The Healthy Spiritual Journey • May 2025 – The People's Pope

 “The only time that we are allowed to look down upon others is when we are helping them up.” – Pope Francis 

Bells tolled over all the earth on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025. They told the story that Pope Francis had died. The bells rang 88 times at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to commemorate his 88 years of life on earth. Within days of his election to the papacy, the Washington Post called him “the People’s Pope”; and he is still being called the People’s Pope as we mourn his death twelve years later. It seems fitting for a leader who wanted to be as inclusive as possible to be called the People’s Pope. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination, with 1.4 billion members globally; and Pope Francis wanted to help it become more inclusive. According to recent estimates, it grew almost 11 percent during the 12 years of his leadership. In these times, with declining membership in many denominations of Christianity, it seems that his brand of inclusivity was working. 

He was called the People’s Pope because while, like a Rock-star, the media broadcast his charismatic personality and magnanimous smile across the globe, Pope Francis was simply sharing Jesus’s message of love and inclusion. In the Christian Gospels, Jesus became known for His healing. Pope Francis wanted to emulate that healing. He wanted to find the people who were hurting or who had been forgotten. He wanted to help them heal – whether their needs were physical, mental, or spiritual. He wanted to reach as many people as he could. So, he traveled extensively with Jesus’s message of loving the neighbor near and far. He traveled to most every continent during his papacy – with forty-seven trips to a variety of countries. The People’s Pope wanted to be close to God’s children over all the earth. 

He was called the People’s Pope because, throughout his 12 years as pontiff, and with gradually declining health, he continued to preach the gospel message of faith, hope, and love – even on Easter Sunday, the day before he died. His legacy of caring included environmental stewardship, social justice for the poor, and passionate calls for peace. He saw a world in need of compassion. He was a servant leader who led with humility, simplicity, modesty and love. Following Jesus’s example, he washed the feet of prisoners, dined with the homeless, and spoke out against violations of human dignity. 

He was called the People’s Pope because he enjoyed laughter, soccer, hugs, mingling with the people, and open-air rides in his modest pope-mobile. More than all of those simple pleasures, however, it seemed that his greatest pleasure came from serving “the least of these”, described in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel in the Christian Bible. New York’s Cardinal Dolan said that Pope Francis had a magnet within him when it came to the people who needed help. He saw them. He brought them out of the shadows of darkness. He lifted them up. He gave them hope. The People’s Pope, like Jesus, preached and gave us examples of how to love our neighbor and how to take care of the least of these. We do not have to be Jesus or the Pope to do these simple things, just ourselves, to become the People’s People! 

In God’s love, 

Lanny F. Wilson, MD 

“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” – Matthew 25:40b