latin America have lived through this brand of Catholicism.
This connection between institutional power and poverty remains a reality. In towns where poverty was rampant, cathedrals stood as symbols of immense wealth, adorned with golden walls and luxurious decorations. The contrast between that grandeur of the church’s structures and the poverty of its people has been stark. As a famous 1970s protest song by the Latin American group Los Guaraguao poignantly asks: “Christ, in service of whom? … They have him imprisoned in palaces of concrete, with marble floors, wooden ceilings — temples that do not resemble the houses of my people, houses of tin and cardboard, with broken roofs and dirt floors.”
Francis was the first pope in modern times to purposefully and visibly distance himself from this relationship between the figure of the pope and institutional power, from day one. He wanted to make it clear that the role of a pope is not to be a monarch, nor to rule with a one-sided authoritarian approach. Instead, the pope is to be a servant, just as Jesus served. Likewise, the institutional church should not be a place of princes clinging to clericalism and exclusionary practices, but a place of pastoral care for all.
Having a deep understanding of poverty and conflict also led Francis to understand the forces that drive people to migrate. Today, the vast economic disparities among rich and poor countries continue to push millions to seek a better future elsewhere. Latin America has endured a long history of corrupt governments, interventionist policies and armed conflicts, often affecting the poorest communities; as a result, many flee violence and political instability in search of safety.
In a globalized world, and given the history of interventionist policies of First World countries, economic disparities and political instability are often linked to policies that benefit those countries at the expense of the poor; the resulting migration is also a shared responsibility.
One of Francis’ first major public statements on migration was his visit to Lampedusa, Italy, where he focused the world’s attention on the plight of migrants and refugees. Lampedusa has been a major entry point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East. When Francis visited the U.S. in 2015, he addressed a joint session of Congress, directly speaking about immigration and the responsibility to welcome migrants and refugees. He reminded lawmakers that America was built by immigrants, saying, “We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners.”
In 2025, he urged U.S. Catholics and people of goodwill to not give in to “narratives” that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to migrants and refugees. In this regard, he sought to remind us that taking care of the migrant and the foreigner is an important part of our Christian mission. I am an immigrant and an immigration attorney, and hearing him stand up for immigrant communities was exactly what I expected from someone representing Christ on Earth.
Francis was a pope of firsts. He was the first Latino pope. The first Jesuit pope. The first to reject traditional vestments of power. As a Jesuit, he was deeply formed in the art of discernment — a key Jesuit principle.
He reminded the church that we are a church on a journey, that we should be always discerning, always listening, always seeking to grow and improve. Francis was the first to openly address gay people using the term the community uses — “gay” — while addressing us with a more compassionate and inclusive tone.
Throughout his papacy, he met with LGBTQ+ Catholics and encouraged the church, through multiple synods, to listen to our stories and discern how God is speaking through our lived experiences. He opened the doors and windows and let fresh air in.
On this front, many in the LGBTQ+ community felt he did not do enough, given his power to single-handedly change doctrine. Those who feel this way have every right. At the same time, I understand Francis’ wanting to avoid clericalist and authoritarian attitudes and instead invite the church to be part of that development, first through discernment and listening to experiences. Even Francis himself was in a process of discernment. He met with transgender people, even when it was clear that he did not fully understand their struggles. This may be where he fell the shortest, but he was only human.
Francis constantly reminded those in power that clericalism — the excessive power and privilege of clergy — is a disease, and contrary to the gospel. He has identified clericalism as a root cause of abuse and a major barrier to accountability.
On the other hand, he often cited clericalism as a reason why he did not believe women should be ordained; rather, he argued that the entire clericalist structure of ordination should change. Once again, he invited the church to discern this issue through multiple synods, rather than making unilateral decisions, and some lay Catholics feel he fell short here as well. Yet, he also included women in some decision-making positions that did not require ordination.
Despite the unresolved issues that many Catholics know are long overdue, Francis achieved far more than any modern pope in bringing the church back to its roots and heart: standing with the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalized. He captivated the minds of the youth and even lay lapsed Catholics who had left the church, waiting for a sign of progress to return.
Pope Francis’ last public words in his final Urbi et Orbi blessing, read by Archbishop Diego Ravellion, included this plea: “On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different from us, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life, and ideas! For all of us are children of God!”
Even on the last day of his life, he pleaded for trust and inclusion — for those who are different, and for migrants.
Francis was a breath of fresh air for those of us who are part of vulnerable communities. He was a living saint and will absolutely be missed. No matter who comes next, his legacy will reverberate for decades, if not centuries, to come.
Pope Francis, pray for us.
(Yunuen Trujillo, a Catholic lay minister, community organizer and immigration attorney, serves on the board of New Ways Ministry, an organization of Catholics that educates and advocates for equity, inclusion and justice for LGBTQ+ persons. She is the author of “LGBTQ Catholics: A Guide to Inclusive Ministry.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)
Notable people and events in the Jewish LA community.
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