From first impressions to lasting ones, pope touched readers’ lives

Holy Cross Father Geoffrey Mooney often spends time in the chapel at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, where he is a math teacher. (Photo courtesy of Tyler McClure)

(Editor’s note: The Criterion invited you, our readers, to share your thoughts, tributes and stories about how Pope Francis influenced your life of faith during his papacy from 2013-25. Here are some of your stories.)
 

By John Shaughnessy

When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, Lisa Eagleson-Roever had her doubts about the way he would lead the Church.

Yet even those doubts didn’t compare to some more serious ones she had.

“At the time of his election, I did not have good feelings about the future of the Catholic Church, nor did I feel like I had much of a place in it,” she recalls. “How could I feel comfortable in an institution that refused to clean its own house and yet spent so much energy telling me to clean mine?”

Twelve years later, her doubts have given way to hope, thanks to Pope Francis.

“Here was a man who appeared to be living out the edict of ‘Preach the Gospel always—use words if necessary.’ His words and actions reminded us that all of us are called to salvation—and also, always, God is merciful, and we need to be brave enough to accept that mercy and be healed. His response to a situation was often the answer to the question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ ”

Eagleson-Roever found herself becoming more and more focused on the actions and the teachings of Pope Francis.

“I started wanting to know what the pope had to say about things, because here was a man who prayed deeply and wasn’t so afraid to admit his mistakes that he would let injustice win,” she says. “He wasn’t afraid to be a human being. He smiled in public—and laughed.

“He understood the spiritual pitfalls of removing oneself from his spiritual family to ‘put on the trappings’ of the papacy. He understood his marching orders came from God, and that was a big load, and he needed to be around his spiritual family to stay grounded and to have their help to keep praying and keep listening to God and to keep saying ‘Yes, Lord, here I am.’ ”

The result is that Pope Francis had a profound impact on Eagleson-Roever, a member of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Indianapolis.

“The man gave me hope that the Catholic Church had a future, and there was a place for me in it.”

‘When our dreams were as small and pure as we once were’

It was a moment that took Pope Francis back to his childhood, a moment that touched the heart of Julie Young.

“A few years ago, I bought a book called Dear Pope Francis, a delightful title in which the pontiff answered some of the questions that were on the minds of children all over the world,” recalls Young, a member of St. Michael Parish in Greenfield. “One child asked [Pope] Francis to reflect on his childhood and what he wanted to be ‘when he grew up.’ ”

His answer delighted Young.

“The pope quickly recalled a butcher that he and his mother used to visit in Buenos Aires,” she says. “Young Jorge was fascinated by this man, who wore an apron with a pocket in front that was full of money and jingled while he worked. He thought it would be great fun to be a butcher and wear an apron full of money. I loved that answer because it was such a ‘kid’ thing to say.

“Who doesn’t have that kind of logic when they are a child? His response caused me to remember how I wanted to be a cashier when I was little because I liked the idea of pushing the buttons on one of those old-style cash registers.

“The idea that the pope had never lost touch with his inner child filled me with so much joy. It is a good reminder to us all. In a world where we are constantly told to ‘put aside childish things,’ it’s nice to go back and recall a simpler time when our dreams were as small and pure as we once were—and somewhere inside, we still are.”

‘God never closes his arms’

First impressions often last, and Holy Cross Father Geoffrey Mooney will never forget his first impression of Pope Francis.

“I was in the middle of teaching an Algebra II lesson when Jorge Mario Bergoglio walked out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to be introduced to the world as the next Bishop of Rome,” recalls Father Mooney, who was a

lay teacher in a Catholic high school in Florida at the time. “My students and I found ourselves glued to the TV as we met Pope Francis for the first time, all of us humbled by his humility as he smiled, waved and asked for our prayers.”

That first impression became a lasting one for him through the 12 years of Pope Francis leading the Church.

In December of 2012, he took a vocations pilgrimage to Rome with an alumni group from the University of Notre Dame where he had graduated from in 2009. Being in that city captivated him. So did the start of Pope Francis’ papacy a few months later.

“It was quite the energizing time, both for me personally and for the Church at large,” says Father Mooney, a 2005 graduate of Our Lady of Providence High School in Clarksville who grew up as a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in New Albany. “From the start, Francis radiated joy and exuded hope, and I saw in him the kind of religious that I would want to be should God lead me to that vocation.”

In 2014, he embraced that call, entering into his formation as a Holy Cross priest.

“Over the next seven years, I continued to find inspiration in the defining features of Francis’ papacy—Laudato Si’, the Year of Mercy, his apostolic visit to the United States, his closeness to the poor, and his blessing over the world at the start of the pandemic from St. Peter’s Square, the same place where those first serious stirrings of God’s call began to come into focus for me.”

Father Mooney was ordained a priest in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame in 2021. Two years later, another moment crystallized his connection to Pope Francis.

He traveled to Lisbon, Portugal, to be in the pope’s presence during World Youth Day. He still remembers the pope exclaiming, “Todos, todos, todos!” (Everyone! Everyone! Everyone!)

“This was his rallying cry for the youths gathered in Lisbon. In the Church, there is room for everyone. The Church embraces all. God never closes his arms but always opens them to us,” says Father Mooney, who has returned to the archdiocese as a math teacher at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis.

As he reflects upon his four years as a priest, Father Mooney still turns to Pope Francis as his role model.

“I pray that my life as a religious, as an educator, as a Christian, as a member of the human family, will always be inclusive of all God’s children. Thank you, Pope Francis, for courageously and joyfully giving us this example.” †

 

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