Tennessee religious leaders remember Pope Francis
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.

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.
