What was happening in the world the day Pope Francis passed away?

The day Pope Francis passed away, the world didn't stop—but it did lay bare. His departure, this Monday, marked more than the end of the pontificate of a spiritual leader of over 1.3 billion people. It also marked a symbol: the silence of one of the few global voices that still spoke with moral authority in an era saturated with noise, polarization, and cynicism.

That same day, financial markets opened with a mix of caution and nervousness: the effects of the prolonged trade war between the United States and China continued to reverberate through the global economy. What began as a tariff exchange—affecting products valued at over 550 billion dollars between both powers—has escalated into a systemic confrontation. Technological competition, the decoupling of strategic supply chains, and new geopolitical alliances are redrawing the map of global power. The IMF, aware of the impact, has reduced its global growth forecasts for 2025 to 2.8%, and warns that economic fragmentation could cost the planet up to 12% of global GDP in the next two decades.

But that day, it wasn't just the markets or the powers that spoke. The echo of a deep cultural problem was also felt more clearly than ever: the disorientation of a civilization that has begun to deny its own roots. Identitarianism, turned into a dogma in many public and academic spaces, has replaced debate with slogans, dialogue with cancellation. What began as a legitimate demand for recognition has decaused, in too many cases, into a logic of exclusion and permanent confrontation.

In this context, Christianity—the central axis of Western culture, source of its notion of human dignity, freedom, compassion, and forgiveness—has often been reduced to an object of mockery or disdain. While other religions receive cautious or reverential treatment in the name of intercultural respect, Christianity has been cornered as if it were an uncomfortable relic of the past. This paradox reveals not only a cultural inconsistency but a dangerous loss of reference points: fervently criticizing what served as the foundation for the rights and freedoms that are so vehemently demanded today.

What is needed today is not more ideology, but more common sense. Not more trenches, but more bridges. A return to common sense doesn't mean ignoring differences, but integrating them into a common societal project. The day Pope Francis died, the world kept turning. But it turned a little more alone, a little more orphaned, and perhaps also a little more in need of remembering who it is, where it comes from, and where it wants to go.