On the day of Pope Francis’ death, the bishop of the Diocese of Lansing Earl Boyea is remembering the late pope as a man who was intensely devoted to the poor and marginalized.
In a statement, Boyea said Pope Francis challenged people to “stretch and even break the boundaries we often set to our charity.”
Father Steve Mattson is pastor of Lansing’s Church of the Resurrection and the Dean of the Lansing Deanery. He remembers Pope Francis as a defender of the common man.
“Not to be ivory tower, but to be real and realistic — to know the concerns, the burdens, the struggles, the sorrows, the hopes, the dreams of the people," Mattson said.
When asked what Catholics will be looking for in a new pope, Mattson said a pontiff must always be someone who is “strengthening brothers and sisters, knowing the basics of the faith and drawing close to the heart of Christ, which was the subject of his most recent encyclical.”
Pope Francis, the first non-European head of the Roman Catholic Church in more than a millennium, died early Monday at age 88.
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