When Jorge Mario Bergoglio died on Easter Monday, quite near Rome, a Buenos Aires boy of modest means had set a number of firsts in his 88 years. He was the first pope of the Roman Catholic Church to be from Latin America and the New World, the first to take the name of Saint Francis, the first from the famously intellectual Jesuit order.

What will the historical legacy of Pope Francis be?

That’s our Question of the Week for readers.

Will he be recalled mostly for leading a surprisingly strong transition away from the conservative doctrinal teachings of his predecessor, the traditionalist Pope Benedict? When he advocated for the world’s migrants, for the poverty-stricken, when he warned of the dangers of climate change, did he break the old mold of the papacy?

Or was he in fact more of an upholder of tradition himself? Benedict, after all, upended many centuries of Vatican history by resigning as pope rather than serving in the Holy See until the end of his life.

Was Pope Francis’s supposed progressivism more a matter of personal style than actual change? When it comes to the long push for women being allowed into the priesthood, for instance, even the idea of women becoming deacons of the church never made it out of committee during his papacy.

What of Francis’s more welcoming attitude toward gays? Some say that the five most important words he ever spoke — “Who am I to judge?” — came in response to a question about gays in the priesthood.

What are your favorite memories of Pope Francis? If you are Catholic yourself, how did your feelings about him differ from those about other pontiffs during your lifetime? If you are not Catholic, did you pay more or less attention to him than to other popes? Was he right to travel so much to parts of the world — mostly Muslim countries such as Iraq, to South Sudan, to elsewhere in Africa — not often visited by other popes? Did he do enough to change the church — or did he do too much?

What kind of pontiff, from what part of the world, will be the next Bishop of Rome?

Email your thoughts to opinion@scng.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence. Provide a daytime phone number (it will not be published).