On April 21, 2025, Easter Monday, people around the world awoke to the news that Pope Francis had passed away at the age of 88. For listeners of Off the Page, it will be no surprise that a pope who took the name “Francis” would come up often in the Franciscan conversations featured on this podcast. This episode is a compilation of both published and unpublished interviews where guests talk about the life, legacy, and papacy of Pope Francis. Included here is Fr. Murray Bodo, OFM, talking about Pope Francis’ heart for the poor; Dr. Daniel P. Horan discussing how God’s love and mercy was a cornerstone to Pope Francis’ pontificate; Sr. Margaret Carney, OSF, talking about Pope Francis' unique ability to, like St. Francis of Assisi, speak the language of the people and make the Catholic faith accessible; Br. Keith Warner, OFM, dissecting the Franciscan undertones in Pope Francis' encyclicals; and the poet Dr. Angela Alaimo O’Donnell discussing the pope’s love for art and literature. This episode also begins with a recording from 2021 with Sr. Margaret Carney, where she frames Pope Francis’ papacy as one that is uniquely Franciscan. And this episode concludes with some of Pope Francis’ own words about divine mercy, translated and recorded on audiobook in the Franciscan Media title "Believe in Love."

Click here to read this episode's show notes.

(00:00:01) Introduction

(00:05:01) Franciscan Legacy (Sr. Margaret Carney)

(00:07:57) Transition

(00:08:16) Heart for the Poor (Fr. Murray Bodo)

(00:13:36) Transition

(00:14:45) Mission of Mercy (Dr. Dan Horan)

(00:19:09) Transition

(00:20:01) A Relatable Communicator (Sr. Margaret Carney)

(00:21:14) Transition

(00:22:04) The Most Franciscan Encyclical Ever (Br. Keith Warner)

(00:34:11) Transition

(00:35:52) Deep Love for Art and Literature (Dr. Angela Alaimo O'Donnell)

(00:46:55) Conclusion

(00:47:49) Be An Architect of Mercy (Pope Francis)

Darleen Pryds, PhD, is the academic director of the Master of Theological Studies-Franciscan Theology online degree at the Franciscan School of Theology (FST) in San Diego, California. She has taught at FST since 2001 and has a special interest in lay Franciscan spirituality and leadership. She is a historian, scholar, and author of Women of the Streets, Enduring Presence, and The King Embodies the Word.

Please consider donating to help us create more content like this. With an 800-year legacy steeped in the values of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, your Franciscan Media community embraces its mission of spreading the message of love, compassion, and understanding through books, St. Anthony Messenger magazine, Franciscan Media’s website, online events, videos, and daily emails like Saint of the Day.

(00:00:01) Introduction

(00:02:43) How the Background of the Canticle Leads to Deeper Appreciation

(00:12:30) Collision of Suffering and Beauty

(00:19:47) A Spirituality of Letting Go

(00:28:03) Learning to Let Go

(00:34:13) St. Francis, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Plum Village Buddhism

(00:43:35) Interbeing, Relationality, and Integration

(00:50:35) Encounter and Spaciousness

(00:57:38) Invitation: Live Into the Depth of Your Experience

(01:03:24) Honoring Stillness

(01:09:25) Benediction

(01:11:14) Conclusion

Show Notes

• Read Darleen Pryds' April 2025 cover story in the St. Anthony Messenger titled "Living 'The Canticle of the Creatures'"
• Enjoy more writings by Darleen Pryds
• View the photograph discussed in the episode.
• Subscribe here to the St. Anthony Messenger.

Sister Rosemary Stets, OSF, is a Bernardine Franciscan Sister and author of the book Franciscan Field Guide: People, Places, Practices, and Prayers. She has served on the congregational leadership team since 2011. Previously, Sister Rosemary served as Vice-President for Mission at Alvernia University in Reading, PA, and earlier was a member of the faculty in the Department of English and Communications.

Reflections in this episode are provided by Darleen Pryds, PhD, Franciscan Media's acquisitions editor. She is also a professor at the Franciscan School of Theology, a scholar and historian on lay Franciscans, and author of Women of the Streets: Early Franciscan Women and their Mendicant Vocation.

Please consider donating to help us create more content like this. With an 800-year legacy steeped in the values of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, your Franciscan Media community embraces its mission of spreading the message of love, compassion, and understanding through books, St. Anthony Messenger magazine, Franciscan Media’s website, online events, videos, and daily emails like Saint of the Day.

(00:00:01) Introduction

(00:01:24) Background

(00:06:26) Franciscan Field Guide

(00:11:17) Rediscovering God with Francis as a Guide

(00:16:40) Reflection (by Darleen Pryds): Presence and Curiosity

(00:25:18) Gazing on Ordinary Human Life

(00:30:10) Rebuilding the Church: Enraptured in Love

(00:35:24) Reflection (by Darleen Pryds): Our Ever-Deepening Conversion

(00:39:21) Poverty of Being

(00:47:29) Scotus and the Incarnation

(00:51:04) Reflection (by Darleen Pryds): Contemplating the Incarnation

(00:53:32) Relationality in a Love-Saturated Universe

(00:58:50) Mission: Learn, Love, and Serve

(01:03:13) Podcasting and Media as Mission

(01:05:21) Benediction

(01:08:01) Conclusion

Show notes:

• Read this blog post from Sr. Rosemary Stets, titled “Francis and Clare: Where the Tradition Begins”
• Order Sister Rosemary's book in print or e-book:
• Enjoy more writings by Sister Rosemary

Sister Margaret Carney, OSF, is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities. Her education in theology and Franciscan studies took place at Duquesne University, the Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University, and she was the first woman to graduate from the Franciscan University of Rome at the doctoral level. She was the president of St. Bonaventure University from 2004-2016. Her biography on Saint Clare of Assisi, Light of Assisi, is available in the Franciscan Media store, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

Please consider donating to help us create more content like this. With an 800-year legacy steeped in the values of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, your Franciscan Media community embraces its mission of spreading the message of love, compassion, and understanding through books, St. Anthony Messenger magazine, Franciscan Media’s website, online events, videos, and daily emails like Saint of the Day.

(00:00:01) Introduction

(00:05:06) Genesis of the Episode

(00:07:29) Pillars of St. Clare's Life and Historical Context

(00:13:19) Downward Mobility

(00:15:04) Pause & Pray: Downward Mobility

(00:19:49) Teaching Downward Mobility

(00:24:11) Good Ambition

(00:28:39) Lessons in Leadership from St. Clare

(00:45:23) Clarion Leadership: Primacy of Relationship

(00:48:46) Pause & Pray: Primacy of Relationship

(00:52:33) How to Live Out Clarion Leadership

(00:56:09) Culture at San Damiano

(00:59:35) Creating the Structure to Hear Others

(01:04:31) Christ in the Other

(01:09:40) Encounter: Cultivating Listening and Dialogue

(01:13:34) St. Clare’s Personal Impact on Sr. Margaret Today

(01:16:28) Conclusion

Show notes:

• Read this blog post from Sr. Margaret Carney on St. Clare’s life and legacy
• Order Sr. Margaret Carney’s biography on St. Clare, available in print, e-book, or audiobook
• Enjoy our St. Clare of Assisi playlist on YouTube
• Explore our hub of content on St. Clare of Assisi

Dr. Elizabeth Bookser-Barkley, known by her loved ones and students as "Buffy," is an English professor and chair of the Department of Liberal Arts at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has her PhD in English and is also the author of four books and numerous articles for St. Anthony Messenger magazine. Barkley has taught the St. Anthony Messenger's editorial director, Chris Heffron, and its executive editor, Susan Hines-Brigger. Barkley joins Off the Page to discuss her January 2025 cover story, "Dead Man Walking at 30," and March 2025 feature, "The Nuns Are OK." If you are curious what the Catholic Church teaches on capital punishment, see the new revision of 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Please consider donating to help us create more content like this. With an 800-year legacy steeped in the values of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, your Franciscan Media community embraces its mission of spreading the message of love, compassion, and understanding through books, St. Anthony Messenger magazine, Franciscan Media’s website, online events, videos, and daily emails like Saint of the Day. Click here to subscribe to the St. Anthony Messenger.

(00:00:01) Introduction

(00:04:05) Buffy's Background

(00:10:11) Buffy's Love for Teaching and Feature Writing

(00:15:00) Who is Sr. Helen Prejean?

(00:19:08) Dead Man Walking at 30

(00:23:48) The Nuances of Capital Punishment

(00:38:22) The Nuns are OK

(00:44:53) Exploring the Decline of Religious Life

(00:47:45) Road to Renewal: Contemplative Dialogue

(00:52:47) Interviewing and Covering the Sisters of Charity

(00:55:57) Conclusion

Dr. Daniel P. Horan is a Professor of Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Theology and Director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. He is also Affiliated Professor of Spirituality at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. A columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, he is the author or editor of more than fourteen books. Three of those books were published by Franciscan Media and are available in our store: God is Not Fair and Other Reasons for Gratitude, Dating God, and The Last Words of Jesus.

Please consider donating (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/donate/) to help us create more content like this. With an 800-year legacy steeped in the values of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, your Franciscan Media community embraces its mission of spreading the message of love, compassion, and understanding through books, St. Anthony Messenger magazine, Franciscan Media’s website, online events, videos, and daily emails like Saint of the Day.

(00:00:01) Introduction

(00:03:52) Leaving Religious Life

(00:10:29) Understanding the Transitus

(00:14:59) Listening to God in Transition, Liminality, and Change

(00:23:06) Discernment: Getting Beneath the Layers

(00:31:32) Learning to See Ourselves How God Sees Us

(00:35:09) God Is Not Fair

(00:41:07) The Challenge in Accepting God's Love

(00:50:55) Reflections on the Last Decade and the True Self

(00:55:41) Conclusion

Thomas Moore is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Care of the Soul. He has written thirty other books about bringing soul to personal life and culture, including The Soul of Christmas, which was published in 2016 by Franciscan Media. In his youth Thomas was a Catholic monk and studied music composition. He has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Syracuse University and was a university professor for a number of years. He is also a psychotherapist influenced mainly by Carl Jung and James Hillman. In his work he brings together spirituality, mythology, depth psychology and the arts, emphasizing the importance of images and imagination.

Please consider donating to help us create more content like this. With an 800-year legacy steeped in the values of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, your Franciscan Media community embraces its mission of spreading the message of love, compassion, and understanding through books, St. Anthony Messenger magazine, Franciscan Media’s website, online events, videos, and daily emails like Saint of the Day.

(00:00:01) Introduction

(00:04:26) Writing 'The Soul of Christmas'

(00:07:17) The Christmas Tree

(00:15:35) What Do We Mean by 'Mystic' or 'Magic'?

(00:19:22) Gift Giving: The Heart of Christmas

(00:24:01) Light in the Darkness

(00:30:02) Lessons from Psychotherapy for Christmas

(00:34:30) Universality of Christmas

(00:39:01) Incarnation: The Transcendent and the Ordinary

(00:44:14) Christmases of our Youth

(00:48:53) A Lived Theology at Christmas

(00:50:29) Christmas: Lessons on Peace

(00:52:42) Santa Claus: The Holy One

(00:58:30) Body, Soul, Spirit

(00:59:28) Angels and Messengers

(01:04:51) Embracing the Transcendent in Everyday Life

(01:07:47) A Mystical Christmas

(01:10:13) Conclusion

Keith Douglass Warner, OFM, is associate professor of ethics and spirituality at the Franciscan School of Theology in San Diego. He is a practical social ethicist in the Franciscan tradition, and teaches eco-spirituality, social entrepreneurship, and moral theology. In 2007, he helped author the award-winning "Care for Creation: A Franciscan Spirituality of the Earth" with Ilia Delio, OSF, and Pamela Wood. The expanded edition of "Care for Creation," released on December 10, 2024, includes extensive front and back matter which delve into Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home." You can order the expanded edition of "Care for Creation" by visiting shop.franciscanmedia.org.

Please consider donating (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/donate/) to help us create more content like this. With an 800-year legacy steeped in the values of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, your Franciscan Media community embraces its mission of spreading the message of love, compassion, and understanding through books, St. Anthony Messenger magazine, Franciscan Media’s website, online events, videos, and daily emails like Saint of the Day.

(00:00:01) Introduction

(00:03:24) Personal Journey Into Eco-Spirituality

(00:11:31) Hippie Jesus Freaks

(00:13:53) Personal Journey Into Franciscan Spirituality

(00:15:35) On Being Immersed in the Woods

(00:19:27) Writing Care for Creation

(00:24:02) Personal Impact of Laudato Si’

(00:30:28) The Heaviness of the Call

(00:34:38) Beneath the Apathy: A Spiritual Crisis

(00:38:17) Canticle of the Creatures and Franciscan Relationality

(00:45:05) Contemplative Living, Activism, and Sadness

(00:49:28) The Expanded Edition of Care for Creation

(00:53:34) Next Steps for Ecological Conversion

(00:55:33) Conclusion