By Barb Arland-Fye
Editorial
Bishop Dennis Walsh remembers meeting Pope Francis last September at the Vatican during the Annual Course for New Bishops. The bishop-elect was just one week away from his ordination and installation as Bishop of the Diocese of Davenport.
“Francis came into the Clementine Hall. They wheeled him in on a wheel chair. Once he came into the room, he stood up, they handed him his cane and he threw his arms up in the air to greet us. He walked to his chair in the middle of the room. He did not have any prepared remarks. He simply invited the new bishops to ask him anything we wanted to ask. He answered questions for an hour and a half.”
“What impressed me during that time was that he was not answering questions as a scholar or a teacher, but rather as a pastor. His answers showed his tremendous love and affection for people and he simply wanted us, as the next generation of bishops, to care for the people in the same pastoral way.”
After answering the questions, each bishop had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis. “When I got to the Holy Father, he immediately took my hands into his. I said to him in Spanish that I was grateful to him for his appointment of me as Bishop of Davenport. I told him that I would be returning to the United States the following week and would be ordained a bishop on the following Friday. I asked him for his prayers. He thanked me for saying yes. He smiled at me and gave me a rosary.”
“Throughout the whole time with him, about two hours overall, he was very relaxed and warm. It was clear that he enjoyed this part of his ministry. It was all very informal, but the whole encounter seemed genuine and authentic.”
Bishop Walsh’s encounter with Pope Francis serves as one example of the Holy Father’s commitment to see Christ in others and to be Christ to others. He showed all of us — from the leaders of our Church to the people on the margins of society — how to be Christ to others by practicing what he preached.
“The world has lost a beautiful leader, Pope Francis, who was one of very few people who lived the values of Jesus (God’s peace be with him),” said Lisa Killinger, immediate past outreach coordinator, Muslim Community of the Quad Cities. “Pope Francis was inclusive and humble, washed the feet of those who were suffering. Chose not to live in the opulence afforded people with his title, but rather to live simply. He reminded us not only to care about the sick, the poor, the needy, but also to help them in whatever way we could. We would all benefit by following God’s guidance on this as he did.”
Pope Francis developed warm relationships with Muslims, Jews and people of other faith communities. In May 2019, Rabbi Abraham Skorka of Argentina shared the story of his friendship with Pope Francis during a talk in Grinnell. The talk covered the two religious leaders’ steadfast commitment to interfaith dialogue. Earlier that year, “Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque and university, signed the document on ‘Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’ during an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates” (OSV, 4-21-25).
On the day of the Holy Father’s death, the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities sent a message of condolence. It read, “Jewish Federations extend our condolences to the Catholic community over the death of Pope Francis, who was a friend to the Jewish community and across religious traditions. He repeatedly condemned antisemitism as a ‘sin,’ and worked to build upon ‘Nostra Aetate,’ the landmark document which transformed Catholic-Jewish relations 60 years ago.”
Pope Francis encouraged us to recognize everyone — no exceptions — as brothers and sisters. “If we were to invite someone to share our Sunday dinner, after sharing in the Eucharistic table, the Eucharist we celebrate would truly become a mark of communion,” he said in his message for World Day of the Poor (Nov. 19, 2023). “If it is true that around the altar of the Lord we are conscious that we are all brothers and sisters, how much more visible would our fraternity be, if we shared our festive meal with those who are in need!”
In his Easter homily message this year, he wrote that people “must look for Jesus in someplace other than the tomb … We must take action, set out to look for him: look for him in life, look for him in the faces of our brothers and sisters.” Jesus “is present everywhere, he dwells among us, he hides himself and reveals himself even today in the sisters and brothers we meet along the way, in the most ordinary and unpredictable situations of our lives.”
When we see everyone as brother and sister — including the poor, the lonely, the immigrant, the prisoner, the elderly, persons with disabilities — we become, like Pope Francis, Christ to others.
Barb Arland-Fye, Editor
arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org
