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Callist and I attended the Basilica of the National Sanctuary of the Spotless Conception in Washington, DCthree times a big week.
Basilica is the largest Catholic church in America – and one of the 10 largest churches in the world. More than 3,500 people, and on Easter Sunday, was just a stagnant room.
As I watched people receive togetherness, I was hit by an extraordinary diversity of people in the basilica. Every three days of dress and ethnicity diversity was honoring the fact that Roman Catholic The church is really universal.
5 ways in which Pope Francis influenced the Catholic Church
As the basilica highlights on its website, with more than 80 chapels and orators, the diversity of the Catholic faith around the world is well represented:
“Among the nationalities and ethnicities represented in the Basilica are African, Austrian, Chinese, Cuban, Czech, Philippine, French, German, Guam, Hungarian, Indian, Irish, Italian, Korean, Latin American, Lebanese, Lithanski, Maltese, Polish, Slovene, and Vietvensese.
Pope Francis waved during the audience with the Hungarian pilgrims in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican on April 25, 2024. (Monteforte/AFP Fillipo via Getty)
The emphasis of the late Pope Francis, on the help of and dramatically loved all, encouraged the attraction and growth of the Catholic Church. In Africa and South Asia, there was a dramatic increase in those who adopt Catholicism. This was reflected during Easter Week in the basilica.
When Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose Francisco as his papal name in 2013, it was a clear signal of commitment to the papacy focused and dedicated to serving the poor. Just like St. Francis of Assias, Pope Francis was determined to abolish the spirit of Christ’s passion to help less happy, broken and marginalized. Just last Thursday, deeply ill and just four days after his death, Pope Francis went to Regina Caeli, a central prison in Rome, to meet with 70 prisoners. He washed his legs of 12 of them in the tradition of Christ that he washed the legs of the apostle. Pope Francis’ dedication to addressing everyone was a powerful signal of caring and inclusion that opened the door to the Church to those in the spiritual and physical need on the whole planet.
That openness to everyone was exposed to the Basilica last week.
Pope Francis Dead at the age of 88
It haunts me for a long time Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. claimed in his great August 28, 1963, “I have a dream speech” on Lincoln Memorial. He said, “I think it’s one of the tragedies – one of the shameful tragedies – that on Sunday morning at 11 o’clock one of the sexiest hours, if not the sexiest watch, in Christian America.”
Rev. King gave us a strong test for crossing outside the basic legal decades to a truly integrated society for all Americans. I think the Rev. King and Pope Francis She would be proud of the unity, honesty and kindness I witnessed last week.
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Maybe now it is that the most united watch in America is happening in the basilica and other large churches. When Callista and I attended Mass at the Saint Patrick Cathedral in New York CityWe had the same feeling that people from every background gather to worship in the community of faith.
We experienced the same sense of universality over three and a half years, served Callista as an American ambassador to Sveti Sene. With the second largest diplomatic representation of any country in the world (next to Washington, DC) sitting in a diplomatic corpus for a Christmas mass St. Peter’s Basilica He reminded us how diverse the world is – and how much this diversity was trapped in the Catholic Church.
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Despite his exacerbated health challenges, Pope Francis visited countries like Mongolia and Timor-Level. Continued the tradition of a permanent reach that St. Pope John Paul II pioneer. It is now routinely to understand the papacy far beyond the walls of the Vatican.
We need to continue to reach for every person of each background. Together we can seek salvation through faith in the heart of the Christian tradition. This would be appropriate to pay tribute to the memory of Pope Francis.
