A month after she was named Marywood University’s first lay president last year, Lisa Lori achieved another deeply moving honor.
Lori met Pope Francis.
It happened during a May conference with other Catholic college presidents at the Vatican.
“There were 20 of us, and the majority of these university presidents were in office for a long time,” she said. “I was the only president-elect ... We go in, and he was wheeled into the room at the Vatican. And the emotion that overcame all of us was just something I've never experienced in my life. I mean, you just swelled with emotion. And there were people who were in tears. Just his presence was remarkable. You could feel it.”
After learning Pope Francis died Monday morning at age 88, Lori and other local Catholic leaders remembered him as a compassionate, merciful leader who focused on caring for people, especially people facing huge struggles.
In a statement, Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph C. Bambera said Pope Francis left behind “a legacy of love, compassion and mercy” that will continue to “inspire and guide” Catholics.
“Pope Francis will long be remembered as a shepherd who drew us all closer to the heart of Christ,” Bambera said. “During his 12 years as pope, and more than 50 years as a priest, Pope Francis made it his mission to share the endless compassion of God.”
Bambera said he’s often quoted the pope in his homilies because they “always pointed us toward the essential truths of our faith.”
“That God is love, that mercy is the cornerstone of our salvation, and that our mission is to reflect that divine mercy in our daily lives,” he said.
Lori said Pope Francis spoke for about 20 minutes last year.
“And then he said - it was just really funny - he said, ‘OK, I have time. Let's talk. You have any questions?” Lori said. “And we did. We spent the rest of the time just talking. He was not in a hurry. He took our questions, and he was really engaging.”
She remembered the pope talking about the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine and Rome’s relationship with China.
“He said – and these words struck me, and I quote them in a lot of speeches that I give - but he said, ‘The only time we should ever be looking down on someone is when we're lifting them up,’” said Marywood University President Lisa Lori about meeting Pope Francis last year.
“And he was really emphasizing, you know, that we just need to be all inclusive,” Lori said. “He said – and these words struck me, and I quote them in a lot of speeches that I give - but he said, ‘The only time we should ever be looking down on someone is when we're lifting them up.’”
Lori said the pope spoke a lot about “living the message” of the Gospels, the first four books of the Bible’s New Testament.
“He was not really a theologian. He's more about mission. He's about doing the work, a servant leader. He's a true servant leader.”
Sister Deirdre Mullan says she was blessed twice to listen to Pope Francis speak.
The first was while she served as a Sisters of Mercy representative to the United Nations in 2015. Sisters of Mercy is an international community of Roman Catholic women who dedicate their lives to serve those in need.
“It was a profound moment in my life,” Mullan recollected. “Every country, irrespective of creed, stood up to welcome him.”
The pope spoke critically about environmental degradation and called on world leaders to end the exploitation of vulnerable groups, including the poor, children and the elderly. Read a full text of his speech here.
“He gave a very challenging but gentle address to world leaders, and he had an urgent tone of a disappointed prophet,” said Mullan.
Pope Francis addressed the “Big Five” – China, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Russia directly with a stern but poised message to work together to make the world a better place for all peoples. The “Big Five” are the permanent members of the UN Security Council as established in 1945.
Mullan said what happened after the pope’s speech stuck out to her the most.
As she was leaving, she ran into a Sikh leader who also listened to the speech. She mentioned how awed she was by the pope’s message. His answer embedded into her heart.
“He said, ‘Today, the shadow of a holy man passed me by, and I feel blessed.’ That was just so powerful,” said Mullan. “It reminded me [that] it doesn’t matter what faith you are, the importance of gentleness and respecting [others is everything.]”
She watched the pope speak a second time in Rome a few years later.
The Rev. Jeffrey Tudgay, pastor of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton, visited the Vatican in March 2018 with other leaders of Catholic dioceses across the world to deepen connections with Rome’s administrative structure.
Toward the end, a top church official asked if they would like to meet Pope Francis.
“We were blown away,” he said.
After lunch, they went to St. Peter’s Basilica, where they waited about 15 minutes.
“And all of a sudden, the Holy Father, just on his own, came in,” Tudgay said. “No entourage, no nothing.”
For about 40 minutes, the group chatted with the leader of the Roman Catholic church, who joked about jet lag and the chronic lateness of Italy’s trains.
“He had this humor, very kind of cheeky, funny, just a great mind and a great wit. And he talked to us as women and men, priests, religious lay people about going back to our diocese to work as canon lawyers,” Tudgay said.
He reminded them that church law “comes from within (church) experience” and to seek justice when they returned home.
He led them to a beautiful painting that portrayed the Blessed Virgin Mary as the “undoer of knots.”
“He said, ‘You're to untie and unburden people through your practice of the law.’” He said. “And I just thought, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ I've never forgotten that.”
Tudgay said the pope’s death saddened him.
“I was sad when I saw it. But at the same time, I also know that he's with the Lord, he's with God forever,” he said.
The Rev. Joseph Marina, the University of Scranton president and a member of the Society of Jesuits, a priestly order, was ordained a priest in 2012. The next year, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit pope.
Serving at a church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, Marina said a parishioner greeted him with the news.
“We have a new pope, and he's a Jesuit and I really thought she was pulling my leg, because there had been so many jokes tossed around through the years of there’ll never be a Jesuit pope, or anything close to that,” he said.
Jesuits vow never to seek promotions, a reason they never one of their own as pope and why even Jesuit bishops are rare. In Pope Francis’ case, Catholic church leaders asked him, not the other way around.
“It was really a magnificent day for the Society of Jesus, where, you know, we're not supposed to be prideful or to brag about things,” Marina said. “But you know, I think we could make an exception for this one wonderful man, wonderful Jesuit, who never stopped being a Jesuit after he became Pope, and certainly you could see that in the many ways that he expressed his humility in the spirituality.”
Marina believes Pope Francis built an astounding legacy.
“His very first trip was to the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy, which clearly expressed his priority on taking care of migrants and refugees, his inclusivity,” Marina said.
The Catholic church bars women from serving as priests, but Marina said no pope has done more to promote women to higher offices in the church than Pope Francis.
The women in top positions include the undersecretary for the Synod of Bishops and the first governor of Vatican City, a nun. Francis also devoted an encyclical, a papal guidance letter, to climate change.
“Francis was all about the poor and the marginalized, and that includes not only people from poverty, but from violence, from economic oppression, people from the LGBTQ community who are suffering, anyone who exists on the margins, that's where he wanted to go,” Marina said. “It’s a philosophy that comes right out of the Gospels.”
Daniel Cosacchi, the University of Scranton's vice president for mission and mercy, said Pope Francis inspired him to write a book about the pope’s "models of Christian life.” He likened his death to losing a family member.
Besides being the first pope from outside Europe, Cosacchi said Pope Francis embodied his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, a champion of the poor and peace.
“Throughout his entire 12-year pontificate … He wanted a church of the poor … he was calling for peace in the world, even up until yesterday,” Cosacchi said.
Cosacchi said Pope Francis embodied the Jesuit principle that “Jesus is at the center of everything” and inspired love through his dedication to humility.
“All of these things really set him apart as a humble man, a man of simplicity, that I think a lot of people were able to look at him and say, ‘I can relate to that,’” Cosacchi said.
He said the pope’s legacy will likely endure because he has named almost 80% of the cardinals who will replace him.
“That's not to say that they're ideological clones of him, but I think that a lot of them … will look at his pontificate and say, ‘Look, we can't backtrack from this. We have to continue moving forward,'” Cosacchi said.
The bishop plans to celebrate a special memorial mass for Pope Francis on Tuesday at 12:10 p.m. at the St. Peter’s Cathedral. The public is welcome.
Due to Pope Francis' passing, PBS will make the following change to tonight’s schedule. In Their Own Words — “Pope Francis” has been added tonight (Monday, April 21), 9 - 10 p.m. The program will be updated to include the Pope’s final years.
