Editorial: Pope Francis inspired with compassion, mercy

Boston Herald, Boston Herald on Apr 23, 2025

Published in Op Eds

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

If there was one moment that exemplified the work and message of Pope Francis, it would be this: the late Pontiff embracing Vinicio Riva, a man covered in the disfiguring growths of neurofibomatosis in November 2013.

Riva, like so many others, made his way to St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican hoping for a glimpse of the pope. He got so much more.

Riva, who died in 2024, told the Daily Mail “I’m not contagious, but he didn’t know that. But he just did it: he caressed me all over my face, and as he did I felt only love.

“He came down from the altar to see the sick people. He embraced me without saying a word. I felt as though my heart was leaving my body.

“He was completely silent but sometimes you can say more when you say nothing.’

“First, I kissed his hand while with the other hand he caressed my head and wounds. Then he drew me to him in a strong embrace, kissing my face.

“My head was against his chest his arms were wrapped around me. It lasted just over a minute, but to me it seemed like an eternity.”

Pope Francis wasn’t a politician courting votes, or a virtue-signaling celebrity earning social media clout. He was, quite literally, doing the Lord’s work.

That is the core message of the Pontiff’s life, one that may be drowned out as his death Sunday is filtered through the lens of media agendas. The Daily Beast ran the headline: “Pope Francis Dies at 88 the day after meeting JD Vance.”

There will doubtless be criticism of the Catholic Church, its doctrines, hierarchy and traditional values. That’s white noise; the enduring takeaway is that Pope Francis lived his faith and inspired others to do the same.

Too often that means swimming upstream in a nation, and world, that’s increasingly polarized, and where families are fractured because relatives cast opposing votes.

Pope Francis weighed in on hot-button issues, offering a view untainted by political or lucrative agenda. In his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si, he wrote of earth as our “common home” and called out environmental degradation.

The Pontiff evolved in terms of certain centuries-old Church doctrine. In his first year as Pope he shocked many by saying “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

There are those who dismissed the good works of Pope Francis because of the church’s stance on abortion, its troubled history, scandals, and general views on organized religion. That’s a shame.

“No one can be excluded from the mercy of God. The Church is the house where everyone is welcomed and no one is rejected,” he once said.

Catholics and non-Catholics were fortunate to have such a man who walked the talk, preaching forgiveness, compassion, and embracing those whom others shunned. The world is poorer for his loss.

There will, of course, be a new pope, with rampant speculation on what kind of Pontiff he will be. Whomever is the choice, we hope he will embody and build on the immense spirit of service and grace that was Pope Francis.