22-04-2025
Presbyterian Minister Steve Stockman recalls his meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican
A Presbyterian Minister has recounted his meeting with the late Pope Francis, who died on Monday, aged 88.
Rev Steve Stockman, from Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in south Belfast, met Francis in 2022 after being invited to Rome by the papal who had praised Rev Stockman's work at a cross-community festival.
Rev Stockman helps organise the 4 Corners Festival with Fr Martin Magill and it was celebrating its 10th anniversary at the time.
'I mean, I'm a Presbyterian from Ballymena, but it seems to me that there's an intrigue about that for me,' Rev Stockman told UTV about when he found out he would be meeting Pope Francis.
'He's not my holy Father and he's not the head of my church, I'm not a Catholic, but, maybe I would say if I was going to meet one pope, this would have been the one I wanted to meet.
'There was something about his papacy up until that point that I was very intrigued with.
'Francis of Assisi, he took the name, he had his charisma I think, and he also seemed as if he was reaching out beyond Catholicism to other denominations and being one of those other denominations that intrigued me.
'If anything, could I suggest quietly that he was doing a reformation within Catholicism as I could see it, so I was intrigued to see what he would be like to meet.'
