Pope Francis was a master of making emotional connections through his actions, resulting in viral moments that rocketed across the internet. He was, at heart, a pastor to wounded souls.
From consoling a young boy whose father had recently died, to preaching in an eerily empty St. Peter's Square during the pandemic, Francis understood how his actions, as much as his words, could preach the Gospel.
Highlights include:
- After addressing a joint session of Congress — the first-ever for a pope — in 2014, Francis didn't do the usual D.C. thing: have lunch with powerful people. Instead, he headed to a homeless shelter in the nation's capital, where he dined with 300 people served by Catholic Charities. Before lunch, the pope reminded the gathering that Jesus was homeless, too, when he came into the world. He then earned cheers by saying, "We can find no social or moral justification — no justification whatsoever — for lack of housing."
- In 2016, Pope Francis and Orthodox Christian leaders visited a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. But the pope did more than call attention to the issue. He brought 12 Muslim refugees from Syria — whose homes had been bombed during the Syrian war — home with him to the Vatican on the papal plane.
- As the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis visited the city's Catholic parishes and took questions from children. In April 2018, a young boy named Emanuele struggled to ask, so Francis invited him to whisper in his ear. The boy asked if his father, an atheist, had gone to heaven. "Does God abandon his children when they are good?" the Pope asked. "No!" the children shouted. He replied: "There, Emanuele, that is the answer."
- Pope Francis was one of the first world leaders to publicly acknowledge the pain and anxiety of the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, he stood alone in St. Peter's Square as the evening sky bled from blue to black, and offered a meditation on the crisis facing the world — acknowledging the "thick darkness" that had settled, but also reminded people that "we are all in the same boat." Millions of people watched the address online.
Revisit more of those moments here.
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