One evening, just after Francis had been elected Pope in 2013, a group of local religious leaders gathered at my house in Oak Park for dinner. The group included the man I call Oak Park’s chaplain, Rev. Dean Leuking, who is pastor emeritus at Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Rev. Marshall Hatch, pastor at New Mount Pilgrim Church in West Garfield, and Fr. John Foley SJ, the founder of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Pilsen.
Also there was Dean Leuking’s college roommate at the University of Chicago many years ago, Professor Martin Marty, the eminent U of C theologian who died at 97 years old this past February.
The talk at the table was about the new Pope and a photo was circulating of Francis, on his first Holy Thursday before Easter, washing the feet of a Muslim woman in Rome.
Prof. Marty, who wrote the book on the recent history of fundamentalism in the U.S. and a keen observer of contemporary religion, said, “That photo is worth two encyclicals.”
His comment captured Francis who, through words and images, tried to reorient the Catholic Church away from administration and toward accompanying those in need, especially immigrants.
He called for the Church to be a “field hospital after battle.” He said, first “you have to heal wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”
This helped create a mission-driven permission structure that includes Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, a “Francis bishop.” It meant that we had a “friend downtown” when the migrant crisis arrived at the Austin Police District Headquarters in 2023, and the Migrant Ministry set up shop in the old rectory at St. Catherine-St. Lucy on Austin and Washington boulevards.
Cardinal Cupich became pivotal when the need arose to open a temporary shelter in the former St. Edmund elementary school as other shelters shut down in Oak Park. To say that some administrators at the Catholic Archdiocese downtown were cool to the idea of a shelter because of legal liability concerns would be an understatement.
But they did the right thing, permitting the shelter because the work aligned with Francis’ mission of a poor church serving the poor.
Francis’ notion of accompanying people in need is also the inspiration for The Neighborhood Bridge, whose mission is to accompany students and families at schools on the West Side so they can thrive. Not doing “for,” but walking “with.”
Francis was not perfect. He did not address forcefully enough the sex abuse scandal in the Church. He didn’t move on issues I favor, including women priests.
But he was the first to admit his failings.
He said, “I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jack Crowe, an Oak Park resident, was the executive director of the short-lived Oak Park Family Transitional Shelter at St. Edmund Parish.
