Pope Francis died early this morning, Easter Monday, 2025.
I
am going to miss Pope Francis’ smiling face and his attention to the poor. But, I remember something else about him that I think I will miss the most.
After his election, he came out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and stood there, a bright white figure, alone, waving to the immense, happy crowd in St. Peter’ Square. Below him, thousands of people were all stirring about, cheering him and waiting for his first words as pope. They wanted to receive his inaugural papal blessing. They never expected that he would ask them to do something first, before he blessed them.
Jorge Bergoglio, only yesterday Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, stood there above them as the crowd quieted and listened to his first words as pope: “Please pray for me,” he said. Then, he paused and waited with his head bowed.
As time passed and silence descended on the throng, they slowly began to realize that he actually meant it: He would not bless them now but that they would bless him now. From that day on, at the end of his talks in the Vatican and at countless speeches throughout his international journeys, Pope Francis would always finish his talks, look up from his notes and then say with urgency : “And, please do not forget to pray for me.”
I also remember that on the day after he was elected, he left the Vatican and went back to the Roman hotel where he had been staying in order to pay his bill. Later, He phoned his delivery boy in Buenos Aires, Argentina and told him to to cancel his subscription to the local newspaper. He also decided to live in two rooms at the Vatican hotel, Casa Santa Marta, and not in the papal palace.
Pope Francis, the Peoples’ Pope. (Image by Manfred Kindinger)
At his appearances, he used the moments before and after his official talks to meet with whomever was around, with children, the sick, those in wheelchairs and with everybody he could. He was a genuine pastor.
Pope Francis was an intensely humble man who loved individuals. not just crowds. He was a brilliant thinker as his official papal encyclicals show, but he never used his words or position to humble others, unless they were authorities who he saw as oppressive. Famously, he berated “anyone” who wanted to build a wall to keep people out, aiming his comments at President Trump who at that time was touting the building of a wall to keep migrants from crossing the border with Mexico into the U.S..
I will remember that on Holy Thursday each year he would wash the feet of men and women at one of Rome’s prisons. How would you feel if the pope knelt before you and began to wash your feet? Do you think that anyone touched by him in this way ever forgot that moment?
I am going to miss most of all the humility of the man who was, in his heart, the people’s pope. I am going to miss the man who I believe was most like Jesus in his courageous living out of the Gospel.
