Melburnians remember Pope Francis: ‘He was such a joyful person’

While the death of Pope Francis wasn’t a complete shock given his recent ill health, the passing of the Holy Father has nevertheless hit home for millions of Catholics around the world. At home, Melburnians, including Susan Pascoe AM and youth leader Kyle Correya, reflect on the warmth and peaceful demeanour of the 266th pontiff, whose 12 years as pope marked a time of spiritual renewal and progress.

Susan Pascoe AM served as a member of two groups supporting the planning and preparation of the global Synod on Synodality and recalls the Pope’s ‘personal interest’ in the work of the Synod. She particularly remembers the ‘great depth of conviction in his voice’, which she says ‘had quite a profound impact’ on all those in attendance.

As part of her work on the Synod’s commission for methodology, Susan and others met with the late pontiff, whom she said listened intently to the findings that emerged from the global discernment process.

He could see that it meant a lot to me, and so he invested something of himself in that small gesture.

‘He was very engaged, very warm … active[ly] listening and went around and personally introduced [himself] to every person,’ she remembers.

Towards the end of their meeting, Susan asked the Holy Father to bless some rosary beads that had belonged to her mother. ‘He held them and put it in both hands and blessed them, and that was really touching for me because he could see, I think, that it meant a lot to me and so he invested something of himself in that small gesture.’

Pope Francis was well known for his generosity of spirit and kind gestures, but Susan also believes the late pontiff’s changes to the Roman Curia and the Church’s approach to accountability and leadership will be enduring marks of his papacy.

‘I think it’s interesting that one of the first things that he addressed was the abuse of minors and set up the Pontifical Commission for the Abuse of Minors and any number of initiatives around that,’ she says.

She also recalls the Pope’s personal reflections in a letter written ‘to the People of God’, where he acknowledged the Church’s actions—and inaction—in addressing the scourge of the sexual abuse crisis. In acknowledging the suffering of victims, survivors and their families, the Holy Father also called on every member of the faithful to participate in the Church’s response.

‘This awareness of being part of a people and a shared history will enable us to acknowledge our past sins and mistakes with a penitential openness that can allow us to be renewed from within,’ she says.

Susan believes the Pope’s leadership in this process was a significant step in ‘explicitly invit[ing] lay people to become involved in the reanimation of the Church.

‘Given what had happened through the abuse crisis, I think in many ways [his words] authorised people who may not feel authorised, lay people in particular,’ she says.

Susan was encouraged by the Pope’s ability to highlight the plight of the world’s most marginalised and his call to fight for fairer economic and social structures.

At a governance and administrative level, Susan says some of the steps that the Pope took to reform the curia early in his pontificate are starting to bear fruit.

‘For example, no longer [do] you need to be ordained to head up one of the Roman departments called dicasteries … and when you take that away, of course women [can] be involved,’ she says, noting the various appointments of senior females to significant positions within the Vatican in recent years.

‘But not only that, [he] instituted fixed terms and brought in place more contemporary human resource practice[s],’ she says. One of these is the way Pope Francis introduced greater efficiency in the conduct of the Church’s various dicasteries.

On a global level, Susan was encouraged by the Pope’s ability to highlight the plight of the world’s most marginalised and his call to fight for fairer economic and social structures.

She says Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato si’ (On care for our common home) made him ‘one of the first global leaders to talk about the need to address climate change in a coordinated fashion’, while also putting a spotlight on its ‘disproportionate impact on the world’s poorest people’. And then a few years later in Fratelli’ tutti (2018), the Pope called for ‘ways in which we can have fairer economic and social structures’, especially for the world’s poorest, who find themselves trapped in cycles of poverty.

During his pontificate, Pope Francis presided over four World Youth Days (Rio de Janiero in 2013, Krakow in 2016, Panama in 2019 and Lisbon in 2023). En route to Portugal in 2023, a group of young people from Melbourne met with the Holy Father at the Vatican, spending an hour in conversation as he listened intently to the pilgrims’ questions and reflections.

His inclusiveness and profound joy will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Kim Truong was among the Melbourne pilgrims who met with Pope Francis, an experience she describes as ‘truly a blessing’.

‘When he entered the room,’ she says, ‘we were all taken aback, but the peace surrounding him was overwhelming.’ She was impressed by his ‘genuine care for us and the world’ and by his willingness to spend more than an hour of his time listening to a ‘random’ group from Melbourne, ‘genuinely engaging with our concerns’ and by the way he actively included the pilgrims in the conversation, ‘seeking our thoughts on important issues’.

‘His inclusiveness and profound joy will stay with me for the rest of my life,’ she says.

Husband and wife Vu and Hang were also among those present and said it was a blessing to spend time with Pope Francis. ‘The first thing that the Pope said was that Christ never tires of walking with you. And when he said that, I was bawling my eyes out,’ Hang remembers.

‘On a personal level, as teachers, sometimes we get so weary. At times, there’s many things that we encounter that can sometimes pull our spirits or diminish us, but to know that comfort that Christ is there [for us]—we know it, but to actually hear it from a different voice.’

Recalling this private audience with the Melbourne pilgrims, Archbishop Comensoli expressed his gratitude for the late Pontiff’s ‘warmth and generosity in welcoming our WYD Pilgrims to meet personally with him’, describing it as an experience that ‘will always be deeply treasured’.

One of Francis’ seminal writings during his pontificate was Christus vivit (Christ is alive!), following the 2018 Synod on Young People. In 2024, youth ministry representatives from around the globe gathered in Rome for the International Congress on Youth Ministry, hosted by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. Local Melbourne youth leader and musician Kyle Correya represented Australia at the event and recalls the warmth with which Pope Francis greeted the hundreds who gathered there.

I was so overwhelmed with joy when I met him.

‘He was such a joyful person,’ he says. From the moment he greeted the first person to his last interaction, Kyle says, ‘he was just so joyful.’

He says the Holy Father was intent on connecting with the young people, listening to their stories, wishing to bring them closer to Jesus and the Church.

When it came time for Kyle to meet the Pope, the Holy Father heard where Kyle was from and said, ‘Oh, so far away.’ The youth leader then asked Pope Francis to pray for him and his ministry. ‘And he said a small prayer. He said, “God bless you”, and I was on my way.

‘But it was just the joy that came out of his face … He didn’t speak the strongest English, but it was so joyful to hear him communicate with me. I was so overwhelmed with joy when I met him.’