SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – People around the world are remembering Pope Francis as a kind and inclusive leader who advocated for people from all walks of life. 

One Shreveport woman who traveled with a priest from Virginia to Vatican City in 2014 wanted the priest, Father Mike, to be blessed. However, they didn’t have a ticket for an audience with the Pope.

Dr. Bernadette Cordero Boyd said, “Then the man looked at me and looked at Father Mike, he said, let me go see and he goes come up with me, so we got to go up on the steps up to the top where you get to meet the pope and he turned to me and said and you get to meet the pope too, so i was very thrilled because I didn’t ask God for me, I asked for Father Mike.”

Boyd’s son, Charlton, and his wife, Ella, had their marriage blessed by Pope Francis in 2023, which was special for the family, but she says he loved and accepted anyone.

Boyd went on to say, “He was a man, a priest of the people, he was in some ways like Jesus because he met with anyone.”