As the world mourned Pope Francis following the announcement of his death Monday morning, reporters who had covered Roman Catholicism's first-ever pope from the Western Hemisphere shared their reminiscences.
For me, the most memorable "Francis story" was his visit to the United States in 2015 two years after his surprise election to the papacy. Arriving in Washington D.C., Francis eschewed the limousine normally reserved for visiting dignitaries and chose to get around the nation's capital in a modest Fiat 500L — his surprise mode of transportation drawing swatches of publicity and instantly spiking sales in Fiats.
"And thank God he wasn't driving a Volkswagen!" my colleague Sabrina Fritz of German AWD Radio said at the time, referring to the ongoing scandal over the German auto manufacturer cheating on emissions tests.
Although there had been talk of past Popes addressing Congress during visits to Washington D.C., House Speaker John Boehner, a devout Roman Catholic, actually made it happen.
Boehner, who had been pondering whether to retire from Congress but had not made a decision, recalled in his memoirs that, "[t]he day the pope was there, that was the happiest in the 25 years I was in the capitol. Democrats, Republicans, House, Senate, staff – everybody was thrilled." Boehner, who also spent private time with the Pope, later concluded "[I]t's never going to get any better than today," and told his colleagues he would resign from Congress and move on with his life.
But not everybody was thrilled. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., also a devout Catholic, announced he would boycott the Pope's historic address because of his position on what Gosar called "the false science of climate change" and what the Arizonan believed was Francis' failure to speak out against radical Islam.
He added that he was "mortified and ashamed" by what could be absent from his address.
In a sense, Boehner and Gosar represented the polar differences among the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide about their spiritual leader. Many admired his humility, his outreach to the poor, his persona as the "Everyman Pope." But others in Francis' church were extremely upset about his comments extolling climate change—not to mention his sharp criticism of opponents of illegal immigration and his animosity toward capitalism and profit.
In 2017, after Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini enforced tough measures to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants from the Middle East into Sicily, Francis voiced his opposition and refused to meet with him. In so doing, he contradicted the stand of his predecessor Pope Benedict and Robert Cardinal Sarah of Guinea (now mentioned as a successor to Francis), against illegal immigration.
"As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality," he wrote, "No solution will be found for the world's problems or, for that matter, to any problems."
One who believed fervently in markets and took particular offense at the Pope's words was his fellow Argentinian, President Javier Milei. Before his election in 2023, Milei called the Pope "the antichrist" and "the devil's representative on earth." In 2024, the two reconciled and Francis embraced Milei during his visit to the Vatican. (On Monday afternoon, Milei announced a seven-day period of mourning for the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio.)
Perhaps the Pope's most unexpected (and to many, disappointing) shot at conservatives was his effort to thwart fellow Catholics from worshiping in the traditional Latin Mass with the priest facing the altar (ad orientum). The Mass, in which Catholics had worshipped worldwide for hundreds of years, was suddenly replaced in the late 1960's with a Mass in the vernacular languages of individual countries. Although many Catholics accepted the changes without question, many others were confused and disappointed.
Francis' two immediate predecessors as Pope sought to heal the pain traditionalists felt. Pope John Paul II, in the 1988 document "Ecclesia Dei," called for "wide and generous application" of previous orders permitting celebration of the Latin Mass. Pope Benedict's "Summorum Pontificum" in 2007 went further, stating that priests could freely celebrate the Latin Mass privately, and "in parishes where a group of the faithful attached to the previous liturgical tradition stably exists, the parish priest should willingly accede to their requests to celebrate Holy Mass."
In July of 2021, however, Francis issued his apostolic letter "Traditionis custodes" to curtail traditional worship — requiring the permission of bishops to say the Latin Mass and banning the 500-year old rite from celebration at funerals, weddings, and baptisms.
Younger worshippers, most of whom were born after the changes in the Mass commenced, discovered the Latin Mass for the first time and flocked to it. The Pope's sudden crackdown on the Latin Mass clearly disappointed and upset them. Many non-Catholics said they were confused by Pope Francis' decision that was apparently driving away eager worshippers.
As the world mourns Pope Francis in the weeks ahead, there will surely be much praise and fondness for his outreach to non-Catholics and the downtrodden.
But the Pope will also be remembered for the confrontation and resulting controversy over many of his actions and words.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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