Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The death of Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontif for 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, resonated Monday throughout the Mountain State.
Francis, 88, suffered from chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man. He died Monday, hours after making his last public appearance on Easter Sunday to bless thousands in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square. Francis was admitted to a Rome hospital on Feb. 14 for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia. He spent 38 days there.
When the news broke early Monday, Debra Sisler stopped at her home church, Our Lady of the Hills in Elkview, to pray. She works at St. Anthony Catholic Church on Charleston’s West Side, at 1000 Sixth St.
Sisler noted it was “beautiful and sad” that Francis died following one last Easter service.