Pope Francis meeting with Rabbi Lyon. He and Bishop John Ogletree (photo below) are leaders with TMO and wrote this article.

[Originally published in Houston Chronicle]

Last year, Pope Francis met with a group of 15 or so Houston community organizers and leaders in his private residence. It was the third time he’d met with us, members of The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) of Houston and colleagues from the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation. This time, he counseled us not to lose the ability to laugh.

Pope Francis was interested in our organizing work because he wanted to uplift those on the margins, the powerless, the migrant. He was a gracious,unassuming, humble man.

At each visit, Pope Francis sat side by side with us. We shared our stories of pain, how we worked for change. Pope Francis never rushed the conversation. He questioned us, engaged us and shared his own experiences.

“[H]e had a marvelous way of putting us at ease, listening intently, and engaging with humor and stories of his own,” remembered one of our colleagues, Joe Rubio, the national co-director of the Industrial Areas
Foundation. “He was genuinely curious about us and our work. It felt like we were speaking with a good friend.”

The Pope listened as Eduardo Anaya, of Valley Interfaith, shared how our organizations worked to bring waste water, drainage and roads to hundreds of unincorporated “colonias” in South Texas. He smiled with approval as
Elizabeth Valdez, lead organizer of TMO, described how we and our sister organizations have developed job training programs that have helped over 30,000 families move from poverty to the middle class over the last 30 years. And he encouraged us to keep working, instructing us with a genial smile, “not to rest on our laurels.”

He found commonality across our differences. After I (Lyon) shared my story as a rabbi, Pope Francis noted that Christians and Jews share a profound interest in making a sacred difference in people’s lives. He encouraged us to persist in this work to lift up the vulnerable and support all people in God’s sight. And as an African American Protestant Bishop, I (Ogletree) shared how imperative it was that we organize together so that people have the
power to make a difference by speaking truth to power. Pope Francis encouraged us to actually live what Jesus taught about love, compassion, forgiveness, peace and human dignity. His great interest in our work contrasted with his experiences in his native Buenos Aires, where community organizing was akin to rebellion.

Today, that work can still feel rebellious, even here, especially when it comes to recognizing and honoring our immigrant neighbors.

Last December, Pope Francis wrote to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the West/Southwest IAF region in San Antonio.

“I express my closeness to you and commend you to your prayers, while encouraging you to continue working in support of communities, especially he suffering and stigmatized migrant families,” the message read.

As he understood more about our organizing work in the United States, Pope Francis connected us to church leaders in Latin America so that we could build bridges between those who are seeking to uplift the plight of the
vulnerable.

Pope Francis lived what he preached. He spoke softly yet his words had a real force. He rejected the traditional trappings of his of his office and instead chose to live in a simple dormitory and eat in the common cafeteria with his fellow priests.

As we left our final meeting with him in 2024, we all understood that this would probably be our last conversation with him. The room felt heavy but hopeful.

Sensing our feelings, he said he wanted us to join him in a prayer that he had prayed every day for the last 40 years of his life. He gave Joe Rubio a copy of Saint Thomas More’s Prayer for Good Humor and asked him to read it aloud to the group.

Read it today in honor of this remarkable man:

Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest. Grant me a
healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it. Grant me a
simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good and that doesn’t frighten
easily at the sight of evil, but rather _nds the means to put things back in
their place. Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and
laments, nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor. Allow me the grace to be able to
take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with
others.

Rabbi David Lyon is the Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel. Bishop John Ogletree serves at First Metropolitan Church.

Pope Francis Cared About Houston. We Must Carry on his Work | Opinion, Houston Chronicle [pdf]