Pope Francis, the first-ever Latin-American pontiff, died Monday, leaving many in the Los Angeles and USC communities shocked and saddened.
His death was announced Monday morning by Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, the head of the Vatican’s health department. The cause of death was said to be a stroke, which led to a coma and later heart failure.
“Speechless…speechless, full of — I can’t even describe it,” Maria del Rosario Gudiño Guerrero, a Los Angeles Catholic, said in an interview about her initial reaction to Pope Francis’s death. She was outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Downtown L.A., before attending mass in the Pope’s honor.
Along with being the first Latin-American Pope, Francis was known for keeping an open mind to members of the LGBTQ+ community, enforcing environmental protections and emphasizing the importance of addressing poverty and immigration in the Catholic Church. While some critiqued his leadership, many praised the connection he brought back to Catholicism.
“Well today I feel a void, an emptiness, because our beloved Pope, we loved him so much. He had such a special connection with the congregation, and now for us to wake up and know he’s no longer with us, that now he’s alongside our Lord, honestly, there’s a lot of sadness. And that’s why we wanted to come specifically to this mass, because it’s going to be done in his name,” Marta Trujillo, a Catholic, said before entering the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for mass.
Varun Soni, the dean of religious and spiritual life at USC, spoke about the ways Pope Francis was able to engage with youth in an interview with Annenberg Media.
“Pope Francis spoke in a way that excited young people to think about how they could translate their faith into action,” Soni said. “How they could pray with their feet.”
Many looked to the pope for his leadership and openness to different topics in Catholicism. According to Father Mathew Wheeler, an administrator at the University of Southern California’s Catholic Center, Francis was the embodiment of Catholicism.
“He cast a beautiful vision of what Jesus was all about, of what the church is all about,” Wheeler said. “Reaching out to the peripheries, going out to those who are abandoned or alone, reaching out to the poor.”
One of Francis’s main focuses was providing dignity to immigrants and refugees.
“I think that’s something the Latinx community in California looks at with pride,” Richard Wood, the President of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC, said.
For followers of the religion, Soni said he believes his leadership will be missed.
“I think for observers of the faith, or people who study religion, it’s going to be a really interesting week,” Soni said.”
Pope Francis is set to be buried in St. Mary Major Basilica.
Katherine Contreras Hernandez contributed to this reporting.