Shemaine Bushnell Kyriakides
It was the picture that made the whole world stop and stare.
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, two leaders worlds apart, face-to-face inside St. Peter’s Basilica, talking quietly before Pope Francis’ funeral. No shouting, no grandstanding. Just a real conversation, under the gaze of a man who spent his life preaching peace.
Maybe it won’t end wars overnight. But for a moment, it cracked through the noise and showed us what's possible.
It felt like Pope Francis, even in death, had pulled off one last miracle: bringing enemies to the same table.
Watching the funeral, I didn’t expect to feel so much. Sure, I grew up Catholic, Mass on Sundays, feast days, confession every month at my all-girls school, St. Theresa’s. Festivals, processions, first Fridays, all of it. But somewhere along the way, I became a skeptic of the Church.
The scandals, the politics, they pushed me away. I kept my faith, but made it personal. I would talk to God directly, not through a priest.
As a kid, Pope John Paul II was a big deal, mostly because my grandmother adored him. But Pope Francis?
I respected him, but I didn’t feel deeply connected, not until now.
Watching his funeral, seeing who he had been and what he stood for, it hit me: he was the real deal.
He lifted the poor. He fought for refugees. He called out wars when others stayed silent. He even built bridges between Catholics and Orthodox Christians, something I personally know is no easy feat.
(Once, married to my Greek Orthodox husband, I tried taking communion in his church. The priest spotted me a mile away, shook his head, and said, “When your Pope and my Archbishop come together, then maybe.” Back then, it just felt like another wall. Pope Francis spent his life tearing those walls down.)
And now, even in death, he reminded the world what unity could look like.
That one picture, Trump and Zelensky, not as rivals but as two men talking, captured everything he stood for. Maybe it won’t end wars overnight. But for a moment, it cracked through the noise and showed us what's possible.
Pope Francis was called the “Pope of the People.” Sitting there, watching it all unfold, I finally got it.
He didn’t just preach it. He lived it.
