On Saturday Aug. 12, 2017, a “Unite the Right” rally was organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., in opposition to the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee by the city of Charlottesville. Participants in the rally, many drawn from far distances, chanted Nazi-inspired slogans like “Blood and Soil” and “Jews will not replace us!” A day fraught with tension was then tragically punctuated by bloodshed, when a driver, later identified as a member of a white supremacist movement, drove his car into a crowd of peaceful counterprotesters and one person died, while more than two dozen were injured.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, became the first Jesuit Pope when he was elected on March 13, 2013. In the time since his election, Pope Francis has made his mark on the modern church. As David Gibson notes, Pope Francis has called us “to reform ourselves in order to convert others.” From declaring a Year of Mercy, to writing Laudato Si, the encyclical on caring for the environment, Pope Francis is making his mark on the Catholic Church.