Others will write about Pope Francis’s legacy in the context of public life and global politics; I’d like to discuss how this feels as a lay Catholic losing their spiritual leader — one who sought to make himself as accessible as a local parish priest.
Before blessing the pilgrims in Rome on the night he was elected as pope, Francis asked for the people to pray for him. This desire for closeness with the flock was a hallmark of his papacy. He frequently told priests, “The shepherd should smell like the sheep.” He lived this out in profound ways — washing the feet of incarcerated men and women in Rome, embracing people with severe disabilities, and seeking encounters with people of all walks of life….
Pope Francis has been there to remind us of our shortcomings — individually and collectively — but his legacy will be how he made so many of us feel loved and valued in the eyes of the Lord. In opposing “throwaway” culture, he not only warned us against throwing people aside; he argued that none of us deserve to be discarded.
In his speech to World Youth Day in 2023, Francis told young people, “There is space for everyone, and when there isn’t, please, let’s work so that there is…”
Departing from his script, he said, “Todos. Todos. Todos.” Everyone.
There is no greater summary of the Francis papacy than that one word, repeated three times for emphasis: Todos. Todos. Todos.
Millennial 