“He would be saying to people, ‘Rejoice. Don’t be sad that I’ve died,'” Bartchak said of history’s first Latin American pontiff who, against the advice of doctors, celebrated Easter by blessing the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Breathing on his own, without oxygen, the pope made a surprise visit after spending 38 days in the hospital with double pneumonia.

“Dear brothers and sisters, I wish you a happy Easter,” he said, his voice heavy with effort.

While those were his final words in public, his legacy as the “People’s Pope,” will live on, local religious leaders said, as regardless of one’s faith, Francis offered kindness, a listening ear and hope to the weary.

Bishop Mark L. Bartchak met with Pope Francis for the first time on July 14, 2013, at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence. Photo courtesy The Catholic Register/Fotagrafia Felici

Pope Francis was a person who really loved people and especially the poor, Bartchak said. He “wanted to make sure that the people who were poor — the lonely and those disenfranchised in many ways — are not forgotten.”

Pope Francis was “a delightful person to speak with,” said Bartchak, the bishop of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, during the press conference inside the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament where he showed photos and talked about meeting the pope during a pilgrimage to Rome in 2019.

“He wanted to know why I came to Rome,” Bartchak said. “That’s how friendly and down to earth he was.”

Pope Francis also “had the experience, the compassion and the virtue to listen to people from where they’re coming from, and I think that’s what set him apart,” Bartchak said.

As part of his hope-filled legacy, Francis kept it simple, Bartchak said. “He would say, ‘You can’t forget the needs of people who are without hope.'”

The Rev. Matthew Reese, pastor of Our Lady of the Alleghenies Parish in Lilly, said Francis was a “good shepherd for the people” who reached out to many marginalized members of society and tried to bring them closer to Jesus.

“One of the things that stands out for me is how he used to go to a different place, whether it be a prison or to some type of a place you would not expect to have somebody of his stature there, to celebrate the Mass and show that these people, too, are part of our society and are not to be forgotten,” Reese said.

The Rev. Thomas Stabile, T.O.R., pastor of Holy Family Parish in Portage, said, simply put, Francis was an advocate for the Gospel’s basic teachings.

“The very basics of Jesus’ teaching was that everyone was invited into the kingdom and we have to not judge, but welcome and teach and show the compassion of Christ and his love,” Stabile said.

Francis did that by endorsing nostra aetate, a declaration condemning anti-semitism issued by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, said Bill Wallen, retired executive director and a current officer of the Greater Altoona Jewish Federation.

“That was a major move for the Catholic church at that time,” Wallen said. “Pope Francis wholly endorsed and continued the more positive relationship with the Jewish community.”

When Francis was installed as the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013, Bartchak brought together a group of respondents — that included Wallen — to write a review of a book Francis wrote.

“In reading his book, it became very clear that his basic values were very similar and the same as Jewish values in terms of reaching out to the poor, reaching out to the stranger, reaching out to the underprivileged,” Wallen said, noting Francis “steered the Roman Catholic Church in that direction.”

The Rev. Brian Saylor, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Bellefonte and St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Penns Valley, said Francis was inspirational in the way he helped other people.

“It was all about making that human contact with people, and I think that’s essential for us as clergy and especially as a church to do that moving forward and carrying on that legacy that he had,” Saylor said.

Rabbi Audrey Korotkin of Temple Beth Israel said Pope Francis “was really what we would call a Tzadik, which means that he was an honorable, charitable, kind and giving man.”

Somebody who is a Tzadik is a righteous person and that’s how we would want to remember him, Korotkin said.

Francis “did sacred work on the part of people who needed help who were in trouble, who needed healing, who needed support. He believed in making people’s lives better, which is why I do what I do. And I don’t think he was afraid to call out when people were doing the opposite … doing harm to people,” she said.

Pope Francis also “very much believed in interfaith work,” Korotkin said, noting that she knows several colleagues who got a chance to meet with him in interfaith settings.

“They really took to him, not just because he was charming, but because he was genuinely interested in the work that people were doing,” she said.

“I think we all will remember him very fondly and with love,” Korotkin added. “We will miss his presence.”

A small memorial with candles and prayer cards for people to pray for Francis is available at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Bellefonte, Saylor said.

A memorial Mass will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, April 28, at Our Lady of the Alleghenies Parish in Lilly, Reese said.

“That is for us to pray and remember Pope Francis, remember his legacy and offer prayers for him at his time of passing,” he added.

Bartchak is planning a memorial Mass to celebrate the life and legacy of Francis in the near future, according to Tony DeGol, communications director for the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

Bartchak said Francis would want people to rejoice in his death and to understand that he is reunited with the Lord and his loved ones in Heaven.

In death, Francis is “going to move on and the world will move on as well. He wants us to know that God is with us and Christ has risen. He has truly risen,” Bartchak said.

“From our Christian understanding, Easter is the reminder that although we do have to enter death, that our faith tells us that for the faithful, life changes when we die, it doesn’t end,” Stabile said. “That’s the faith of Pope Francis and what kept him going even through his illnesses.”

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.