Mike Kelly, Award winning journalist Interview

Mike Kelly talks with Mendte in the Morning about the passing of Pope Francis and a personal experience Mike had with him covering the Pope’s visit to Cuba in 2015.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, let's talk to Mike Kelly, an award winning columnist
from North Jersey dot Com and The Record. And of course, Mike,
all we're talking about this morning is the passing of
Pope Francis. And you had the chance to cover him once.
Talk about that.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I did. Yeah, Good morning, Larry. A very sad morning,
I think. Yeah. It was twenty fifteen. My newspaper, The
Bergen Record, sent me to Cuba to cover the Pope's
visit there. Obviously an interesting visit because Cuba, being a
communist country, largely had outlawed Catholicism or at least marginalized it.

(00:38):
And I was down there really kind of with a
dual assignment. I was also down there to find some
of the fugitives from America who were hiding there, not
the least which is Joannechesimard, who murdered a New Jersey
state trooper years ago, and also Willie Morales who blew
up Francis tavern in nineteen seventy five. I'm down there

(01:01):
and the Pope is going to speak on a Sunday
morning at the Plaza de la Revolution, which is a
huge expanse of asphalt that Castro used to speak at
and deliver these three hour speeches. And so I got
up at three o'clock in the morning to get there,
get through security, all this, and it's dawn and I'm
standing there and I'm really tired and figuring I have

(01:23):
about four hours to wait until the Pope finally shows up.
And all of a sudden, across the plaza, I see
this golf cart and a guy in white, and I'm thinking, no,
this can't be And sure enough it was the Pope
riding around this huge asphalt like a parking lot in
a golf cart, high fiving people who got there early.

(01:46):
Unfortunately I didn't get chance to high five, but it
was really quite a sight.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, he wanted to humanize the position of pope. He
took away a lot of the pomp and circumstance. Remember
the old popemobile. He got rid of that right away
because he wanted to touch and feel the people. So
what you saw is exactly who he wanted to be.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yes, and and the people responded to it. I mean,
keep in mind, Cuba was a largely non religious country
under Castro for decades, and then all of a sudden,
this man is riding around, high fiving people, and people
were just running to him just to touch his hand
and that sort of thing. He had a very very

(02:32):
shy and kind of but yet inviting smile and thought,
and I think that that drew people to him as well.
You know, of course, we all talk about the many
reforms that he tried to institute within within Catholicism, but
I think what, you know, what really touches people on

(02:53):
a very ordinary and human way is his willingness and
ability to just you know, hang out with people. Remember
when people were delivering pizzas to him, it was you know,
there was some pizza shop in Rome that was delivering
pizzas and apparently they got some kind of an endorsement
from the Pope and the and of course that pizza

(03:15):
franchise is doing very well right now. But I found, however,
that that you know, when he had an ability to
cross and a lot of a lot of leaders don't
really have that ability, but the ones who are great do,
And he had that ability to cross those lines of

(03:36):
pomp and circumstance and and and feel like, you know,
one of the the kind of person who could really
you could sit down and have a conversation with if
you wanted to.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
What do you think happens now? Because he was a
progressive pope, and he was from what you hear, he
wasn't well liked among a very conservative Catholic Church. Are
things going to change back to where they were? Will
they now go with more of the conservative.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well, yeah, it's interesting you mentioned that, because yes, there
are a lot of conservatives here in the United States
who very much opposed Pope Francis, some of whom I covered,
and some of them. I know, it's hard to say, Larry,
Let's be honest here. The Catholic Church will always be conservative.

(04:27):
That's part of the brand, so to speak. And even
though Francis is known as a reformer, there were a
number of liberals who were upset that he didn't go
far enough, particularly with the sex abuse scandal. He kind
of stumbled early on in addressing that. But I think
there's some things that you really can't Once this ocean

(04:50):
liner is sailing, you can't really turn it around. And
I think Francis is focus on allowing gay people to
be blessed by Catholic priests, in trying to bring women
into more leadership positions within the Vatican, not necessarily priests,
but trying to bring them into leadership positions and also

(05:11):
trying to sort of open up this very, very stodgy institution.
I think those kinds of things are going to last
and will be his legacy.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
I agree with you, Mike. Thanks for your insight. Mike
Kelly is an award winning columnist for North Jersey dot
Com and The Record. Really fascinating stuff. Thanks a lot, Mike.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Take care, Larry, Bye bye