Ky. Catholic community remembers Pope Francis

Ky. (WKYT) - Catholic communities across the globe are mourning the death of Pope Francis, including in Kentucky.

Father Jim Sichko from Richmond is 1 of 100 with the title in the United States.

He says each of the over 50 times he’s met the Pope, he’s brought him a piece of Kentucky.

“When I first met him one on one, I brought him a bottle of Pappy’s 23,” Father Jim says, “And from that moment on, that kind of went viral. And people started dropping off at my house, anonymously, bottles of various scales of bourbon.”

During their last meeting, Father Jim brought Pope Francis a signed Mark Pope jersey. Pope Francis signed it as well.

“He was the people’s Pope,” Father Jim says.

“If you had the opportunity to meet him. He always ended, he always got the last word and the last words were ‘please pray for me.’”

Lexington’s own bishop, John Stowe was appointed by Pope Francis himself.

Bishop Stowe tells us he met the Pope six times.

“He was the real deal. What you saw in person, what you experienced with him was the same thing that you saw in all the public photos and news clippings,” Bishop Stowe says.

Pope Francis was named “The People’s Pope” for his work to support the poor.

Just like the Catholic Action Center has opened their dignity station for free showers for the homeless, the Pope did the same in Saint Peter’s Square.

“He was a Pope for the poor. He was a man of peace and justice. He believed in the dignity of all people. But he did not mind standing for those who are experiencing [poverty] and pointing them out and saying, ‘this is the call of the church,’” Catholic Action Center Director, Ginny Ramsey says.

All the way from Rome, Pope Francis had ties to Lexington.

Hundreds of small green crosses were sent with a friend of Ramsey’s to the Vatican.

“They’re called the cross of the pocket and it says, ‘God loves you,’” Ramsey says.

She tells us all of the green crosses were blessed by Pope Francis himself.

“To be able to share with the homeless in the streets of Lexington, a reminder that they’re loved, just seems like a perfect circle,” Ramsey says.

Ramsey says so many within the Catholic Church will miss Pope Francis.

“But I think it’s so much greater than that. I think our whole world is going to miss the voice that Pope Francis spoke,” she says.

As the world mourns, “the call to all of us is to continue to live the spirit [of Pope Francis],” Ramsey says.

Ramsey says Pope Francis wasn’t just a faith leader, he lived it.