Remembering Pope Francis: Champion of the poor, the marginalized and the environment

May he rest in Peace

With heavy hearts, the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods acknowledge Pope Francis’s passing today. We join people everywhere in mourning for him, who became a symbol of hope, both in his person and in his ministry.  

From the moment he was introduced as pope and greeted the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, people knew he would be different. Almost immediately, he asked those present to pray for him, and he knelt in humility to receive those prayers.

Certainly, his deep humility lent credibility to the challenges he made to us during his pontificate to go to the margins, to reach out to those most in need of God’s mercy and hope.

For the Sisters of Providence, Pope Francis’ recognition of our common home, Earth, as one of the places most in need found resonance in our ministry of eco-spirituality and justice. His encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’, began a truly universal movement to change our very relationship with each other and with Earth.

In 2020, we and our wider Providence Community publicly committed to joining the worldwide Catholic community in responding to Pope Francis’ appeal to participate in a seven-year journey toward sustainability and integral ecology by developing a Laudato Si’ Action Platform.

Perhaps just as remarkable has been Pope Francis’s insistence that we become a synodal church. From the beginning, Pope Francis has seen the Synod on Synodality, first convened in October 2021, as “what the Lord is asking of us, a call from God to walk together with the whole human family.”

Radical inclusion, shared belonging and deep hospitality are recognized as the result of the listening that is at the heart of the synodal process. Pope Francis said, “Instead of behaving like gatekeepers trying to exclude others from the table, we need to do more to make sure that people know that everyone can find a place and a home here.”

Just yesterday, in what was to be his final Easter Blessing, Pope Francis again implored us to “hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God! … I would like us to renew our hope that peace is possible!” May Pope Francis’s death renew that hope in us, and may his memory stir us into continued action on behalf of the lost and the least.

In this time of mourning, we will join the global Catholic community in prayer and reflection. For the next nine days, Pope Francis will be included in the prayers and in the necrology read daily during liturgy at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.