“Pope Francis was a humble person, very humble,” says Oremus Butera, a parishioner at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland. “He was always there for the poor, the marginalized, the forgotten ones.”

“Pope Francis was a man of peace and love and gentleness and generosity, and he just really led us, as a Church, to unite under the truth of Christ in those ways,” says Val Flanagan of All Saints Parish in Brunswick. “I think his legacy will be of peace and generosity to the poor, of following Jesus in that loving service role.”

“He was not at all a pomp and circumstance pope but a servant pope,” says Bishop James Ruggieri. “I would say a pope of the people, especially the poor. He had a very big heart for the poor.”

Pope Francis died at the age of 88 on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, just a day after he rode among the people in St. Peter’s Square and appeared on the balcony for his final blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city of Rome and to the world). The pope’s final message was one of Easter hope, something that defined his pontificate.

“Sisters and brothers, especially those of you experiencing pain and sorrow, your silent cry has been heard, and your tears have been counted; not one of them has been lost. In the Passion and death of Jesus, God has taken upon Himself all the evil in this world and, in His infinite mercy, has defeated it,” Pope Francis shared in the blessing. “Christ is risen! These words capture the whole meaning of our existence, for we were not made for death but for life.”

During his 12-year papacy, Pope Francis sought to bring a message of hope to all he encountered. In his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, he wrote that faith in Jesus Christ enables us “joyfully to advance along the way on wings of hope.” In 2024, he invited the faithful to become Pilgrims of Hope when choosing the theme for the 2025 ordinary jubilee year.

“The storms that buffet us will never prevail, for we are firmly anchored in the hope born of grace, which enables us to live in Christ,” he wrote.

Pope Francis continually emphasized that Christ’s message was meant for everyone, no matter their socio-economic status or the part of the world in which they lived. During his pontificate, he traveled to 68 countries, including some, such as Bahrain, Iraq, Mongolia, and the United Arab Emirates, where a pope had never visited.

“As he preached, he tried to go to the peripheries, which he called the Church to do: to go to the peripheries,” says Bishop Ruggieri. “I think he’s really helped us to expand our understanding of the Universal Church in which we exist.”

“For the last 12 years, he has stood in the shoes of the Fisherman, leading the Church with a heart full of mercy, a voice for the poor, and hands stretched wide to embrace a broken world. Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis challenged us to go to the margins, to encounter Christ in the faces of the forgotten, and to live a faith that is alive, joyful, and deeply rooted in compassion. He reminded us again and again that the Church is not a museum for the perfect but a field hospital for the wounded. His love for the Gospel shone through his words and actions, inspiring millions to rediscover the tender mercy of God,” says Father Kyle Doustou, vicar general of the Diocese of Portland.

Pope Francis particularly felt drawn to the poor. In his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, he wrote, “We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor. May we never abandon them” (48). 

Pope Francis visited and spent time with refugees, the homeless, and prisoners. Celebrating his first Holy Thursday as pope, he washed the feet of two young women and 10 boys at a juvenile detention center, rather than the feet of 12 priests as had been the longtime tradition. During subsequent Holy Weeks, he washed the feet of people with disabilities, refugees, and inmates. In 2024, he washed the feet of 12 women at Rebibbia prison in Rome, the first time only women were included. 

“He saw holiness in other humans, regardless of what their background was. Whether they were in prison or wherever, it didn’t matter,” says Michele Bernier, a lay chaplain at Northern Light Mercy Hospital in Portland. 

“He felt for the poor, loved everybody, and was so inclusive,” says Carol Connolly, a parishioner at the cathedral in Portland. “I just loved the pope. He was just wonderful.”

“He was a voice for the poor and reminded the Church often of the need to care for people who are poor, homeless, migrants, and the outcast,” says Father Daniel Greenleaf, pastor of Prince of Peace Parish in Lewiston. “Pope Francis challenged us priests to make sure that we are close to the people, even have a simpler life with faith solely in Jesus.”

Pope Francis’s desire for simplicity was well-known. When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he took public transportation to work and lived in a simple apartment rather than the archbishop’s residence.

When he was selected as pope, he took the name Francis, thinking of St. Francis of Assisi who gave up his wealth to dedicate his life to Christ. Pope Francis said he was inspired to take the name Francis after Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes had whispered to him, “Don’t forget the poor.”

“The name came into my heart: Francis of Assisi. For me, he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation,” the pope explained.

Pope Francis was the first pope to take the name Francis, the first pope from the Americas, the first non-European pope in modern times, and the first Jesuit pope.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, he was the son of Italian immigrants. His father was an accountant for the railways; his mother remained at home caring for her five children.

Pope Francis first considered becoming a chemist but then entered the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto in Buenos Aires and was ordained to the priesthood in 1969. From 1973 to 1979, he served as the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. In 1992, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, then became coadjutor archbishop before becoming the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998. In 2001, when he was a created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, he asked the faithful not to travel to Rome for the ceremony but to instead donate to the poor what they would have spent on the trip.

The pope’s humility was again evident after he was elected supreme pontiff on March 13, 2013. When he stepped onto the balcony to greet the people, he wore a simple white cassock rather than the traditional red velvet mozzetta. Before offering his blessing “urbi et orbi,” he asked the people to pray for him, saying, “Before the bishop blesses the people, I ask you to pray to the Lord that He will bless me — the prayer of the people for their bishop.”

“When he was up on the balcony the first moment after he became pope, he asked for everyone else’s blessing, and I thought, ‘That’s the kind of humility I can relate to,’” says Steve Letourneau, CEO of Catholic Charities Maine. “I think his consistent message on serving those least among us but also showing humility in the work that you do is something that I take to heart.”

The pope’s humility did not stop him from seeking some reforms, including holding bishops and religious superiors more accountable for “negligence” in handling cases of sexual abuse of minors and issuing guidelines for allegations against bishops.

He sought to get the Vatican’s financial house in order, transferring financial responsibilities from the Vatican Secretariat of State to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and requiring greater transparency in the awarding of public contracts.

The pope also sought to give more leadership roles to women. In 2018, he appointed three women as consultors to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is responsible for protecting and promulgating the doctrine of the Church, and just months before his death, he named the first-ever female prefect of a Vatican dicastery and the first woman to serve as the Vatican City government president.

“I love a lot of the things that he’s done to help women and to help elevate women,” says Katie Delcourt, a member of Good Shepherd Parish in Saco. “I think women should have more leadership roles in the Church.”

While remaining firm on the Church’s traditional teachings on sacramental marriage, the pope also permitted priests to bless individuals with same-sex attraction, if the blessing did not resemble any part of a marriage rite. The pope considered it a gesture of pastoral closeness and another way of expressing his belief that the Church has room for everyone. As he expressed during World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2023, “todos, todos, todos.”

“In the Church, no one is surplus. No one is surplus. There is room for everyone, just as we are, all of us,” he said. “Jesus says this clearly when He sends the apostles to call us to the banquet of the Lord, who prepared it. He says: Go and take everyone: young and old, healthy and sick, righteous and sinners. All of them.”

In his homily during Pope Francis’s funeral Mass, celebrated April 26, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, said that the guiding thread of Pope Francis’s mission was the conviction that the Church is a home for all and that the guiding principle of his pontificate was evangelization.

“With a clear missionary vision, he spread the joy of the Gospel,” the cardinal said. “It is a joy that fills the hearts of all those who entrust themselves to God with confidence and hope.”

Msgr. Andrew Dubois, pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Bangor, says while evangelization can be an intimidating word for many Catholics, Pope Francis showed us how to do it.

“Pope Francis gave us all a simple, three-step process to fulfill our mission of evangelization, one person at a time. First, an individual’s journey of faith is highly personal and unique; therefore, we must be willing to go out and encounter that person wherever, whenever, or however we may find him or her. Second, we must be willing to embrace that person, that is, to recognize his or her innate, God-given dignity by accepting and never judging that person. Third, we must be willing to engage that person by revealing to them the divine person of Jesus Christ through our words and manner of life. In doing so, we offer them an encounter, a relationship, with the crucified and risen Lord.”

In addition to reaching out to others, Pope Francis emphasized the need for those in the Church to walk together and listen. He convoked four synods, including one focusing on young people in 2018 and the Synod on Synodality, which began in 2021 and culminated with the Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2023 and 2024.

“What Pope Francis called us to do is actually listen to each other, to dialogue and to sit, not necessarily even saying something but to sit and listen. He sought to make ministry personal, not bureaucratic. There is always an administrative element to ministry, but he emphasized sodality where you had cardinals and laity sitting down around tables and discussing things for a month at a time. It’s significant, and I think it challenges us here in the local diocese, especially me as bishop, to try to listen,” says Bishop Ruggieri. 

“With the Synod on Synodality, he started some dialogue. He started people talking, and I hope that one of his legacies is that we can continue to talk, especially in places that are polarized or seem like they’re on opposite ends of a spectrum. There’s quite a lot of common ground where we can meet and talk and share, and I would hope that would be a legacy of his,” says Father Brian Conley, SJ, superior of the Jesuit community in Maine.

Father Conley says another of Pope Francis’s legacies will be his call for us to better care for the earth. He was the first pope ever to deliver an encyclical dedicated to the environment, writing in Laudato Sí that we need “a new way of thinking about human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature” (178).

Whether it was his call to care for our common home or for the common man, the message of Pope Francis resonated with many here in Maine and around the world.

“He had a great concern for our home, this earth, and he was trying to keep it healthy for all of us in the same way that he tried to keep us spiritually healthy,” says Regina Lewis of St. Michael Parish in Augusta.

“I think his legacy is going to be embodying Jesus Christ in His humbleness. He was here to serve and not to be served. He brought dignity to every individual. He brought love and spread love to everybody. He brought the need to respect individuals, both living and those who are unborn at this point,” says Bruce Blanchard of Prince of Peace Parish.

“I loved Pope Francis. He was profoundly influential for me,” says Michele Bernier. “I remember working at the cathedral when he became pope, and I read everything that he wrote. I feel like he really formed me as a follower of Christ. He was a beautiful example of a disciple, and he was a great servant leader, and that was always inspiring to me and always will be.”

The Vatican estimates that 250,000 people filled St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francis’s funeral Mass. At the conclusion of the Mass, his simple wooden coffin was placed on the Popemobile and transported through the streets of Rome to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he asked to be entombed. Thousands more lined the route to watch the Popemobile pass by. 

At his request, his tomb at the basilica bears only his name: Francisco. Near the tomb is an icon of the Virgin Mary to which he was greatly devoted: Salus Populi Romani, Protectress of the Roman People. It is one of the oldest Marian images in existence and one that he visited 126 times during his papacy, most especially before and after each of his apostolic journeys.