St. Louis community members gathered beneath the vaulted ceiling of St. Francis Xavier College Church for a Memorial Mass to mourn the first Jesuit pontiff, Pope Francis, two days after his passing.

The mass opened with a Regina Caeli prayer, which is read from Easter day to Pentecost, before acknowledging the Argentine Jesuit priest. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the 266th pope to lead the Catholic Church and passed Easter Monday at the age of 88.

“I welcome you to our mass, and pray for Pope Francis, giving thanks to God for His loving and faithful service to the people of God,” Susan Chawszczewski said, Director of Campus Ministry. “Pope Francis, in his Easter message this year, stated, ‘On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves or who come from discrimination, bring unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas for all of us, are children of God.”

Francis’ health had been deteriorating for some time, and his death took place almost a month after he returned to the Vatican from being hospitalized for double pneumonia. Maureen Wangard, assistant director of graduate student initiatives, one of two Americans who met Francis in 2022 at the World Union of Catholic School Teachers Conference in Rome, said his health didn’t slow him down.

“Every step he took was a challenge, but he sat down and was very gracious. He smiled the entire time. And, I mean, we were there for well over an hour, and you figure he must do this several times a week, and yet, he looked very happy and spoke clearly,” Wangard said.

Wangard’s meeting with Francis and Catholic representatives from around the world left her feeling as if she were a small part of something bigger. That was the influence he had, she said.

“I think the pope actually said, ‘You’re co-workers with the pope,’” Wangard said. “I had this sense of, yeah, I do need to be inclusive, treat other people in a way that’s welcoming and in a way that I think it’s really important to see God in everyone.”

Francis’ influence stretched beyond Catholics. The memorial, well-attended by non-Catholics, was a testament to how he advocated for migrants, LGBTQ+ people and environmental policies. Sophomore Kaydence Davis said that Francis’ advocacy of these political issues garnered her support, even as someone who did not practice Catholicism.

“I really liked his views on same-sex marriage and homosexuality, and how open he was to it, and how it kind of moved forward the Roman Catholic Church,” Davis said.

Francis was well known for changing conversations within Catholicism on LGBTQ+ issues after saying, “Being homosexual is not a crime.” However, he clarified later that this means homosexual people should not be criminalized legally, and that there is a difference between a crime and a sin. In his clarification, he included that all sexual acts outside of marriage are a sin, but not a crime. 

For others, Francis was impactful because he organized the “entire church to listen to one another, rather than announcing to Catholics how things are supposed to be,” Katie Jansen said, the parish life coordinator for St. Francis Xavier College Church.

“That’s part of my hope that his work will continue,” Jansen said. “I’m so grateful for the spaces he has created for us to discern the role of women in the Catholic Church, that the final document for the Synod on Synodality says that the discernment is open for the female diaconate, so female women possibly being deacons.” 

Julia Erdlen, the liturgy coordinator with Campus Ministry, said she hopes the Spirit will keep working and leading people to better understand God and the love of God. Francis’ commitment to his Jesuit lifestyle inspired her and many others in the SLU community. 

“There’s a way in which Francis, to me, feels like part of the family because of our Jesuit connection. That is, for those of us who work and are Jesuit educated – there’s a closeness we feel. Many people feel this to Francis, which is such a gift from him,” Erdlen said.

Jesuits are a part of a Catholic religious order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola. The order takes three vows: poverty, chastity and obedience, all of which Francis was known to embody. Francis was also the first pope since 1831 to take a vow of poverty.

“We witnessed the moral and intellectual rigor of the Ignatian tradition throughout his papacy – in his openness to multiple viewpoints, in his inclusion of lay people and women in the global Synod of Bishops, and in his emphasis on the importance of individual and collective discernment,”  SLU’s President Fred Pestello’s wrote in an email to the community on April 21.

Pestello also praised Francis’ commitment to serving the poor, marginalized and migrants everywhere.

“I appreciate that younger people are interested in him. I think it really says a lot about who he is,” Wangard said. “He didn’t strike me as someone who sat in fear. Instead, he struck me as someone full of hope and full of joy. He’s really an amazing human being.”