(December 17, 1936 – April 21, 2025)

Unitarian Universalists join millions of people worldwide in mourning the death of Pope Francis. A transformative leader, the first Pope from Latin America, and the first Pope from Argentina, his moral clarity and justice-centered ministry, including his work elevating climate justice and highlighting the dignity and humanity of migrant families, were significant to all people of good will.

As importantly, he will be remembered for his gracious humility and his willingness to demonstrate his own frailties to a world that is often uncharitable to those made vulnerable. I pray today for and with the millions of Catholics and others who will miss him and the model of servant leadership he embodied.

–Rev. Sofía Betancourt, Ph.D., President, Unitarian Universalist Association

Photo: Long Thiên, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons