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The world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics- and quite a few people of other denominations- were saddened Monday to hear of the passing of Pope Francis at the age of 88. He had been in ailing health in recent months from a bout with pneumonia and other respiratory conditions, and he passed just hours after delivering one final Easter Sunday blessing.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina in 1936, he eventually replaced Pope Benedict XVI when he resigned in 2013, thus becoming the first Argentinian pope, the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope to choose the name Francis, for his devotion to the poor. Several guests appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to offer their recollections and understanding of the pontiff.
Award-winning columnist Mike Kelly of NorthJersey.com recalled for host Larry Mendte when Francis made a trip to Cuba in 2015, and he saw the Holy Father in a time and place where he least expected it: “I’m down there and the Pope is going to speak there at the Plaza del Revolucion …it’s dawn and I’m standing there, and I’m really tired and figuring I have about four hours to wait until the Pope finally shows up. All of a sudden, across the plaza, I see this golf cart, and a guy in white, and I’m thinking, no, this can’t be- and sure enough, it was the Pope, riding around the huge asphalt-like parking lot, in a golf cart, high-fiving people who got there early. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to high-five him, but it was really quite a sight.”
Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino is an alumnus of a Jesuit university (Fordham), so he shared his thoughts on where the Catholic Church heads as it replaces the first Jesuit Pope: “When Jorge Bergoglio was picked in the conclave of 2014 (sic), nobody saw that coming because he is more progressive, and every cardinal-elector had been appointed by Benedict XVI and John Paul II, who were very conservative. So, you just don’t know… but we could have a surprise in an African pope because African bishops are very conservative.”
But Francis had a perfect touch for the common man, and so Natalie Migliore went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to ask everyday New Yorkers about him. While Cardinal Timothy Dolan offered his recollections on the man who was essentially his boss, one mourner perfectly admitted how he related to Francis’s disdain for pomp and pageantry: “He was a people’s Pope. He was traveling on the subways when he was in Argentina, he traveled very humbly in his days as Pope. I liked him because he was more of a human being than just a figurehead.”
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