Catholic Workers Remember Pope Francis
From London to Los Angeles, Catholic Worker communities honor Pope Francis, the 266th Bishop of Rome, who passed away after a prolonged hospitalization and seeming recovery, on April 21, 2025.
Commemorating Pope Francis
On Monday morning, the Easter people faced a familiar challenge: celebrate the hope of Resurrection in the midst of death. Pope Francis, servant of the servants of God since March 2013, had died that Easter Monday morning.
Pope Francis, who named himself after the lover of Lady Poverty, who tried to always remain close to the poor, particularly in his first pastoral visit as pope to migrants at Lampedusa, in his welcome of the homeless of Rome, and in his Holy Thursday foot washings in prison, was well-loved among his Catholic Worker brothers and sisters in Christ.
Many Catholic Workers who often—literally—smell like the sheep, admired this pope of the ecclesial field hospital before he named Dorothy Day as one of the four Americans to emulate in his address to Congress in 2015. And after that exhilarating moment, many saw in him an ally in making a people of God that embraced Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin’s personalism, hospitality, pacificism, and poverty.
Pope Francis demonstrated his “personalist communitarian” stripes in his opening of the synodal way, a mode of discernment and decision making as an ecclesial body that might ring familiar to any Catholic Worker who has embraced the difficult art of communal decision making or operating by consensus.
In Laudato Si, Pope Francis echoed Peter Maurin’s ecological call to reconstruction of the social order by naming care for our common home, the earth, as a work of mercy, and connecting the plight of the poor with the plight of the earth. In his first apostolic exhortation, Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis wrote a message that could have been written by Dorothy Day:
No one must say that they cannot be close to the poor because their own lifestyle demands more attention to other areas. This is an excuse commonly heard in academic, business or professional, and even ecclesial circles. While it is quite true that the essential vocation and mission of the lay faithful is to strive that earthly realities and all human activity may be transformed by the Gospel, none of us can think we are exempt from concern for the poor and for social justice. (§201)
In fact, Pope Francis’ rhetoric intimated to many Catholic Workers that Dorothy Day’s two-decade-long canonization process might begin to bear fruit during his papacy.
“It seems quite clear that Dorothy Day is exactly the kind of saint Francis would like to promote,” Robert Ellsberg said in an interview with me in 2021. “Her message couldn’t be more consistent with his agenda.”
Pope Francis was not perfect: many have noted the Vatican’s mixed record in the abuse scandals of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick (who died earlier this month) and the former Jesuit Marko Rupnik. Catholic Workers since Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin have consistently called for the church’s conversion to embrace the Gospel more fully,
But, over the past few days, Catholic Worker communities across the world have added their contributions to the many tributes to Pope Francis’ remarkable and groundbreaking twelve-year papacy. We share a few of them below.
May the angels lead thee to Paradise, Pope Francis, and at thy coming may the martyrs receive thee, and bring thee into the holy city, Jerusalem.
Renée
Papa Francisco, Presente!
London Catholic Worker Pays Tribute to Pope Francis as "Pope of Mercy and Nonviolence"
The London Catholic Worker remembers Pope Francis as “The Pope of Mercy and Nonviolence” in a tribute on its website this week. The author called to mind two examples of Pope Francis’ speech that reminded them of their Catholic Worker comrades:
he called for a ‘poor church for the poor’ and for a church that came ‘out of the sacristy and got its hands dirty’. Looking around me at the time, I thought – maybe we’re not doing too badly at those here. And he actively practised what he preached, by his personal outreach to the most marginalised, and by, for example, moving out of the Vatican Palace and into rooms in the Santa Marta guest house, among the many from the world church who come and go there.
Francis continued sounding like a Catholic Worker in his advocacy for hospitality for the poor, for migrants and refugees, for the practice of mercy generally and the works of mercy in particular, for active nonviolence and an increasingly strong rejection of war. He declared the mere possession as well the threat of use of nuclear weapons to be a sin, as well as making the Vatican one of the first states to sign and ratify the nuclear weapons ban treaty (officially known as the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or TPNW). That would have made Dorothy Day very happy, although she might have felt a bit ambiguous when he mentioned her name among four praiseworthy representatives of the American people – alongside Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Merton – when addressing the US Congress in 2015. Francis sounded like a Catholic Worker in day to day life too. He spoke off the cuff and made mistakes and asked forgiveness as a sinner, in contrast to previously careful papal ways, perhaps wanting to avoid the mystique of creeping infallibility. Asking forgiveness for our mistakes feels like a regular part of CW life too: we are definitely not perfect, always trying hard to respond to immediate situations and crises, and often making mistakes and asking for and needing forgiveness, and struggling to give it too. Activists are strong minded and can be difficult people after all.
Read the entire essay at the London Catholic Worker.
Dorothy Day Guild: Pope Francis Understood Dorothy
The Dorothy Day Guild released a reflection on Pope Francis’s relationship to Dorothy Day on Monday morning, shortly after the announcement of the pontiff’s death:
Pope Francis understood Dorothy as an ardent defender of the dignity of the poorest and most forgotten of our brothers and sisters. Two years ago, he wrote a new foreword to Dorothy’s memoir, From Union Square to Rome, identifying in Dorothy’s narrative of conversion a living witness to what St. James writes in his epistle: “Show me your faith without works and I by my works will show you my faith.” (2:18). Dorothy’s “whole life was devoted to social justice and human rights, particularly for the poor, the exploited workers, and the socially marginalized,” Pope Francis wrote.
Many people around the world have felt unsettled and anxious over the past few days and months. Here, too, Pope Francis has left us words of assurance from his reflections on Dorothy’s life and legacy: “Dorothy Day teaches us that God is not simply a comfort or a form of alienation to turn to amidst life’s difficulties, but that he abundantly meets our yearning for joy and fulfilment. The Lord comforts restless hearts, not bourgeois souls who are content with things as they are.”
In a time when the people of the United States are much beset by questions of what it means for America to be great, we would do well to remember what Pope Francis told us when he visited:
“A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to "dream" of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.”
In the coming days and weeks, please join us at the Dorothy Day Guild in praying for the repose of Pope Francis’ soul, for the comfort of all who mourn him, and for the college of cardinals as they prepare to elect a new shepherd for our Church. We ask all these things through Dorothy’s intercession.
Read the entire reflection here
Houston Catholic Worker Honors Pope Francis
In its most recent issue, before Pope Francis’ death, the Houston Catholic Worker honored Pope Francis’ legacy, noting his grave illness at the time. They remarked on his selection of the name “Francis” and recommended readers pick up his encyclicals and apostolic exhortations.
We recall that on March 13, 2013, when the white smoke emerged to show that the first Latin American pope had been elected, the Catholic Workers at Casa Juan Diego were gathered for our luncheon meeting for clarification of thought, watching the television for news on the papal election. We all heard him speak as he emerged from the conclave and asked everyone to pray for him.
Mark Zwick wrote at the time: “The very first thing the new Pope did was to choose the name Francis. This is brand new. No Pope has ever been named Francis before. He said it is for Francis of Assisi. If he had not done anything else, just claiming the name of Francis would have had a tremendous impact.”
Robert Ellsberg Remembers Pope Francis:
In a letter to subscribers to Orbis Books, Robert Ellsberg, a former managing editor of The Catholic Worker, wrote about the points in which Pope Francis’ legacy intertwined with Dorothy Day.
In his very first act as pope he made history in the choice of his name, becoming the first pope to align himself with the memory of St. Francis of Assisi, the saint who set out to reform the church by recalling and embodying the spirit of its poor founder. The choice was deliberate. As he explained, the name of Francis came to him as he heard the conclave votes being tabulated: “I thought of Francis of Assisi . . . the man of poverty, of peace, who loves and takes care of creation, a man who gives out a sense of peace, a poor man. Oh! How I would like a church that was poor and for the poor!”
…
In the more than fifty years of Orbis we have not seen a pope whose message we found so closely aligned with our understanding of the gospel in the world. Many times in these letters I have referenced Pope Francis as the outstanding inspiration for our program. This was reflected in the over-20 volumes of his writings on our list, plus over a dozen books about him, as well as the many other books to which he contributed forewords (most recently, for the newest edition of Dorothy Day’s From Union Square to Rome).
I regularly sent Pope Francis letters of support and appreciation, never knowing if they reached him. I cannot express how moved I was, in 2020, to receive a long reply, occasioned by the 50th anniversary of Orbis Books. It began: “Dear Brother, thank you for the letter and the books that you sent me, as well as for all the efforts you make to sow, even ‘against wind and tides,’ a culture based on fraternity. I join in thanksgiving for these first 50 years of the journey with the confidence that our Father who sees even what is done in secret will reward you (Mt 6:6).”
Iowa City Catholic Worker Remembers Pope Francis
The Iowa City Catholic Worker was quoted extensively by news station KCRG 9:
“He said very early on that that we need to smell like sheep, that we need to be in the trenches doing the work and Catholic Worker is that kind of work,” Jane Noble Davis, with the Iowa City Catholic Worker, said. “The gift of this Pope was that he was very aware of the poor and taking care of the poor, which is a work of Christ.”
Pope Francis was criticized from within the church for his stances on things like the LGBTQ+ community and climate change.
”If people are threatened by acts of empathy, then I think that they are not following the Christ that we follow at Catholic Worker,” Noble Davis said. “We are open to all people.”
In response to his death Monday morning, the group says they will remember Pope Francis through their work caring for refugees and the poor, hoping for change.
“We do social justice work and that is hopefully going to change policies in a bigger picture so that the people who come to us will hopefully be less because their needs are being met more,” Noble Davis said.
Read or watch the story at the KCRG 9 website.
Tributes from Catholic Worker Communities
“As we grieve the loss of Pope Francis let us celebrate his life and dedicated service to our Church. We are immensely grateful for his deep love for the earth and for the poor.
We remember Pope Francis’ affection for Dorothy Day, and their shared concern for the poor.
We pray that the witness of Pope Francis can guide our steps away from violence of all forms and towards deeper union with the earth and one another.
Praise be to you, my lord.
Staten Island Catholic Worker:
"We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor. May we never abandon them." - Pope Francis
RIP Pope Francis. Let us remember our dearest Francis through our work for peace, care for creation, our care for refugees, our care for the poor and each other.
St. Bakhita Catholic Worker (Milwaukee, Wisconsin):
"In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God DOROTHY DAY, who founded the CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints.”-Pope Francis in a statement before Congress in 2015
At a time when moral leadership has been in short supply in the world — when authoritarians and neofascists are pushing us into darkness — Pope Francis pointed toward the light. May he rest in peace.
“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.”
St. Peter Claver Worker, South Bend, Indiana:
"If Pope Francis had lived in South Bend, he would have been among us," –Margie Pfeil, co-founder of St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker, South Bend, IN in the South Bend Tribune.
In Final Message to the World, Pope Francis Called for Peace, Disarmament
In his final Ubi et Orbi (“To the City and the World”) Easter message, Pope Francis called for the cessation of war, human rights, and for efforts to build peace. He wrote the message, which was read by an aide on Sunday. It was his final public statement before his death on Monday:
Christ is risen! These words capture the whole meaning of our existence, for we were not made for death but for life. Easter is the celebration of life! God created us for life and wants the human family to rise again! In his eyes, every life is precious! The life of a child in the mother’s womb, as well as the lives of the elderly and the sick, who in more and more countries are looked upon as people to be discarded.
What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of our world! How much violence we see, often even within families, directed at women and children! How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!
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 distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!
I would like us to renew our hope that peace is possible! From the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the Resurrection, where this year Easter is being celebrated by Catholics and Orthodox on the same day, may the light of peace radiate throughout the Holy Land and the entire world. I express my closeness to the sufferings of Christians in Palestine and Israel, and to all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people. The growing climate of anti-Semitism throughout the world is worrisome. Yet at the same time, I think of the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation. I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace!
Let us pray for the Christian communities in Lebanon and in Syria, presently experiencing a delicate transition in its history. They aspire to stability and to participation in the life of their respective nations. I urge the whole Church to keep the Christians of the beloved Middle East in its thoughts and prayers.
I also think in particular of the people of Yemen, who are experiencing one of the world’s most serious and prolonged humanitarian crises because of war, and I invite all to find solutions through a constructive dialogue.
May the risen Christ grant Ukraine, devastated by war, his Easter gift of peace, and encourage all parties involved to pursue efforts aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace.
On this festive day, let us remember the South Caucasus and pray that a final peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan will soon be signed and implemented, and lead to long-awaited reconciliation in the region.
May the light of Easter inspire efforts to promote harmony in the western Balkans and sustain political leaders in their efforts to allay tensions and crises, and, together with their partner countries in the region, to reject dangerous and destabilizing actions.
May the risen Christ, our hope, grant peace and consolation to the African peoples who are victims of violence and conflict, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Sudan and South Sudan. May he sustain those suffering from the tensions in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region, as well as those Christians who in many places are not able freely to profess their faith.
There can be no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and respect for the views of others.
Nor is peace possible without true disarmament! The requirement that every people provide for its own defence must not turn into a race to rearmament. The light of Easter impels us to break down the barriers that create division and are fraught with grave political and economic consequences. It impels us to care for one another, to increase our mutual solidarity, and to work for the integral development of each human person.
During this time, let us not fail to assist the people of Myanmar, plagued by long years of armed conflict, who, with courage and patience, are dealing with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Sagaing, which caused the death of thousands and great suffering for the many survivors, including orphans and the elderly. We pray for the victims and their loved ones, and we heartily thank all the generous volunteers carrying out the relief operations. The announcement of a ceasefire by various actors in the country is a sign of hope for the whole of Myanmar.
I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the “weapons” of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death!
May the principle of humanity never fail to be the hallmark of our daily actions. In the face of the cruelty of conflicts that involve defenceless civilians and attack schools, hospitals and humanitarian workers, we cannot allow ourselves to forget that it is not targets that are struck, but persons, each possessed of a soul and human dignity.
About us. Roundtable is a publication of catholicworker.org that covers the Catholic Worker Movement.
Roundtable is independent of the New York Catholic Worker or The Catholic Worker newspaper. This week’s Roundtable was produced by Renée Roden and Jerry Windley-Daoust. Send inquiries to roundtable@catholicworker.org.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/28/maga-catholics-vatican-pope-conclave?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
FYI https://open.substack.com/pub/stevenstaples/p/the-popes-final-message?r=1uy7bt&utm_medium=ios