Welcome to the First Things podcast.

On this episode, we remember Pope Francis, the man who inspired and sometimes exasperated Catholics of all ideological persuasions for 12 years.

Then, staff picks for the conclave.

I'm joined by First Things editor Rusty Reno and Senior Editor Dan Hitchens.

I'm Senior Editor Julia Yost. Thanks for joining us.

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday morning at age 88 after a 12-year pontificate. The first ever

Jesuit Pope and the first pope from Latin America, born

Jorge Maria Burgolio. Francis brought a new accent to the papacy, carrying his own suitcase,

paying his own hotel bill, eloquent on topics such as the environment, and the plight of migrants

and other oppressed groups. He was hailed as the great reformer by his biographer, Austin Ivory,

and was expected by many observers to check some items on the liberal Catholic wish list.

Divorce and remarriage, gay marriage. He sort of did, sort of didn't. One item he checked was

exasperate conservatives. First things was, I think it's fair to say, an early critic of

Francis from a doctrinal standpoint, and we took some criticism for that. And five or six years ago,

everyone caught up with our critique right around the time that we got kind of exhausted with it.

But we have published on Francis when it made sense to do so, and since his death, first things.com,

has provided ample and, I think, first things.com, has provided ample

and, I think, charitable coverage, beginning with Rusty's retrospective, the Jesuit Pope.

Rusty, can you summarize that?

Jesuit, I mean, St. Ignatius, the founder of the Society of Jesus, known as Jesuits,

he had a vision of an apostolate where men would

go through a spiritual formation that would clarify the one task that God was calling him to do,

...