SLO Mission to honor life of Pope Francis by ringing bells 88 times
The death of Pope Francis reverberated around the world Monday, leaving Catholics from Rome to San Luis Obispo in mourning.
“I am saddened by this loss,” the Rev. Martin Cain, pastor at the San Luis Obispo Mission, told The Tribune. “He was a wonderful man and pope.”
To honor the Holy Father’s life and legacy, the SLO Mission will ring its bells 88 times on Monday afternoon — a papal tribute to his 88 years of life, Cain said.
The mission will also hang a banner of black fabric from the bell tower in mourning.
After months of medical complications, the pope reportedly died after a stroke at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta at 7:35 a.m. the day after Easter Sunday, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“The vast majority of the church and Catholics in general loved Pope Francis,” Deacon David Ford, the chancellor of the Diocese of Monterey, told The Tribune. “There is a sense of loss.”
In the coming weeks, the Vatican will enter a closed conclave in the Sistine Chapel in Rome to elect the next pope from a collection of Catholic cardinals around the world.
“I am trusting in God,” to find the next worthy pope, Cain said.
Who was Pope Francis?
Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina became the first Latin American pope, and the first non-European pope, on March 13, 2013.
He was the first Jesuit pope — a Catholic order known for its emphasis on social justice — and the first to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of the environment, animals and the poor.
Pope Francis lived a humble life, choosing to forgo the pope’s traditional home in the Apostolic Palace to instead live in the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel, and believed that “the church should be seen as a field hospital for the wounded,” reminding his followers of the primary role of the church as an instrument of healing, Ford said.
His papal leadership was marked by controversial moves away from the traditional doctrinaire of his predecessors.
The Holy Father was outspoken about his support for migrants, declared that homosexuality is not a sin and approved blessings — though not marriage vows — of same-sex couples.
“The pope has reminded us to not judge others, that everyone is welcome in the Catholic Church,” Ford said. “He is a man who never changed, really, a teaching of the doctrine of the Catholic Church, but he did invite us into a reform of how we do pastoral practice, and how do we live as disciples?”
In a Feb. 11 letter to U.S. bishops responding to President Trump’s mass deportation plan, the pope wrote that “the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”
“The pope was a very strong person. He called (out) some of these horrible things that are happening,” Ford said. “He wasn’t afraid to challenge power of all political persuasions.”
“He’s been a very consequential pope,” Ford said. “He made us all think.”
This story was originally published April 21, 2025 at 4:10 PM.
