Dear Parishioners and Friends,
When I woke up this past Monday morning, a text message on my phone from Father John, posted at 5:30 AM, read simply: “Pope Francis has died.”
As one television news reporter mentioned that morning, it was like a member of the family had died. Indeed, Pope Francis was a member of our family – he was our Holy Father, someone who loved all his sons and daughters. For me, that is a perfect way to remember Francis, as a father who cherished all God’s children and wanted everyone (“Todos, todos, todos”) to feel that they were important, not only in God’s eyes, but as members of our family of faith.
As Pope Francis lived, so he died in simplicity, after having imparted a final blessing to the city and the world (“Urbi et Orbi”) on Easter Sunday. Having survived a serious illness that kept him in a Rome hospital for five weeks, Francis was obviously diminished physically, but he did not let his weakness prevent him from being with people whom he cared about the most: the poor, the incarcerated, and just ordinary people who happened to cross his path. I loved the brief video of him, wearing what looked like a serape in place of his papal cassock, being wheeled into St. Peter’s Basilica as he paused to greet and bless tourists.
Perhaps my favorite memory of Pope Francis is the moment, back in 2018, while visiting a parish in the outskirts of Rome, he engaged in a Q&A with a group of children. One of them, Emanuele, stepped up to a microphone, but suddently froze, telling a priest “I can’t do it.” Pope Francis encourage the boy to come up to the platform and whisper his question into the pope’s ear. The boy nervously made his way up to Francis, who held him close. The pope listened and then spoke a few quiet words to the boy, who then went back to his seat, wiping away tears from his eyes. “If only we could all cry like Emanuele when we have an ache in our hearts like he has,” the pope told the children. “He was crying for his father and had the courage to do it in front of us because in his heart there is love for his father.”
Pope Francis then explained that Emanuele’s father, an unbeliever, had died recently and wanted to know if his father was in heaven. “How beautiful to hear a son say of his father, ‘He was good,’” the pope told the children. “And what a beautiful witness of a son who inherited the strength of his father, who had the courage to cry in front of all of us. If that man was able to make his children like that, then it’s true, he was a good man. He was a good man. That man did not have the gift of faith, he wasn’t a believer, but he had his children baptized. He had a good heart,” Pope Francis said. The pope encouraged Emanuele to “talk to your dad; pray to your dad.”
I would like to think that Pope Francis is speaking with Emanuele’s father right now in the house of the Father where there are many dwelling places, as Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel.
During his 12-year pontificate, Pope Francis made an indelible mark on the Catholic Church, especially in the way he challenged us to think and act more like Jesus himself. Some people, Catholics included, thought of him as too radical, but I prefer to think of him as merely preaching the Gospel – in all its radical dimensions. In other words, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me”(Matthew 25:40).
In closing, I would also like to offer my thanks and deep appreciation to everyone who contributed to the beautiful and deeply moving liturgies of Holy Week. I have heard from many parishioners how much they appreciated the work and effort that was evident in our celebration of the Sacred Triduum. I pray that these days of Paschal joy, although tempered by the sadness of the death of Pope Francis, will renew our faith in the Resurrection of Christ.
Blessings on your week ahead!
Fr. Tim Shreenan, O.F.M.
Pastor