Religious leaders' experience with Pope Francis

Yahoo

25-04-2025

SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)— As the Vatican prepares for Pope Francis' funeral this weekend, local clergy members in our area are reflecting on interactions they each had with the pope.
28/22 News spoke with some of the clergy from saint peters cathedral here in Scranton who had the privilege of meeting Pope Francis, they say he was a wonderful man.
'He's good man, good man. We're going to miss him,' said Deacon Ed Shoener, Diocese of Scranton.
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Deacon Ed Shoener has met with Pope Francis not once, but several times, through his work in a ministry.
'We have a ministry called a catholic mental health ministry, which is a new ministry in the church that we started about five or six years ago, and we work with the pope's prayer network,' explained Deacon Shoener.
That partnership led to meetings in Rome, and a deeply personal encounter earlier this year.
'My wife was able to come, and our personal experience with mental health is that our daughter had bipolar disorder and died by suicide in 2016, and we had a prayer card made up, and I was thorough that my wife was able to meet the pope, and explain to him what happened, he was very sympathetic, understanding, and he took my wife's hand, blessed the card, it was beautiful, it was just wonderful.,' stated Deacon Shoener.
Deacon Shoener says Pope Francis helped bring awareness to mental health through the church.
For Father Tudgay, the experience was just as powerful meeting Pope Francis while studying canon law in Rome.
'We were brought into the Domus Santa Marta, and we waited about 10 minutes, and all of a sudden there was a glass door, and you could just kind of see this, like white, you know, person emerging. Of course, we knew as the holy father, and without any entourage, just in a very simple way, came into the room,' said Rev. Tudgay.
What followed was a heartfelt lesson about their mission back home.
'There was an image, Our Lady Undoer of Nots. He said, you're going back to your home diocese, and your task as canon lawyers is to go back and help people undo these knots, to allow the work of the church to uncomplicate people's lives. It was something that I'll never forget. It was really incredible,' stated Rev. Tudgay.
Father Tudgay and Deacon Shoener say their experiences with Pope Francis were extraordinary, and he will be deeply missed.
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