A lecture I was invited to give by Zoom to the Archdiocese of Boston’s Social Justice Convocation on November 13, 2021. I was given a warm welcome by Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Fr Bryan Hehir gave a thoughtful response. At the heart of the talk is what I describe as a shift in Francis’s reading of the signs of the times following the outbreak of the pandemic. From a sombre view of the direction of history prior to March 2020, the Pope began to discern a new hope in what he saw as an awakening “from below” of fraternity and solidarity in the world. I see Let Us Dream, his address to the popular movements and his calling of the global synod as signs of what I call “the hour of the people”, and spell out some of the implications for the Church’s pastoral ministry.