Pope Francis, the first pope to come from Latin America, died Easter Monday at his residence in the Vatican. Members of the Catholic Church in Athens, Georgia, mourned his passing.
At the Catholic Center on the University of Georgia campus, members of the community stopped to pray.
Emily, a recent graduate of the University of Georgia, saw Pope Francis speak in Washington DC when she was in high school. She says she saw in Pope Francis a model for how to treat others.
“That was something that I really carried with me, trying to find empathy with everyone that I encounter even though the way I live my life is different than someone else’s, I always owe them my love and the love of Christ.”
She says she’ll be praying for the Pope today, joining millions of Catholics who are both mourning the loss of their leader and looking to the Vatican for his successor.
