#FlatFrancis

Everyone is excited about Pope Francis making his first visit to the United States in September. For American Catholics, it’s a rare opportunity for us to see our beloved Holy Father on our home turf.

I work for Catholic Extension — a papal society created to strengthen faith and provide resources to poor Catholic communities across the United States. Given our long history with the Catholic Church in America and our connection to the papacy, we want to do something special to welcome Pope Francis to the United States — so we created Flat Francis.

We’re encouraging Catholics to download the Flat Francis cutout from our website and take a photo with him that represents their experience of the Catholic Church in America. It can be a selfie, a photo of Flat Francis in their Church, or anything else that showcases the many people, places, and activities of American Catholicism. The photos can be posted on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #FlatFrancis or e-mailed to socialmedia@catholicextension.org. We will use the photos to assemble a photomosaic that we will send to Pope Francis in September.

Since launching in April, we’ve received nearly 1,000 photos coming from all 50 states. Flat Francis has posed with youth groups, Catholic schools, sports teams, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Knights of Columbus, charitable organizations, service projects, retreat groups, Bible studies, seminarians, priests, deacons, religious sisters, families, pets and more. Comedian Jim Gaffigan even posted a photo with Flat Francis surrounded by all his kids.

Best of all, the Flat Francis project has demonstrated the energy, diversity, and pride of American Catholics. While recent reports indicate that Christianity in this country is on the decline, you wouldn’t know it from the deluge of #FlatFrancis photos we’re receiving that clearly show the excitement of parish life and the vibrancy of Catholic ministries in churches across the United States.

For the last 110 years, Catholic Extension has been answering Pope Francis’ call to serve those on the margins of society by investing in the essentials that allow them to practice their Catholic faith — building churches, paying salaries for staff and clergy, and funding various ministries.

Through our work, we see all sides of the Catholic Church — from the installation of our chancellor Archbishop Blase Cupich at beautiful Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago to celebrating a Sunday Mass with a traveling priest in a renovated tire shop in a remote town lacking a proper church. When the Pope comes to the U.S., his busy itinerary won’t grant him such a comprehensive view of the stateside Church — but Flat Francis can help.

We are excited to share these images with Pope Francis, so he can also see the Church’s hopeful future in the United States. This is an aspect of the Church that we are blessed to encounter regularly throughout the 94 under-resourced mission dioceses that we support. What these Catholic communities are lacking in financial or physical resources, they make up for in their faithfulness and commitment to the Church. Last year we set an organizational record by generating $32 million in support of the 13 million Catholics living in these dioceses.

Want to post your own #FlatFrancis? Let’s show Pope Francis how excited we are for his arrival and that the Catholic Church is alive and well across the United States.