Nashville bishop, parishioners pray following pope's death: 'Honor Pope Francis' request'
Catholic Church leadership for Middle Tennessee remembers the late Pope Francis for his social advocacy, compassion for Nashville after a school shooting, and his request to pray for him.
'So, in this moment, we continue to honor Pope Francis' request. In the light of our hope in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, let us offer up a prayer,' the Rev. J. Mark Spalding, bishop for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, said in a statement Monday.
The Nashville bishop was referring to his meetings with Francis, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio and who died April 21 at age 88, when the pontiff appointed Spalding in 2017. In those meetings, 'he (Francis) asked of me and the faithful of Middle Tennessee was that we pray for him,' Spalding said.
Spalding and other diocesan priests are leading area parishioners in mourning Francis in the days ahead, also a time of ongoing celebration of the Easter holiday. Local Catholics are expected to attend Mass at the Cathedral of the Incarnation midday April 21 that Rev. John Hammond will preside over, and Spalding will be the celebrant at an official diocesan Mass. That latter service has not yet been scheduled.
The pope's death comes one day after a frail but determined Francis greeted thousands in St. Peter's Square after Easter Mass in his open-air popemobile − and just weeks after an extended hospital stay in which he battled bilateral pneumonia and other health issues.
He was elected pope in March 2013 after serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires, where he was born. He became the first pope from Latin America, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first non-European since Syrian-born Gregory III, who served in the eighth century.
Francis set out to reshape how the church operates, but not what it teaches. He leaves a legacy in which an institution that operates under a strict hierarchy made room for women and laity to voice concerns and for bishops to rigorously debate how to best implement church teaching. But those adjustments provoked traditionalists to mount a resistance that rallied supporters using ideological grievances, not ecclesiological ones.
Spalding highlighted some of these changes. 'Hallmarks of his papacy included advocating for the poor, environmentalism, interfaith dialogue, support for immigrants, and Catholic Church reform,' the Nashville bishop said in his April 21 statement.
More pointedly, Spalding remembered how the late pope sought to comfort Nashville in the wake of a mass shooting at The Covenant School in March 2023 that killed six people.
'Deeply saddened to learn of the recent shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, his Holiness Pope Francis asks you to convey his heartfelt condolences and the assurance of his prayers to all affected by this senseless act of violence,' Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in a statement on behalf of Francis at the time. 'He joins the entire community in mourning the children and adults who died and commends them to the loving embrace of the Lord Jesus.'
In addition to local clerical authority honoring Francis' legacy, other area community leaders did the same. Rep. Vincent Dixie, D-Nashville, the only Democrat in the state legislature who's Catholic, said in a statement April 21 that 'Pope Francis stood for love, compassion and inclusion.'
Dixie is a parishioner at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Nashville's only majority Black Catholic parish and historically known as a leader among local Catholics in community outreach and advocating for social justice. 'He (Francis) challenged world leaders to do better for humankind,' Dixie said. 'His death reminds me that God's will be done and not man's will.'
USA TODAY contributed to this report.
More: World mourns Pope Francis, a humble reformer who favored 'the poorest': Live updates
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on social media @liamsadams.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville bishop, area Catholics pray following Pope Francis' death
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