The late Pope Francis' legacy lies with taking the teachings of the church and giving them a "compassionate and inviting face" while reaching out to marginal groups that had been feeling excluded, Monsignor Jim Lisante, the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Massapequa Park, New York, told Newsmax Sunday.
"He said, 'This church is here for everyone, of every background, of every culture, of every personal choice that they may make' [and was] reaching out to people who otherwise had been excluded, or at least they felt excluded," Lisante said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend," while discussing the funeral.
"The Pope basically put out the welcome mat to everybody, and even the choices of his trips that he made, or the cardinals that he named, were from places that never had a cardinal before," he added. "There's a cardinal now in Mongolia, which only has about 2000 Catholics. But he wanted to say to the Eastern churches, You are welcome here. You are part of the family."
Francis did take some strong stances and allowed himself to be interviewed without his comments being edited, said Lisante.
Even until the end, he remained active, coming out to bless people in Saint Peter's Square on Easter, the day before he died, Lisante added.
"He just wanted, until the very last moment of his life to be with the people he loved," he said. "I'm sure doctors would say, Look, you just came from a near-death experience. Stay home, rest, get medical care. Instead, he gets up on the popemobile and drives around to bless people and see people and bless their children," he said.
Francis also left a legacy of examining the issues of immigration, as he came from an immigrant family that left Italy to go to Argentina, said Lisante.
"His whole ministry has been saying, Look, law will be law. You have to decide how to get people legally into a country. But always keep in mind what it must be like to be a mother or father who have children, who are living in poverty or living in oppression, who have no hope for the future," he said. "And his basic question to all of us, when we sometimes get judgmental about the migrants, is, What would you do for your kid? What are you willing to do for your children? Aren't you willing to do almost anything, including breaking the law for the sake of protecting the children you love?"
Francis also did not only talk about the sanctity of life in the womb, but "brought us back to that constant ethic of life, that all life, from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, is worthy of respect and protection," said Lisante.
"I think that's what Pope Francis felt, too, that our job has to be consistently strong in defending every human life, whether it be that person on death row or the child in the womb, or the migrant coming across the border illegally. That everyone must be treated with the love of God."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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