By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
VATICAN CITY/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – U.S. evangelist Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Evangelical aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, urged Christians to pray for the Catholic Church following Pope Francis’s death.
“Pope Francis passed away this morning after battling health issues,” Graham said in a statement on social media. “He was able to have meetings and appear at some of the Vatican’s Holy Week observances in just the last couple of days,” added Graham, the son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham.
“I had the opportunity to meet and talk with him last year when I went to Naples to preach. Pray for the Catholic Church as they begin the process of selecting the next pope.”
Graham included a photo of himself shaking hands with the pontiff as part of his post.
Other Christian leaders, including Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, also offered condolences. “Pope Francis served Christ’s church with wisdom, courage, and humility,” she stated. “Throughout his pastoral ministry, he served as an instrument of God’s justice and peace for all people and the whole of creation.”
Reverend Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders and an Evangelical public relations executive, urged Evangelicals to “pray for the Catholic Church as they mourn the passing of Pope Francis and prepare to select his successor.”
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Moore said he participated in the late pope’s pilgrimages to the United Arab Emirates, reportedly the first time a pontiff had ever visited the Arabian Peninsula and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, also noticed that
“We mourn the passing of Pope Francis, a visionary leader of faith and a tireless advocate for the marginalized,” tweeted Rodriguez.
In 2016, Rodriquez and the late pope gave speeches at the Together 2016 Evangelical event in Washington, D.C.
Rodriquez added, “His life was a testament to hope — the hope that the Church can shine as a beacon of light in a darkening world. Now, more than ever, that message is needed, and today, we have lost one of its most steadfast champions.”
Several Christian leaders had similar messages as they remembered the passing of the pontiff of some 1 billion Catholics at age 88.
The Vatican said Pope Francis had gone “in the arms of the Father.”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Iran rejected each other’s latest peace proposals aimed at ending the 10-week war, sending the U.S. dollar higher against major currencies as investors sought safety amid renewed Middle East uncertainty.
A tense calm settled over Moscow Sunday after Russia’s annual Victory Day Parade was overshadowed by fears of Ukrainian drone and “terror attacks,” with the Kremlin reportedly increasingly concerned about the security of President Vladimir Putin following a rare strike on the Russian capital.
Senior Trump administration official Ambassador Monica Crowley declared this week that the American public will soon receive concrete evidence supporting President Donald Trump’s claim that he won the 2020 presidential election in a landslide — a statement that signals the administration is moving from assertion to action on one of the most contested issues in recent American political history.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar urged the nation’s president to resign immediately in an unprecedented inaugural speech in parliament Saturday, while an estimated 200,000 supporters watched proceedings outside on giant screens in central Budapest.
A series of unusually large market bets on falling oil prices — totaling an estimated $7 billion — is drawing growing scrutiny after the trades repeatedly occurred minutes before major Iran-related policy announcements by President Donald Trump, according to a Reuters analysis and market experts.
The Israeli military announced Sunday that it carried out a sweeping series of operations against the Iranian-backed terror organization Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, striking more than 40 terror infrastructure sites and killing over 100 terrorists over the weekend.
More than 200 children were rescued and more than 350 child sex offenders arrested in one month in the latest Department of Justice targeted enforcement operation to find child sex abuse victims and arrest child sex predators.