Coffee & Writing

by Miriam Kavanagh

When I woke up, I glanced at my phone and a few lines from the New York Times had me shout “Oh no!”

Sure enough, Pope Francis had succumbed to a variety of sicknessess, namely pneumonia, the day after Easter at age 88.

Common sense and simplicity in a complicated world was what he did best. He fiercely fought for the homeless. After speaking at a 2014 joint session of Congress, the first pope to do so, he didn’t head to a fancy luncheon with wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing as the company, he went to a homeless shelter where the forgotten are the company.

“We can find no social or moral justification — no justification whatsoever — for lack of housing.”

Francis put his money where his mouth is. He had a palace in the Vatican converted into a homeless shelter in 2019.

He snuck out in the middle of the night, dressed as a regular priest to work among the homeless, share meals with the homeless, spend time with the homeless. Francis probably drove his security detail nuts by disappearing in the middle of the night.

Pope Francis also had a beautiful love of all creation. His Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home rocked not just the Catholic world when it came out, it was a common sense guide of helping the poorest and most vulnerable to helping the planet.

“We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.”

It was simple and it made perfect sense to not live in the papal palace, to not participate in the the pomp and circumstance. Being kind to people and making sure he was doing his bit to help the planet, there was nothing extraordinary about it–it’s just what you do.

He comforted children, especially those with tough questions:

As the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis visited the city’s Catholic parishes and took questions from children. In April 2018, a young boy named Emanuele struggled to ask, so Francis invited him to whisper in his ear. The boy asked if his father, an atheist, had gone to heaven. “Does God abandon his children when they are good?” the Pope asked. “No!” the children shouted. He replied: “There, Emanuele, that is the answer.”

-from Memorable Moments of Pope Francis

Goodbye, Jorge Bergoglio, the man who sat idly by on the subway while he was a Cardinal to go to work like everyone else, the man who would not stand on an elevated platform when he became Pope Francis because he didn’t want to be above his brother Cardinals who had just elected him pope, and the man who always lowered himself to eat with those on the streets. You did well good servant, we miss you down here but we know you are loved up there.