Bishop Zubik, Pittsburgh area Catholics mourn passing of Pope Francis
Just one day after celebrating Easter Sunday, Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, passed away at 88.
Many Catholic parishioners in the Pittsburgh region said they were stunned when they woke up to the news.
Photos: Pope Francis through the years
'I was shocked this morning because I had just seen him on TV last night for the Easter, and it just floored me,' said Elaine Bukovan of Millvale. 'I didn't realize that, I knew he was sick but I didn't realize how sick.'
It also came as a surprise to Bishop David Zubik of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese.
'Pope Francis was our Father. He was the Pope, Pastor of the world, but in many ways, he was our Father,' Zubik said.
Zubik met with Pope Francis several times over the years. He recalled a meeting on Thanksgiving Day in 2019.
'From the moment we walked into a very stately room in the Vatican, it was very comfortable,' he said. 'The Pope made us feel very welcome. What happened then was not a surprise to me, because everything I've seen about him personally is one-on-one. He had a beautiful way of respecting every single individual, and he had a natural gift of making people feel they were very important.'
He also received a letter signed by the Pope congratulating him on 25 years of being a Bishop in 2022.
'It's that kind of personalism that you'd say, why in the world would the pope, busy as he is, think about doing something like that?' Zubik said. 'That's a very important treasure for me.'
Zubik has been a Bishop under three Popes — Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. He said each one had a different gift they gave to the catholic church and world.
'Pope John Paul II, who was Pope for 27 years, he was the philosopher. Pope Benedict was the theologian. Pope Francis was clearly a pastor. He was a very intelligent man,' Zubik said.
Zubik wants to focus on praying for Pope Francis in the coming days before a new Pope is elected.
Channel 11's Andrew Havranek asked him what he believes Pope Francis will be remembered for the most.
'One word. Mercy,' Zubik said. 'Every time he talked, he spoke about mercy. 'You know that that's exactly the relationship that god has for us, that no matter how many times we may have messed up for our lives, God's always open to giving us a fresh new start.'
Zubik will be holding a mass at St. Paul's Cathedral in Oakland for Pope Francis on Monday at 7 p.m. Additional memorial opportunities will be shared in the coming days at www.diopitt.org.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Catholic priest dies after falling ill during mass in Iberville Parish
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Catholics in the Baton Rouge area are mourning the death of a pastor. Father Greg Daigle, 66 of St. John the Evangelist in Plaquemine died on Sunday, June 8. The Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge announced his passing in a social media post. According to a post by St. John the Evangelist, Father Daigle fell ill during the 9 a.m. mass and was taken to a hospital. Despite their best efforts, the pastor passed away. Father Michael Alello, Pastor at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, said online that he was 'heartbroken.' Along with being pastor at St. John the Evangelist, the Diocese of Baton Rouge noted that Father Daigle had many roles over the years including pastor at Immaculate Conception in Lakeland and Parochial Vicar at multiple churches. There are currently no details about funeral services for Father Daigle. Pope Leo XIV appoints sixth bishop for Houma-Thibodaux area Catholic priest dies after falling ill during mass in Iberville Parish Will Chrysler's next 100 years be electrified? What to know about Trump's deployment of National Guard troops Reporter hit as LA officers fire rubber bullets at protesters Hamlin gets 3rd 2025 win at Michigan Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Raising school fees torments many Africans. Some expect the Catholic Church to do more to help
KAMPALA, Uganda — A crying parent with an unpaid tuition balance walked into the staff room of a Catholic private school and begged the teachers to help enroll her son. The school's policy required the woman pay at least 60% of her son's full tuition bill before he could join the student body. She didn't have the money and was led away. 'She was pleading, 'Please help me,'' said Beatrice Akite, a teacher at St. Kizito Secondary School in Uganda's capital city, who witnessed the outburst. 'It was very embarrassing. We had never seen something like that.' Two weeks into second term, Akite recounted the woman's desperate moment to highlight how distressed parents are being crushed by unpredictable fees they can't pay, forcing their children to drop out of school. It's leaving many in sub-Saharan Africa — which has the world's highest dropout rates — to criticize the mission-driven Catholic Church for not doing enough to ease the financial pressure families face. The Catholic Church is the region's largest nongovernmental investor in education. Catholic schools have long been a pillar of affordable but high-quality education, especially for poor families. Their appeal remains strong even with competition from other nongovernmental investors now eying schools as enterprises for profit. The growing trend toward privatization is sparking concern that the Catholic Church may price out the people who need uplifting. Akite hopes Catholic leaders support measures that would streamline fees across schools of comparable quality. Firm fee ceilings need to be set, she said. Kampala's St. Kizito Secondary School, where Akite teaches literature, was founded by priests of the Comboni missionary order, known for its dedication to serving poor communities. Its students come mostly from working-class families and tuition per term is roughly $300, a substantial sum in a country where GDP per capita was about $1,000 in 2023. Yet that tuition is lower than at many other Catholic-run schools in Kampala, where many students report later in the term because they can't raise school fees in time, Akite said. One of the most expensive private schools in Kampala, the Catholic-run Uganda Martyrs' Secondary School Namugongo, maintains a policy of 'zero balance' when a child reports to school at the beginning of a three-month term. This means students must be fully paid by the time they report to school. Tuition at the school was once as high as $800 but has since dropped to about $600 as enrollment swelled to nearly 5,000, said deputy headmaster James Batte. On a recent morning, there was a queue of parents waiting outside Batte's office to request more time to clear tuition balances. Daniel Birungi, an electrical engineer in Kampala whose son enrolled this year at St. Mary's College Kisubi, a leading school for boys in Uganda, said the emerging risk for traditional Catholic schools is to cater only to the rich. There is hot water in the bathrooms, he said, describing what he felt was a trend toward levels of luxury he never imagined as a student there in the 1990s. Now, students are prohibited from packing snacks and instead encouraged to buy what they need from school-owned canteens, he said. That has 'put us under a lot of pressure,' he said. Tuition at St. Mary's College Kisubi is roughly $800 per term, and Birungi doubts he will be able to regularly pay school fees on time. 'You can go there and see the brother and negotiate,' he said, referring to the headmaster. 'I am planning to go there and see him and ask for that consideration.' The World Bank reported in 2023 that 54% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa rank the issue of paying school fees higher than medical bills and other expenses. That's partly because education is largely in private hands, with the most desirable schools controlled by profit-seeking owners. Schools run by the Catholic Church are not usually registered as profit-making entities, but those who run those schools say they wouldn't be competitive if they were run merely as charities. They say they face the same maintenance costs as others in the field and offer scholarships to exceptional students. Regulating tuition is not easy, said Ronald Reagan Okello, a priest who oversees education at the Catholic Secretariat in Kampala. He urges parents to send their children to schools they can afford. 'As the Catholic Church, also we are competing with those who are in the private sector,' said Okello, the national executive secretary for education with the Ugandan bishops conference. 'Now, as you are competing, the other ones are setting the bar high. They are giving you good services. But now putting the standard to that level, we are forced to raise the school fees to match the demands of the people who can afford.' Across the region, the Catholic Church has built a reputation as a key provider of formal education in areas often underserved by the state. Its schools are cherished by families of all means for their values, discipline and academic success. In Zimbabwe, the Catholic Church operates about 100 schools, ranging from dozens in impoverished areas where annual tuition is as low as $150 to elite boarding schools that can charge thousands of dollars. But a legacy of inclusion is under pressure in the southern African nation due to fee increases at boarding schools and efforts by Catholic leaders to fully privatize some schools. Many boarding schools already charge tuition fees between $600 and $800, prohibitive for the working class in a country where most civil servants make less than a $300 per month. Privatization will raise tuition fees even higher, warned Peter Muzawazi, a prominent educator in Zimbabwe. Muzawazi, who attended Catholic schools, once was the headmaster of Marist Brothers, a top Catholic school for boys in Zimbabwe. That school in Nyanga is among those earmarked for privatization. 'I know in the Catholic Church there is a lot of space for reasonable fees for day scholars, but for boarders there is need to be watching because the possibility that they would be out of reach for the vulnerable is there,' he said. The church needs to be actively engaged, he said. 'How do we continue to guarantee education for the poor?' Efforts to privatize church-founded schools have sparked debate in Zimbabwe, which for years has been in economic decline stemming in part from sanctions imposed by the U.S. and others. Authorities say privatizing these schools is necessary to maintain standards, even as critics warn Catholic leaders not to turn their backs on poor people. 'Schools have now turned into businesses,' Martin Chaburumunda, president of the Zimbabwe Rural Teachers' Union, told The Manica Post, a state-run weekly. 'Churches now appear only hungry for money as opposed to educating the communities they operate in.' Rather than privatizing old mission schools, the church should invest in building new ones if it's useful to experiment with different funding models, said Muzawazi, a lay Catholic who serves on the governing council of the Catholic University of Zimbabwe. 'The bright people who advance the cause of countries are not the rich ones,' he said. 'We want every church and every nation to tap the potential of every person, regardless of economic status.' Muhumuza and Mutsaka write for the Associated Press. Mutsaka reported from Harare, Zimbabwe.
Fox News
9 hours ago
- Fox News
From Atheism To Becoming A Nun: Sister Theresa Aletheia's Story
She became an atheist at just fourteen years old due to the suffering she saw in the world and problems she observed within the Catholic Church. Fast forward to now, she's a nun who has fully devoted her life to Christ and her mission: finding God in the midst of misery and providing a safe space for those who have been hurt by members of the Church. Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble, co-creator of Sisters of the Little Way, joins Ben to discuss the epiphany that led her back to her faith, and the practice that landed her on the front page of The New York Times: 'memento mori,' a discipline centered around intentionally thinking about your death in order to ultimately improve the life you live. Follow Benjamin on X: @BenjaminHallFNC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
