AS I write this, my eyes are swollen from sobbing, as I deal with what feels like a death in the family. Minutes ago, I learned that Pope Francis, the father of all Catholics, died at 7:35 am on Easter Monday, April 21, after a health debacle which we believed he had survived, enough to hold Easter mass and pray in particular for an end to all violence. But God wanted him home.
He was 88, and will be fondly remembered (although not by his critics, nor by conservatives who want the Church to remain elitist and exclusive) as the man who opened up the institution to offer acceptance and love for all. As a practicing Catholic, I have been greatly inspired by his example of compassion over doctrine. In other words, I am never going to wave a Bible and say someone is going to hell because of gender, race, faith, or even some past sins. This Pope opened up his arms and, like Jesus, let everyone come into them, to find understanding and solace.
I remember how I had visited Rome after I completed my cancer treatment in 2014, on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving. My friend, Cenacle Sister Meny Vera Cruz, advised me to go early to St. Peter’s Square to secure a good spot to see the Pope up close as he said hello to the crowd, moving around in his open popemobile. It was raining lightly, but people in the front rows eschewed umbrellas so the people in the back could see, and we opted for raincoats and parkas instead.
Sure enough, he came close enough for me to see the lines on his gentle face, as the popemobile zipped between lanes and people chanted, “Pa-pa Fran-ces-co!” Never had “Papa” felt so authentic. The Pope was positively magnetic and charismatic, and he carried the mantle of spiritual leadership with so much sincere joy. In fact, after the gathering, people were smiling and hugging each other; I even helped an elderly American couple step off the chairs they were standing on. “It’s my birthday today, and this is the best birthday gift ever!” exclaimed the woman.
He came close enough for me to see the lines on his gentle face, as the popemobile zipped between lanes and people chanted, ‘Pa-pa Fran-ces-co!’ Never had ‘Papa’ felt so authentic
Much has been written about Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first pope from outside Europe in some 1,000 years. He was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and even worked as a bouncer and a cleaner before becoming a Jesuit in 1958. Forty years later, he was the Bishop of Buenos Aires, and was later made a cardinal by John Paul II. He was elected Pope on March 13, 2013.
Consistent with his background in the social activism that characterized the Latin American Church, which thrived despite tyrants and dictators, Pope Francis was soon rubbing doddering old cardinals the wrong way. He told Church leaders that they had to listen to the laity and not just order them around, reiterating how synodality meant “walking together,” as prescribed by the groundbreaking Second Vatican Council.
He endeared himself further to many circumspect Catholics by relaxing the rules of marriage; remarried Catholics ceased to be condemned to a life without Holy Communion. When he said gay couples could be blessed, though not married, he allowed millions of LGBTQ+ Catholics (no, that is not an oxymoron) to return to the Church. I remember how his fellow Jesuit, author and leading proponent of such inclusivity, Fr. James Martin, lost no time in blessing the unions of many gay friends. Pope Francis has frequently addressed LGBTQ+ youth, assured them of the Church’s welcome, and encouraged their families to accept them. In 2023, he famously declared that laws criminalizing homosexuality were wrong because “persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them.” It was mind-blowing, indeed.
I respected this Pontiff even more when he took on climate change and environmentalism in his cyclical Laudato Si, where he stated that we all have a moral obligation to take care of the earth, “our common home…Our ‘dominion’ over the universe should be understood more properly in the sense of responsible stewardship…Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations.” He explicitly declared that “environmental destruction is a sin.” What an undeniable, massive truth.
In ‘Laudato Si,’ he stated that we all have a moral obligation to take care of the earth, ‘our common home…Our “dominion” over the universe should be understood more properly in the sense of responsible stewardship’
He was so accepting and embracing of all different cultures and people that, in his 2020 encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, where he criticized how a “throwaway culture” had allowed people to disregard the marginalized, he identified Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu, and Mahatma Gandhi among his “idols.” A Black Baptist minister and civil rights fighter was an idol of the Pope—let that sink in.
In a yellow raincoat among the ‘Yolanda’ survivors in Tacloban (photo by AFP/Johannes Eisle, reprinted from the GMA website)
During his visit to the Philippines in January 2015, I was grateful to have seen him up close earlier in Rome, and thus enjoyed the events on television instead. I remember seeing him sigh in visible compassion at the sight of the “Yolanda” survivors in Tacloban, who came out in full force in the rain to meet him in yellow raincoats, the same one he was wearing. Children called out to “Lolo Kiko,” even during the Mass at Luneta that drew almost 7 million people. Most touching, when a young girl, Gyzelle Palomar, cried in his arms during the gathering at the University of Santo Tomas and asked the Pope point blank, “Why does God let children suffer?,” he replied, in all humility, that he did not have the answer.
Just when you thought he couldn’t be more revolutionary, in 2017, he acknowledged how slow the Church had been to respond to sexual abuse cases by those among its ranks; by 2019, he had lifted the canon law on pontifical secrecy, which basically protected such perverts hiding behind cassocks. For many people I know who, like me, have been objective about the institution while keeping our faith—shout-out here to the Philippines’ own “Pajero bishops,” and my favorite, the monsignor who was caught entering a motel with a minor in 2017—this was what turned us into sworn fans all over again. As a friend told me, “He made me decide to stay a Catholic!”
Only some two months ago, during Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Pope cautioned the US President against “hatred, discrimination or exclusion,” calling the chaotic deportation plan a “disgrace.” ‘Nuff said. A Pope with balls, even.
Speaking of Trump, I sob in near panic as well as pain. In this time of unprecedented division and destruction, so much war, and the rise of fascism, most especially in the alleged (by them) most powerful nation on earth, the world desperately needs its spiritual leaders. We need the guidance and the inspiration so badly, which is why losing Pope Francis at this juncture hurts even more. It will be profoundly difficult to fill the shoes of the fisherman, to continue what he started and not crumble under any pressure to again withdraw, hide behind archaic laws, and build up walls. May God—and Pope Francis’ spirit—guide the next Vicar of Christ, who has a monumental job ahead of him.
Then again, in his 12 years as Pontiff, Pope Francis had already accomplished many lifetimes’ worth of God’s work. Critics call it excessive liberalism; I call it respect for and acceptance of every other living being on earth. And for this, I feel, he is assured of a special place in heaven.
Speaking of heaven, they ask for miracles performed in a holy person’s name before he or she is considered for sainthood. So what now, when Pope Francis’ entire leadership was in itself a miracle?
A portrait of the Holy Father laughing, which the author keeps in her phone
I will miss you so much, Papa Francesco. You were truly the face of God on earth.
