Bishop Malooly greeted Pope Francis after the pope’s talk to U.S. bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 23.
“I’m Francis, too,” Bishop Malooly said he told the pope during their introduction. “I’m so gratified for your joy in faith and for all you have done for the church.”
The bishop was introduced to Pope Francis because of his membership on the U.S. bishop’s administrative committee for region 4 of the United States bishops’ conference.
In a 40-minute talk to the bishops, Pope Francis touched on many duties of a bishop, and concluded with two recommendations. He asked bishops to be fathers to their people and priests, and, “pleading my own cause,” he said, to care for immigrants to America, where no one does more for immigrants’ needs than “Christian ministries.”
