Religious communities around the world joined Catholics mourning the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday.
Francis' election as the spiritual leader of the nearly 1.4 billion baptized Catholics worldwide in 2013 was celebrated by many spiritual leaders who expressed hope that his tenure would usher in new opportunities for interfaith dialogue. Francis, 88, fostered those connections by making more than 45 international trips, including historic visits to the Middle East, where he met with people of other faiths including Jews, Muslims and Buddhists.
Francis was remembered Monday for his calls for inclusivity and efforts to foster solidarity among Catholics, other other religious communities and even atheists.
"All religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine," Francis said during a September trip to Singapore. "But God is for everyone, and therefore, we are all God’s children."
Francis marked many firsts during his papacy, including meeting the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints face-to-face for the first time in 2019, Desert News reported. President Russell M. Nelson joined several other religious leaders with whom Francis forged bonds in mourning his passing.
“His courageous and compassionate leadership has blessed countless lives. We extend our heartfelt condolences to all who looked to him for inspiration and counsel," Nelson said in a statement. "As the world pauses to remember his example of forgiveness and service, we feel deep gratitude for the goodness of a life well lived and rejoice in the hope of a glorious resurrection made possible through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.”
Francis fostered 'strong ties with the Jewish world'
From the beginning of his tenure, Francis recognized the importance of Catholic-Jewish relations and condemned antisemitism, according to the American Jewish Committee. Francis made pilgrimages to Israel, the Great Synagogue in Rome and the Auschwitz death camp, and the committee's leadership met with him at the Vatican in2014and2019. Members of the organization gathered in Rome to pray for his recovery after he was hospitalized due to a bout of bronchitis and bilateral pneumonia, the American Jewish Committee said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog echoed the AJC sentiment, saying Francis saw "great importance in fostering strong ties with the Jewish world and in advancing interfaith dialogue as a path toward greater understanding and mutual respect." Herzog sent his "deepest condolences to the Christian world and especially the Christian communities in Israel — the Holy Land — on the loss of their great spiritual father, His Holiness Pope Frances," in a post on X on Monday.
Rabbi Noam E. Marans recalled that each time he met Francis, the late pope was able to create an "inimitable intimacy" through eye contact and warmth.
"When you were with him, whether you were one of just a few or one of many hundreds, he left you - when he clasped your hand - with a pastoral fellowship," Marans said.
Like his immediate predecessors, Francis actively implemented the goals of the Nostra Aetate, which transformed Catholic-Jewish relations from adversarial to friendly and fraternal, according to Marans, who leads interfaith affairs for the AJC. "We never take that for granted," Marans said.
Though the relationship between the two religious communities is not without challenges - in particular surrounding Francis' views on the war between Israel and Hamas - Maran said, "the difference is that when there are challenges, even severe ones, in the post Nostra Aetate era that they were discussed and addressed and sometimes resolved and sometimes not resolved between friends."
Francis hailed as 'true advocate for peace'
In 2019, Francis became the first pontiff to set foot on the peninsula where Islam was born. Just a few years after this historic trip to the United Arab Emirates, he became the first pope to visit Iraq, where Muslims and Christians shared stories with him of life under Islamic State rule in Mosul.
Francis urged political leaders to guard against religious extremism and warned Catholics not to force their faith on others during a 2024 visit to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. Anwar Abbas, a senior leader of the nation's top Muslim clerical body, called Francis "a true advocate of peace" and heralded his relationship with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque, DPA reported.
"Among Muslims, his relationship with the sheikh of al-Azhar was especially notable in their shared mission for world peace," said Abbas, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has commended Francis for speaking out about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, also offered condolences to the Christian community on Monday.
"The American Muslim community and many Muslims around the world appreciated Pope Francis' emphasis on the compassionate treatment of migrants and others facing crisis, his efforts to uphold the traditional values of his faith while maintaining a respectful tone, and his consistent condemnation of war crimes around the world, including in Gaza," said Nihad Awad, the council's national executive director.
Pope Francis 'dedicated himself to the service of others,' Dalai Lama says
After taking a trip to Thailand in 2019, Francis welcomed a delegation of about 100 Buddhist monks from the Wat Phra Cetuphon temple in Bangkok in 2024, the Vatican News reported. Francis urged Christians and Buddhists to work together to build a more inclusive world, saying "we are interconnected and interdependent."
TheDalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, wrote to the leadership of the Vatican to offer his prayers and condolences after Pope Francis died on Monday,according to a statement on his website. A memorial service is being held by the Tibetan community at the Tsuglagkhang, the Main Tibetan Temple, in Dharamsala.
Francis was "consistently revealing by his own actions how to live a simple, but meaningful life. The best tribute we can pay to him is to be a warm-hearted person, serving others wherever and in whatever way we can," the Dalai Lama said.
"His Holiness Pope Francis dedicated himself to the service of others," the Dalai Lama said.
Death of Pope Francis is a loss for nonbelievers, too
Though Dale McGowan isn't a Catholic, he felt a mix of emotions when he learned of Francis' death on Monday morning. "I'm sorry to see him gone, but also, I know he'd been suffering," said McGowan, an author who writes about nonreligious life.
Though his predecessor, Benedict XVI, was a vocal opponent of secularism and religious disbelief, Francis made clear that atheists and people of faith should come together to do good in a homily delivered shortly after he became pope. All people, "even the atheists," are "redeemed" through "the Blood of Christ," Francis said in 2013.
McGowan, a secular humanist, said it was satisfying to see someone in a position of power like Francis use their platform to advocate for issues that matter to nonbelievers like climate change and income inequality.
"He spoke to nonreligious people just as much as religious people in the things that he valued, the things that he cared enough to speak about," McGowan said. "He was an advocate for human dignity."
Contributing: Reuters; Kimberley Winston, Religion News Service
