It is with great sadness that we learned the news this Easter Monday morning about the death of Pope Francis.
Over the past three years, we, as representatives of Mountain Voices Project (MVP) and with sister organizations of the Industrial Areas Foundation, were privileged to meet him three times in his Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, each an encounter of 90 minutes or more.
It felt extraordinary that the successor to St. Peter would carve out such time to meet with a group of community organizers and leaders in the midst of a schedule that included preparing for grueling international travel, receiving visits from foreign leaders, and hosting the global synods. Not to mention issuing numerous apostolic letters and encyclicals.
Yet, there he was each time, sitting side by side with us in a circle without any of his staff in the room, engaging carefully around our experiences of organizing and sharing his own encounters. He never rushed the conversation.
He listened intently and attentively as we told stories about working at the margins to bring water and wastewater services to the border colonias, supporting and defending immigrant communities, developing job training programs to support families advance economically, among others. But most importantly, we spoke about our formation as public people dedicated to transforming local communities.
“What you’re doing is creating a culture,” he said. “You’re not looking to resolve things from one day to the next…That’s what I would emphasize. You’re creating a culture of solidarity.”
In one of the most poignant moments for MVP organizer Jorge Montiel, Pope Francis encouraged the group to keep doing this work, even though he understood the opposition likely faced, maybe even within the Church. “Surely they tell you that this is too political; or that it’s communism, right?” he said, “but when I read the protocol by which we will be judged, I see your work in it: I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was in prison and you visited me. This is the path.”
Each meeting felt like picking up on the conversation from before, starting with the encounter of synodality, then about the importance of formation and culture, and finally what it means to be political (though not partisan) and to exercise power responsibly. He reminded us of the words of former Pope, Saint Paul VI that “being political is the highest form of charity.” His only admonition to us came from the first visit: “Don’t rest on your laurels.”
He supported our work, particularly with immigrants as he endorsed the Recognizing the Stranger strategy in 20 dioceses. Last December he sent a blessing to commemorate the opening of the 50th anniversary for the West/Southwest IAF Region in San Antonio, saying: “I express my closeness to you and commend you to your prayers, while encouraging you to continue working in support of communities, especially the suffering and stigmatized migrant families. I keep in my heart the humbleness of the courageous testimonies shared by your leaders during our recent meeting in Rome.”
We will forever remember Pope Francis as an extraordinary leader who exercised power with humility, eschewed the trappings of pretense and prestige, and recognized the dignity of all persons, especially the poor and most vulnerable. Reflecting on our 2023 meeting with the Pontiff, Hilda Solano of St. Stephen's Catholic Church said, "I am deeply honored to have met our beloved Pope Francis, and to have shared with him a glimpse of the work of Mountain Voices Project. His support for our community organizing, in solidarity with others, was a true inspiration to me. His legacy of love and compassion will continue to guide many of us.”
We end here with a prayer he taught us in the final moments of our third visit, one that he recited every day for 40 years:
Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.
Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good
and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,
nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humour.
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy,
and to be able to share it with others.
– Prayer for Good Humour by St. Thomas More
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