Just a few months into his papacy, Pope Francis made a statement that drew global attention. Chatting with reporters in July 2013, on the plane back from his first foreign trip, he posited, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Francis, who died Monday at 88, was viewed as a progressive by many Roman Catholics. For people of varied faith traditions, he was an example of Christian love.
For the Rev. Lou Vallone of McKees Rocks, Francis was the pope he had waited an eternity for, Vallone said Monday.
Vallone, 77, was ordained 52 years ago, as the church was trying to put the reforms of Vatican II into practice. Those reforms attempted to meet people where they were — offering Mass in the language they spoke, making the church more welcoming to people of other faith traditions.
Retired since 2018, Vallone said Francis cared about each person — and not how each person was described or described themselves.
Francis cared less about making doctrinal or structural changes and more about finding ways to lead people toward salvation, Vallone said. He was “concerned more about nouns than adjectives.”
“If some people were not satisfied with that, there were at least large groups of people who were comforted by that,” Vallone said.
Sue Kerr, an advocate for the LGBTQ community, was among the people not satisfied. To her, Pope Francis didn’t go far enough.
“Somewhere there’s a kid hating themselves because of what Christianity tells them,” said Kerr, who runs the blog PGH Lesbian Correspondents. “What would the pope say to that kid?”
Kerr was raised Catholic and once worked as a lay missionary.
“I think that maybe as an individual person, he seems like a decent guy. But I also think his legacy can’t just be on whether he was a nice guy. He was in charge,” Kerr said. “He wasn’t just some rando monk that everyone loved. I don’t think the church has changed much. We deserve better. We deserve more.”
She’s fearful of who will be chosen to replace Francis, she said.
“Did Francis create the kind of change that will be lasting and systemic? Did he do enough to protect us?” Kerr asked. “My concern is the church is going to swing to a much more conservative pope.”
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Being the faith leader of 1.7 billion people — nearly 18% of humanity — is a daunting task, the Rev. Liddy Barlow said. She’s executive minister of Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, a multidenominational group in the region.
Barlow appreciates the expanded role that Francis gave to women in the church. He didn’t move to allow ordination of women to the priesthood, but he placed women in positions of more power than other pontificates.
He willingly listened to people with opposing views, she said.
“Pope Francis saw people as people, he didn’t see any group of people as just a headline or a monolith,” Barlow said. “Our lives are always more complicated than a simple slogan might have them appear. He found ways, authentically, to stay true to the doctrine of the Catholic Church while also recognizing people’s humanity.”
Francis is among the popes who have led the Roman Catholic Church in the 21st century, alongside St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013 to make way for Francis. Benedict died in 2022.
John Paul and Benedict were both “the smartest people in the room” when they were chosen, in Vallone’s estimation.
Francis was not, Vallone said, but he was the wisest.
“His wisdom was divine wisdom,” Vallone said.