Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Catholic church, died on Monday. As news spread around the world of his passing condolences poured in from past and present leaders of countries around the world including Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis.
Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nassau, Most Reverend Patrick Pinder also shared his thoughts of the late Pope Francis. He said, “on holy Thursday we have a special liturgy which includes the washing of the feet following the command of Christ to show our love for on another by service to one another. And one of the things he did was he never ever celebrated that liturgy in the splendor of a basilica but he always did it as some place those who wouldn’t be able to have access to the liturgy to be present, places like detention centers and prisons and so forth. In fact one of his last visits really was to Regina Coeli Prison in Rome itself. So he had a tremendous love and compassion for those on the margins of society.”
The Archbishop also spoke about the generosity of the late Pope to The Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian. “In response to Hurricane Dorian he actually assisted our archdiocese with a very generous gift to help us in the rebuilding of the church in Treasure Cay, Abaco which was destroyed by Dorian. So certainly his touch, his impact was very, very real among us. And not only among Catholics, I think the world over people saw his simple style, his humble style, his way of actually reaching out to everyone in the most imaginative ways is something that has left a mark certainly locally as well as globally.”
Pope Francis was 88 years old.
