Tennessee religious leaders remember Pope Francis
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Pope Francis meeting with Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding in 2019. Photo: courtesy of the Diocese of Nashville
Tennessee religious leaders remembered Pope Francis, who died Monday at 88, as an open-hearted figure whose compassion and devotion to social justice had a worldwide influence.
Zoom in: Catholics across the state praised Francis for his focus on ministering to everyone, regardless of their circumstances. Francis made a habit of venturing beyond the Vatican.
- Knoxville Bishop Mark Beckman remembered Francis visiting a juvenile prison in Rome to wash the young people's feet.
- Last year on Holy Thursday, Francis washed inmates' feet from his wheelchair. He also ministered to Muslim refugees.
What they're saying: "A great deal of the gift of Pope Francis' papacy has been his focus on mercy and on being a pastor for the whole Church and caring for, especially, those who are on the peripheries or marginalized," the Rev. Eric Fowlkes, pastor of St. Henry Church, said in a statement shared by the Diocese of Nashville.
State of play: Francis was the first pope to come from the Jesuit religious order. The Rev. Bruce Morrill, who is also a Jesuit and a professor at Vanderbilt University, said Francis embodied the order's tenets through "an irrepressible urge to move out to the frontiers or margins."
- In a statement to the diocese, Morrill said Francis' example inspired his life of "working beyond the comfortable boundaries of Catholicism" as a professor at Vanderbilt's divinity school and a minister to prisoners across the state.
Flashback: Francis selected Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding in 2017. Spalding praised Francis' support for environmentalism, interfaith dialogue, immigrants and church reforms.
The bottom line: "In my two meetings with him, all that he asked of me and the faithful of Middle Tennessee was that we pray for him." Spalding said in a statement. "So, in this moment, we continue to honor Pope Francis' request."
The Cathedral of the Incarnation planned to pray for Francis during a Monday afternoon Mass.