United Methodists Remember Pope Francis

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April 21, 2025 | UM News

Key points:

  • Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at age 88, and United Methodists are prominent among those paying tribute.
  • The Rev. Jean Hawxhurst, ecumenical staff officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops, called the pope “an inspirational witness of what it means to be a follower of Jesus the Christ.”
  • The pope “embodied qualities so needed in our world today: humility, curiosity, faith and courage,” said one United Methodist bishop.

United Methodists are mourning the death of Pope Francis and acknowledging the special relationship between the Roman Catholic and Methodist traditions.

“(The pope) would have made an excellent Methodist,” said the Rev. Jean Hawxhurst, ecumenical staff officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

The first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church died on Easter Monday at age 88 after a cerebral stroke.

Pope Francis “was an inspirational witness of what it means to be a follower of Jesus the Christ,” Hawxhurst said. “With a little glimmer in his eye and kindness in his heart, he spoke truth clearly and unapologetically.”

Hawxhurst cited Methodism founder John Wesley, who said Methodists can recognize the works of Christians “by the love they have for others, particularly those on the margins of society.”

“Pope Francis was one of the best fruit-bearers our generation was blessed to be led by,” she said. 

In October, Pope Francis celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. That 1962 to 1965 “updating” of the Catholic Church was a drive to be more relevant in a quickly secularizing world. In a 2022 article in the National Catholic Report, journalist Christopher White said only one group “has been in official continuous dialogue with the Holy See since the council: the Methodists.”

Speaking of that relationship in 2017 at a meeting with the World Methodist Council, the pope said: “We need then, to remain together, like the disciples awaiting the Spirit, as brothers and sisters on a shared journey.”

The Rev. Matthew Laferty, director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, had a private audience with Pope Francis in 2024 in Vatican City. Laferty is responsible for the World Methodist Council’s relations with the Catholic Church and the Holy See. 

“Pope Francis was a man of deep Christian faith, clear conviction and prayer,” Laferty said. “His ministry extended beyond the Catholic Church as he sought to pray and work for the unity of all Christians.

“Pope Francis challenged and inspired Methodists and Catholics to move beyond ecumenical dialogue to be a pilgrim people walking and working together, particularly in care of creation, migration, and human fraternity. He called the Church universal and all the world to live as Jesus Christ — in holiness and in loving the poor and the marginalized.”

Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett  of the Holston and West Virginia conferences said “the Church has lost a giant in the faith.”

“I had the honor of meeting with Pope Francis this past December in my role as president of the World Methodist Council,” she said. “In our time together, I witnessed firsthand the depth of his spirit, the clarity of his wisdom and the profound humility with which he led.”

Conversation at the meeting was about how the Catholic Church and World Methodist Council could work more closely together.

“Pope Francis expressed a genuine desire for deeper ecumenical collaboration, rooted not in uniformity but in shared purpose and love for Christ,” Wallace-Padgett said. “His openness, warmth and unwavering commitment to justice and mercy left a lasting impression on me — and on so many around the world.”

Pope Francis was the first Jesuit to serve as pope, noted Bishop Kenneth Carter of the Western North Carolina Conference.

“He led during a season of challenge for all churches, and even amidst secularization there was enough residual memory of Jesus that when he washed and kissed the feet of 12 imprisoned women on Holy (Maundy) Thursday, we remembered the Gospel story,” Carter said.

“He embodied qualities so needed in our world today: humility, curiosity, faith and courage.” 

In a lament on the pope’s death released by Wallace-Padgett and the Rev. Reynaldo Ferreira Leão Neto, general secretary of the World Methodist Council, they stated that Pope Francis was “truthful to his roots.”

“He was always calling us all back to service to and with the poor,” they said. “He courageously called us to speak prophetically for justice.”

Sally Vonner, top executive of United Women in Faith, said the pope “required courage as he often went against the grain.”

“Earlier this year he named Sister Simona Brambilla to head a Vatican Office; she was the first woman to hold this position,” Vonner said. “He also called for more grace for persons who were divorced or members of the LGBTQIA community.”

The Rev. Ruth Gee, president of the Methodist Conference and co-chair of the British Methodist-Roman Catholic Dialogue Commission, said the choice of “Francis” as his papal name “was a clear indication of the emphases on service of people living in poverty, humility and concern for creation, that would characterize his papacy.

“There was a further indication of these emphases on his first appearance as pope on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica,” she said. “He wore a simple white cassock and the iron pectoral cross he had worn as archbishop.”

Pope Francis “embodied Jesus’s preferential option for the poor,” said Ashley Boggan, top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, who met the pope while in Italy for the European Methodist Historical Conference in 2023.

“From washing the feet of the imprisoned to forgoing the opulence of the papal estate, he constantly put others before himself,” she said. “He reminded all of us that this world is not ours but is God’s, and we are called to be good stewards of it.”

Even Pope Francis’ funeral will project humility.

“Pope Francis will be buried in a simple wooden casket in a location outside the Vatican,” Gee said.

Another United Methodist tribute was added April 21 to the sign on the front of the United Methodist Building, home of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society in Washington. The structure is adjacent to the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court.

Reflecting the humility of the late pope, it said:

“Remembering Pope Francis Who Stood for Justice and Joy.”

Jim Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee.