Pope Francis, when he took the name of Saint Francis at the beginning of his papacy, was a "declaration of who he would be as a Pope," Dr. Grazie Christie, the medical director of the Archdiocese of Miami, told Newsmax on Monday.
"He was a Jesuit, of course, but he didn't take the name of Saint Ignatius Loyola, which he could have, and he would have been justified to do," Christie told Newsmax's "National Report" while reflecting on his life and death. "But he took Saint Francis, and I think that that gave a stamp to his papacy right away."
The pontiff rejected pomp and circumstance, and "he used to talk about being that the shepherd should smell of his sheep, and that is something that showed all the time throughout his entire papacy," she added.
His simplicity and humility led to his deep connection with people worldwide, and called on the church to spread toward the world's most vulnerable and poor, Christie said.
She also pointed to the Pope's writing of Laudato Si, a "wonderful encyclical about the care of our common home of the Earth."
"I think it's something that everybody needs to read, especially environmentalists. He connected the dots in a way that I don't think anyone else has as to the way that the Earth is a gift to man and we are to love it [the way] Saint Francis did all the creatures of the Earth and the beauties of God's creation," the doctor said.
Christie further told the program that her youngest daughter is a teenager who spent Holy Week in Rome with a group of Catholic girls this past week.
"She saw the Pope those last three days," said Christie. "She was very close to him physically and sent us videos, and she was stunned. She said that he looked very frail. He looked weak, pale. He had trouble enunciating."
She said her daughter was also "stunned" that he made the "heroic effort to connect again with the sheep, with the flock" on Easter Sunday.
In the upcoming days, as Pope Francis is buried and the selection process begins to replace him, Christie said she is "excited to see the kind of outpouring of love that I know will happen."
"He touched many, many hearts and really, I feel like he was the kind of Pope who tore down barriers," said Christie.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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