Editorial: Goodbye Pope Francis Hello Pope Leo XIV: From the first Jesuit Pope to the first Augustinian Pope

Easter Monday dawned with the sad news that Pope Francis had died. The first Jesuit pope and first pope from South America had been struggling with a respiratory illness for several weeks but had given his Easter blessing to the crowd at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square and to the world just the day before his death. This final blessing capped a legacy for which Jesuit institutions can be proud. He challenged us, particularly in Jesuit business schools, to re-examine what we were teaching in our business schools to be mindful of the poor and the environment. Goodbye, Pope Francis. Shortly after being elected Pope in 2013, he stirred consciences with his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium. In number 53 of that exhortation, he asks: “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality.” In that same document, in number 203, he acknowledges that “business is a vocation, a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life; this will enable them truly to serve the common good by striving to increase the goods of this world and to make them more accessible to all.” In his encyclical, Laudato si’ he further acknowledges the goodness of business. In number 129 of that document, he says: “Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving our world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the areas in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good.”