The night Pope Francis died, he made the same phone call he’d been making every evening for over a year: to Holy Family Church in Gaza City, checking on the congregation and the refugees sheltering there- including many Muslims. A few hours before, he sent out his final Easter message, calling for Catholics around the world to “come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace.” Francis spent his 12 years as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics reaching out to other religions, taking bold stances on behalf of the most oppressed and marginalized people in the world, openly criticizing the U.S. imperialist empire, and calling Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people for what it is.

We don’t think religion is the key to ending injustice, and certainly the Catholic Church has a long history of perpetuating imperialism, but we’re inspired by many people of faith whose righteous convictions compel them to stand with the people of the world. Francis’ legacy demands that Catholics around the world confront the future of their faith, and invites all people of conscience to consider a moral challenge: Will you stand with the poor, the oppressed, the persecuted, and the peacemakers? Or will everything that Jesus of Nazareth lived and died for be boiled down into religious justifications for the JD Vances of the world?

The most powerful men in the Church are gathering to choose the next pope, with some predictions saying they’ll choose a more right-wing leader to “correct” the changes Francis made. Regardless of what new pope is announced in the next few days, every ordinary Catholic with a conscience can see this moment as a fresh invitation to embrace a righteous struggle against imperialism, to speak out rather than fall in line, and to fight for the future of children in Gaza and across the world.