‘Just surreal’: Local woman recounts meeting Pope Francis

A local woman is remembering her experience of meeting Pope Francis.

Vivian Shannon, executive director of the Seattle-based Fulcrum Foundation, had a private audience with him during a retreat in Rome last November. The Fulcrum Foundation supports 74 Catholic schools across Western Washington.

“About 40 or 45 of us went through security at the Vatican and we went into the papal palace and walked up several flights of stairs, a big, huge marble staircase, into the papal palace rooms where we waited for him to come in and greet us,” Shannon said.

The pope spoke for about 10 minutes.

“Then one by one, we were each able to go up and shake his hand and greet him personally, which was just surreal,” Shannon shared. “Oh my gosh, I say this with such respect. But he was jolly, he was adorable. His eyes literally twinkled when he spoke. He was humble.”

Pope Francis: ‘Please pray for me and not against me’

Shannon and Pope Francis spoke for about 40 seconds, and in that time, he asked her three times to pray for him, she said.

“Everyone greeted him, and he was getting ready to leave the room. He kind of turned around to face all of us one last time and said, ‘Remember, please pray for me and not against me,’ which I thought was so fascinating,” she said.

Shannon said that in his 12 years as pope, he met resistance from some people around the world.

“I think that he always led from a place of love and wanting the Catholic Church to be as inclusive as possible,” she shared. “I think there are some people that, you know, didn’t really relish his message as much as he would have hoped.”

Reflecting on Pope Francis’s legacy, Shannon highlighted his passion for Catholic education.

“He believed in it so deeply and that the role of Catholic education was to provide access to a very high-quality education to those who wanted it the most,” she said. “Those who couldn’t necessarily afford to attend Catholic schools, he wanted to make that possible in order to develop the whole child. It wasn’t just about academics, but it was about really what kind of person do they end up becoming as a result of Catholic education.”

Pope Francis died Monday at the age of 88.