Pope Francis, who died Monday, was a committed champion of immigrants and the poor — and Roman Catholics here in South Florida who shared his mission say they’re more inspired now to continue it, despite the country's prevailing anti-immigrant mood.
Among Catholics mourning Francis — who was Pope for 12 years and was oft-called "the people's pope" for his advocacy of marginalized people — his death is felt especially deeply by those involved in ministries like St. Vincent de Paul. The Catholic charity helps the poor, which in South Florida often means immigrants, usually from Latin America.
Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, was the first Latin American pope, an origin that held special meaning in South Florda, particularly in Latino-majority Miami-Dade County.
“His call of love and acceptance of such a diverse population circulated within our group over those 12 years," said Irene Rivera Royston, a longtime member of the St. Vincent de Paul conference at Holy Rosary-St. Richard Catholic Church in Palmetto Bay, which serves many lower income and migrant families in South Dade.
"People would speak of how much the Pope encouraged us.”
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Fernando Bolaños, who directs St. Vincent de Paul at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Doral — where the needs of waves of Venezuelan migrants in recent years have been especially urgent — said his conference's trajectory felt parallel with Francis' papacy.
“Pope Francis was elected in 2013, and our conference started in 2013," Bolaños recalled.
"He started telling everyone, ‘You have to go to the outskirts and visit the needy, the immigrants.’ For us it was a real inspiration.”
Bolaños said Our Lady of Guadalupe's St. Vincent de Paul conference tends to almost 500 families each week.
Francis often clashed with political leaders like President Trump — who has ordered a massive deportation of undocumented migrants in the wake of a crisis in recent years on the U.S. southern border — over the need to aid rather than demonize immigrants.
Trump's vice president, J.D. Vance, who met with Francis at the Vatican in Rome shortly before the pontiff died, insisted earlier this year that Americans should commit love to their families, not migrants.
Polls indicate most Americans support Trump's crackdown. In an interview with NPR this week, Miami's Catholic archbishop, Thomas Wenski, said that while he agreed with Vance "that charity begins at home ... Pope Francis was also firm in insisting that charity does not stop at home."
Pope Francis' funeral will be held on Saturday at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
