Despite hopes for potential sainthood, in Argentina, "we cry because we did not fully understand or appreciate the extent of his global leadership," said an Argentine priest.
"Some say he did not do enough; others criticize him for even meeting with people like me," said one transgender Catholic. "But he led by example. And in doing so he brought more hope, more love to the Catholic Church."
Pope Francis, history's first pontiff from the Global South, has died at age 88 following a monthslong respiratory illness, setting the stage for a high-stakes secretive election to determine his successor.
The pope made ecological concern a cornerstone of his 12-year papacy and positioned care of creation as both a nonnegotiable pillar of the Christian faith and "essential to a life of virtue."
Latin Americans observed that Pope Francis, the first pope from the new world, brought to the Vatican a new way of talking about God, lifting up causes and convictions that they shared.
Pope Francis, who elevated the status of women, and especially women religious, within the Catholic Church more than any pontiff in history, died early April 21. He was 88.
The nuns are unsure how many women they have helped at St. Euphrasia's Safe Home, but a senior worker there said at least 25 women are in the house on any given day.
Mother Eliswa Vakayil, known as a champion of women's rights, founded the first Indigenous Carmelite religious order for women known as the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites in 1866.
