Pope Francis meant a lot to Catholics in the Philadelphia region, but few can be more thankful to the late pontiff than Rob Forney.
He traveled from Tennessee to attend 2015’s World Meeting of Families, and he met his future wife near the Franklin Institute during the papal Mass, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
“The pope’s my wing man,” Forney, 33, who now lives in Harleysville, Montgomery County, told Metro after praying for Francis during a service at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Center City on Monday.
Francis died Monday morning – hours after Christians around the world celebrated Easter – at age 88 after suffering a stroke that put him into a coma and caused an irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse, according to the Vatican’s news service. He had been in poor health, having recently been hospitalized for weeks with double pneumonia.
Memories and tributes poured in from those in the Philadelphia area, with many recalling his visit nearly a decade ago, which officials said was among the largest events in the city’s history.
Archbishop Nelson Pérez, the Catholic Church’s local leader, called Francis an “honorary Philadelphian” at a Mass commemorating the pope’s death Monday afternoon at the cathedral.
“He celebrated Mass at that altar in this beautiful cathedral,” Pérez said during his homily. “He celebrated Mass at the foot of the Art Museum, on the steps of Rocky. This global superstar of the faith that brought us here in Philadelphia such amazing joy. It was an electric day. I was here for that. So beautiful. We will never forget that.”
Francis’s trip, in addition to the Masses, incorporated an outdoor festival on the Parkway, an address at Independence Hall and a stop at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, among other activities.
“When we think of Pope Francis, we’ll always think that he was the pope for the people. He wanted to be around people,” Pérez said. “The pope of the poor and the marginalized and the immigrant.”
Prior to Monday’s mass, worshippers inside the cathedral paused to pray in front of a framed photograph of Francis flanked on each side by a candle.
Other church leaders joined Perez at the service. Among them was Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak, of Philadelphia’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, who said he had met with Francis to discuss the war in Eastern Europe.
“The Holy Father has spoken a lot about this war. I think it’s close to 400 times,” Gudziak told those gathered in the pews. “Unlike much of the world, he has not forgotten what’s happening in Ukraine, and he wanted the world to remember.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered U.S. and Pennsylvania flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of Francis. He commended the pontiff for speaking out about child sexual abuse within the church following a report Shapiro released during his time as state attorney general.
“He leaves a legacy of being a fighter for the defenseless — a teaching we should all learn from,” the governor wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Mayor Cherelle Parker said, in a statement, that Francis “preached a faith-fueled sense of hope, to Catholic and non-Catholics alike” at the World Meeting of Families. “His deep sense of humility is what I will remember most,” she added.
Juanita Woodland, who attended the cathedral Mass, said she believes there is a “a message” in Francis’s death, coming on Easter Monday.
“I believe in a lot of symbolism,” said Woodland, 68, a Philadelphia native who has since relocated to New Jersey. “There’s reasons why God has things happen the way they do. And I think this is going to put a real shift in our world, in the way that we look at our world, both in the religious sect as well as the political sect.”
