Grazie, Papa
23 April 2025
A loving papa makes a world of difference.
In Pope—or Papa—Francis, the world was blessed with a churchman, culture- shaper, and papa who truly infused
Christ-like love into the human family. Like many of you, I appreciated his humility, his advocacy for the poor and marginalized, his emphasizing human need over institutional flow, his stand for the environment (with Earth Day yesterday), and his opening the Catholic world wider to women and others in ways rarely seen by previous pontiffs.
Rightfully, tributes for the Pope are plentiful.
Let me express my admiration by highlighting the list of New Year’s Resolutions Pope Francis offered the first year in his holy call.
- Don’t gossip.
- Finish your meals.
- Make time for others.
- Choose the ‘more humble’ purchase.
- Meet the poor ‘in the flesh.’
- Stop judging others.
- Befriend those who disagree.
- Make commitments, such as marriage.
- Make it a habit to ‘ask the Lord.’
- Be happy.
Not heavy on churchy language. But those are lifestyles by which anyone could really experience and share God’s love in neat ways, right? Click this link to read a bit more commentary on each resolution.
Since Earth Day was yesterday, it’s only fitting to praise Pope Francis for his inspirational teaching about the centrality of Christian care of our amazing planet.
His encyclical, Laudato Si: On Care of Our Common Home, is recognized by many as one of Christianity’s most poignant calls to pay attention to our ecological crisis. The Pope’s appeal certainly was well-rooted in the church’s long history of viewing God’s love and salvation part and parcel with all of God’s creation, hearkening back to Francis’s thirteenth-century namesake, St. Francis of Assisi. Please google “Laudato Si” if you’d like to discover more.
As one of my colleagues commented, “Francis’ 12 years as Pope is one of the best things that happened for Christianity in the past half-century. May his legacy long outlive his papacy.”
Finally, let me ask this: did any of you grow up in times when parents or grandparents did not want their Lutheran kids dating Catholic kids? I remember when I was a kid playing outside one Saturday. My dad was meeting in the house for multiple hours trying to help a Lutheran bride-to-be and a Catholic-groom-to-be work out a denominational conflict that had flared up. Ultimately, the wedding was called off.
I rejoice that partnership between Lutherans and Catholics is much healthier and friendlier these days.
It was neat to host Father John from Holy Trinity Catholic Church as one of our guest preachers in 2017, the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. And we are still blessed with the Joint Declaration on Justification from 1999, explaining how much Catholics and Lutherans share in our core beliefs.
In the spirit of that common bond, I not only give thanks for Pope Francis’ impact, but pray for upcoming Conclave, that our Roman Catholic partners discern a new pope that continues to bless both their church and the whole world!
In Christ’s hope,
Pastor Fritz