Amid slight improvement in Pope Francis’ ailing health, Seattle Catholics gathered at St. James Cathedral on Monday to pray for a religious leader who some said represented a bulwark against dangerous times in the United States and abroad.
“I feel like we need him now more than ever,” said the Very Rev. Michael Ryan as he prepared to lead a rosary and Mass devoted to Francis just after noon. The service coincided with a rosary for the pope held at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
The 88-year-old Francis has been battling pneumonia and kidney problems that have left him in critical condition. While doctors were still cautious about his prognosis Monday, the pope did some work, including calling a priest in Gaza City from the hospital where he is being treated.
In a statement, Archbishop Paul Etienne, who did not attend Monday’s noon service at St. James, said he was closely following the changes in Francis’ health and praying for the pope’s medical team to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Etienne heads an archdiocese that serves a million Catholics in Western Washington, with around 110,000 attending Masses.
At the cathedral on First Hill, Ryan said he loves Francis dearly and threw his arms around the pope when they briefly met in Rome nine years ago.
“He stands as a voice trying to bring people together,” the Seattle priest added. That’s particularly important these days due to divisions, violence and rise of authoritarianism around the world, he said.
“Yesterday, for my homily, I did something I’ve never done before,” Ryan continued. The priest read Francis’ letter to American bishops rebuking the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation plans as depriving people of their inherent dignity. At three of five Masses where he did so, Ryan said, congregants “exploded in applause.”
Chris Galloway, a Capitol Hill parishioner who attended the special rosary and Mass, said Francis has brought a new mode of being to the church, one that’s about listening rather than making proclamations from on high. That approach crystallized in a multiyear process called the “Synod on Synodality” that Francis convened to discuss the future of the church with bishops, priests and lay people.
It ended last fall without some of the changes Galloway would like to see, namely full-throated inclusion of LGBTQ+ parishioners and a green light to ordain women as priests and deacons. Conservative bishops, including many in the United States, opposed those ideas.
Still, Galloway, 77, remains hopeful that the church will continue moving toward them and considers Francis’ willingness to listen a gift he is leaving the church.
A pope’s ill health is like that of a parent, she added. It’s a time for the family — in this case, the church family — to come together, which is how she saw Monday’s rosary and Mass for Francis, which about 100 people attended.
The focus of the event was on asking God to keep Francis alive, not on who might succeed him. Nehemias Pablo couldn’t help but wonder, though, as have others — some referring to the movie “Conclave” that centers on the intrigue of choosing a new pope.
Pablo, a 24-year-old from Guatemala, said he’s hoping the winning candidate comes from his country of birth. “That would be amazing,” Pablo said.
