As the world mourns the passing of Pope Francis, Trending with Timmerie host Timmerie offered a deeply personal and joy-filled reflection on what it was like to be in Rome during the historic days of his election. On March 19, 2013, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Timmerie arrived in the Eternal City, just hours after Pope Francis’ papal inauguration.
The atmosphere? “An after-party of hope,” she recalled. Crowds filled the streets chanting “Papa Francesco! Papa Francesco!”—a Church caught up in the joy of a new Holy Father.
What shocked many was Pope Francis’ choice to ditch the bulletproof glass in favor of an open Popemobile. “Then he did the unthinkable,” Timmerie recalled. “He stepped out of the vehicle.” The Swiss Guards were alarmed; the crowd went wild.
In a moment of ecstatic energy, Timmerie snuck away from her group and made her way to the front of the barricade, enlisting a group of tall Australians nearby to help her get as close as possible. While she stretched out as far as she could over the barricade, hoping to touch Pope Francis, she couldn’t quite reach the Holy Father, but she came close.
Beside her was a young man in a wheelchair. Pope Francis lifted him up, over the crowd, to be kissed and blessed. It was a striking gesture of radical mercy, embodying the Pope’s rejection of the “culture of waste” and his fierce embrace of the vulnerable.
Timmerie caught it all on camera. The images went viral, capturing the heart of Pope Francis’ papacy: compassion, closeness, and love for the least.
She closed her reflection with stories of the early months—how the new Pope snuck out at night to serve the poor, how he chose simplicity over splendor, and how he redefined what it meant to be a shepherd.
Pope Francis, a bold and tender leader, changed the tone of the papacy. And now, as Timmerie reminds us, we return the love he showed the world: by praying for his soul, with gratitude for his witness.
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