Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, holds a particular place for Hispanic Catholics
“He has been in a position to title lots of the realities, considerations, and hopes of Hispanic Catholics within the U.S.,” mentioned Ospino, a local of Colombia. “He addressed points associated to immigration, to social justice, assimilation and evangelization — he was very deliberately attentive to how Hispanics are built-in into the lifetime of the church.”
Olga Sarabia, a retired scientific social employee in Pasadena, California, mentioned her parish had joined others across the globe since late February in particular prayers for Francis.
“We had been all involved about our papa,” she mentioned, utilizing the Spanish phrase for pope.
“I liked him as a result of he displayed an openness to all folks … He elevated ladies, like he appointed a nun to a excessive workplace within the Vatican, which is exceptional,” Sarabia mentioned. “I keep in mind, when he first got here in, he went and washed the ft of the prisoners in jail. This confirmed his character. He was a pope of the folks.”
From his love of soccer — although he known as himself a “patadura,” or dangerous soccer participant — to his native Spanish language, the Argentine pope endeared himself to many who recognized together with his cultural heritage, heat and compassion.
Acknowledging the traditions of Latino Catholics; he urged Mexicans final yr to proceed their devotion to Our Woman of Guadalupe, the Catholic saint and icon that is a strong image of Mexican identification.
In 2022, he celebrated a mass in Spanish on the Vatican, the place he mentioned that Our Woman of Guadalupe “got here to accompany the American folks on this tough street of poverty, exploitation, socio-economic and cultural colonialism” and that “she is our mom of blended race.”
Pope Francis had two constant messages, each of which resonated with lots of his Hispanic followers, Ospino mentioned. “One was his concern for these residing in poverty; the poor have been on the heart of his preach. He invited Catholics to be a part of a church that was in service of the poor.”
“His second message, proper from Day 1, was the plight of immigrants,” Ospino continued. “Francis was eager to the realities and struggles of immigrants in Europe, the Caribbean, the U.S. and Latin America. He can be remembered because the pope who introduced and centered our consideration on those that had been poor, and on the migrant populations of the world.”
In 2019, on a visit to Central America, Pope Francis prompt that animosity towards migrants was pushed by concern and “makes us loopy.” In 2022, he sympathized with migrant caravans trekking to the U.S.’s southern border in search of what he known as “freedom and well-being.” In January 2025, he named a vocal ally of migrants to guide the Archdiocese of Washington.
Greater than four-in-ten U.S. Catholics are immigrants or youngsters of immigrants, in line with Pew Analysis information.
On migration, Pope Francis didn’t draw back from political controversies. He was a fierce critic of President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies, saying on a 2016 go to to Mexico that “an individual who solely thinks about constructing partitions, wherever they might be, and never constructing bridges, just isn’t Christian. In January he known as Trump’s plans for mass deportations “a shame.”
In a February letter to U.S. bishops, the pope criticized the criminalization of migrants and deportations, warning, “What’s constructed on the premise of pressure, and never on the reality in regards to the equal dignity of each human being, begins badly and can finish badly.”
