The Conference of Women Religious India said that Pope Francis had given them "more strength, dignity and space in the church." Sisters told Global Sisters Report about their memories of Francis and his impact on them.
A simplified papal funeral will make a fitting farewell for a pontiff who just three days after his surprise election expressed his desire for "a church that is poor and for the poor."
Maria Bambina Sr. Susana Vanni says Argentina's divisions, then Pope Francis' health, likely tilted against the longed-for papal visit to his native country.
"Some say he did not do enough; others criticize him for even meeting with people like me," said one transgender Catholic. "But he led by example. And in doing so he brought more hope, more love to the Catholic Church."
Pope Francis, history's first pontiff from the Global South, has died at age 88 following a monthslong respiratory illness, setting the stage for a high-stakes secretive election to determine his successor.
The pope made ecological concern a cornerstone of his 12-year papacy and positioned care of creation as both a nonnegotiable pillar of the Christian faith and "essential to a life of virtue."
Latin Americans observed that Pope Francis, the first pope from the new world, brought to the Vatican a new way of talking about God, lifting up causes and convictions that they shared.
The nuns are unsure how many women they have helped at St. Euphrasia's Safe Home, but a senior worker there said at least 25 women are in the house on any given day.
