‘A people’s pope’: Francis remembered fondly by Charlotte-area parishioners at Mass
Local Catholics held a Mass for Pope Francis on Wednesday, joining much of the world in remembering a religious leader who often spoke out for the disadvantaged.
The Mass took place at Saint Mark Catholic Church in Huntersville, which was full.
The first pontiff to come from Latin America, Francis was known for reforms to the church and his advocacy for the world’s marginalized.
He spoke out against a “new idolatry of money” and the “dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”
In Huntersville, that progressivism is what some remembered him for.
“I’m 79, so I’ve been through a couple popes. He was just so special. He was a people’s pope,” parishioner Deirdre Cooper told The Charlotte Observer. “I hope that legacy continues.”
During the last 18 months of his life, Francis frequently called the lone Catholic church in the war-torn Gaza Strip to check in.
In February, amid President Donald Trump’s wide-reaching deportation campaign, Francis urged American bishops in a letter to not “give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”
Another parishioner attending Mass in Huntersville on Wednesday, Patricia Sobrecrarey, recalled a moment in 2013 when Francis declined to criticize gay priests.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” he said then.
Sobrecrarey considered herself “old school,” or conservative, but that comment stuck with her.
“Ultimately, kindness prevails, whatever political views you have or religious views you have,” she said. She found it especially relevant now.
Bishop calls for an active church
Francis, 88, died on Easter Monday after suffering health issues for months and spending weeks in a hospital. His public appearances during Holy Week gave some hope that he would recover.
The late pope had called on the church to be a sort of field hospital, Bishop Michael T. Martin noted during a homily.
“This is a man who disregarded his doctor’s last wishes, telling them that he felt he needed to be in the midst of the people on Easter Sunday ... raising his hands with what little power he had left,” Martin said. “He wanted to be out in that field hospital, bringing that Easter joy to a broken world. And we’re better for that.”
Martin called on the church to be just as active.
This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM.