Remembering the connection the Pope had to NEPA
Ciaruffoli, who grew up in Swoyersville, attended Central Catholic High School and graduated from King's College, was serving as president/chairman of World Meeting of Families — the organization that convenes every three years, culminating with a visit of the Holy Father.
Ciaruffoli, who now resides in the Philadelphia area, took time on Monday to recall his friendship with Pope Francis and to offer comments on the pontiff's passing.
"He's going to be missed," Ciaruffoli said. "He was truly the people's Pope. Yes, he met with dignitaries, religious leaders, world leaders and business leaders, but his real passion was meeting with common people. Pope Francis sincerely cared about the people who were often forgotten and under-served."
Ciaruffoli said in 2015, he and his team at World Meeting of Families had planned for the pope's visit since 2012. They planned out all events, including Pope Francis' itinerary.
There were an estimated 1,800 people at a Mass at the Cathedral of Ss. Peter & Paul and more than 50,000 people attended the Pope's address at Independence Hall.
Pope Francis spoke at Independence Hall before celebrating at the Festival of Families — a massive free party held on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where the Pope also said a Mass for an estimated 1 million people.
Ciaruffoli said he recalls that Pope Francis was beloved wherever he went, making sure to always spend time with the people.
Ciaruffoli said Pope Francis visited the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility to meet with 100 prisoners and their families. He also talked to corrections officers and their families.
"It was very personal for him to meet with the prisoners and their families and he spent a lot of time with them," Ciaruffoli recalled. "He was so engaging — you could see the passion in his face and hear it in his words."
Ciaruffoli said Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) was the first non-European pope in over a millennium. Born in Argentina, Pope Francis was the first Latin American and first from the Americas to hold the papacy. He was elected in 2013 and served until his death in 2025.
"He came from an area where economic conditions shaped who he was," Ciaruffoli said. "He shied away from the wealthy. He was always about the commoners. You have to respect him for that."
The 2015 experience has never left Ciaruffoli
"Not since September 2015 has a day gone by that I don't have a flashback to the events of that visit," Ciaruffoli said. "I guess you can say it's been the gift that keeps on giving. I am very sorry to hear that he has passed."
Ciaruffoli said the World Meeting of Families Conference, the world's largest gathering of Catholic families, featured 100 speakers, panel discussions, workshops and more at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Then the citywide Francis Festival took place over the weekend.
Ciaruffoli said working on the papal visit was exhausting, but he said he felt honored to have had the opportunity to play such a major role in the visit. Ciaruffoli said he had met the the pope on several occasions prior to the U.S. visit.
"It all was very inspiring for me," he said. "Spending so much time on the papal visit and having been able to spend time with Pope Francis was clearly an opportunity of a lifetime."
Now retired, Ciaruffoli also is a co-founder of Broad Street Angels, a 100 member Philadelphia based angel investor network which invests in early-stage entrepreneurial businesses with high growth potential. He also serves as an advisor to entrepreneurs and their firms.
Local ties
Ciaruffoli's connections to the Wyoming Valley are deep. He grew up in Swoyersville on Owens Street and the family moved to Forty Fort when he was 15. After college, he joined the Marine Corps.
Ciaruffoli moved back to the area and joined Parente Randolph LLC accounting firm in Wilkes-Barre. He stayed here until moving to Philadelphia in 2004, where he became CEO at Baker Tilly.
Ciaruffoli is the oldest of 10 children. Married to the former Kathy Ramage of Pittston, he and his wife have one son.
"Growing up in Northeastern Pennsylvania I learned to respect just about everything — certainly all people," he said in 2015. "And I learned the importance of having a great work ethic."
In the 2015 story in the Times Leader, he said it's no coincidence that he got involved in the World Meeting of Families, having come from a large family. He said the Catholic Church had a big influence on him and family has always meant a lot to him.
Pope's style
Ciaruffoli said people generally never knew what Pope Francis would say.
"I mean that in the most positive way," Ciaruffoli said.
Ciaruffoli said Pope Francis was an inspiring man, calling him refreshing and a man who was not afraid to shake things up and make changes in in areas that he felt aren't going well.
"He modernized how the church does business," Ciaruffoli said in 2015. "In 15 months, he and his people modernized the Vatican Bank. He is not afraid to look around and challenge what is going on. He is always willing to do what needs to be done."
Ciaruffoli said the Pope's visit to Philadelphia was estimated to generate some $418 million in regional economic impact, according to a study commissioned by the Philadelphia Convention and Visitor's Bureau. All 11,300-plus rooms in Philadelphia were expected to sell out and thousands of other visitors traveled daily from hotels in several states.
Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia marked the second time the city has hosted a sitting pope. In October 1979, one million onlookers greeted Pope John Paul II for a Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway during his first papal visit to the United States.
Remembering papal visit to Cuba
Pope Francis inspired people worldwide — largely due to his constant effort to treat each other as we would want to be treated.
Pope Francis seemed to have a calming effect on people.
Before Pope Francis arrived in the U.S. in 2015, he stopped in Cuba. He visited with Raul Castro, who had assumed leadership of the island country when his brother, Fidel, become too ill to continue. Some criticized the pope for walking and talking with the Castros.
Many thought that the papal visit to Cuba would accelerate positive reform there — that the people would have the freedom to worship as they please.
Juan and Elena DeRojas of Mountain Top, both now deceased, knew what it was like to live in a country where decisions are made for you — decisions like where and how to worship.
Juan and Elena were raised in the Catholic church in Cuba. They were a young couple with five children and wanted the very best for their kids. And they wanted their children to be raised in the Catholic church.
But in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it became clear to them that Cuba was changing. Fidel Castro was in charge and he brought Communism to the country. Juan was a young physician. He knew he had to leave his home country. He wanted to come to America so he and his family could live free, he said in 2015.
It was an emotional time for Juan and Elena. They knew they now had new opportunities in America. Back in Cuba, the Castro government was taking control of everything — schools, media, everything, the couple said. Juan said he attended the same school as Fidel Castro, who is a year younger than he was.
Everything Christian was being removed from schools, Juan recalled in 2015.
It was emotional for Juan and Elena and their children to see Pope Francis visiting Cuba. Juan, who has read Pope Francis' books, has followed the pontiff closely.
He saw the reaction of the Cuban people to Pope Francis. He saw their smiles and the look of hope on their faces. He shared that hope, for his fellow countrymen and for a better future. He hoped to see a return of Christian values to Cuba and he felt Pope Francis, simply by visiting, helped move that along.
Juan and Elena saw Pope Francis opening his arms to everyone and opening doors that had been closed for years. They saw him drawing attention to world problems, like helping the poor, feeding the hungry, accepting those who are different.
Juan was proud of Pope Francis, a native of Argentina. He liked that he was trying to change old ideas and practices. He was confident change would come.
On his way to the U.S., Juan said he prayed a lot. He said his faith guided him.
That faith kept Juan and Elena together for 65 years. They received an Apostolic Blessing from Pope Francis on the occasion of their 65th wedding anniversary.
America opened its arms to Juan and Elena and their children. They have never forgotten that.
That's why they smiled when they saw Pope Francis opening his arms to the world.
Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
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34 minutes ago
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Politico
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Hamilton Spectator
11 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
El Salvador opens path for Bukele to stay in power indefinitely. Why critics aren't surprised
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Damian Merlo, a U.S. lobbyist and consultant hired by Bukele's administration, defended the changes, noting that many European countries don't have term limits, and said the move only gives Bukele the option of reelection, not an automatic extension of his mandate. 'It's up to the people to decide who the leader will be,' Merlo said. 'It's been made very clear by the electorate they are very happy with the president and his political party — and this move represents the will of the people of El Salvador.' Why watchdogs aren't surprised Ortiz, the opposition congresswoman, called the defense 'absurd,' and said that Merlo was citing countries — Germany and France — with democratic systems of government answering to the countries' parliaments. In El Salvador, power is now entirely concentrated in the hands of Bukele, she said. Bukele, 44, was first elected president in 2019 after founding the New Ideas party, casting aside the country's traditional parties thoroughly discredited by corruption and lack of results. Bukele's highly controlled messaging of beating back the country's gangs and rooting out corruption have gained traction in El Salvador, especially as homicide rates have sharply dropped. But critics say many of the moves he has justified as tackling corruption and violence have actually whittled away at the country's democracy. Over the years, his attacks on opponents and critics have gradually escalated. In recent months, things have come to a head as Bukele has grown emboldened by his new alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump . A number of high profile arrests and a slew of other actions have forced more than 100 members of civil society — lawyers, activists and journalists — to flee their country as political exiles in the span of months. A look back at some of the actions he's taken 4. 2020: Bukele showed up to the country's Legislative Assembly with armed soldiers to pressure lawmakers to approve one of his proposals. 5. 2021: a newly elected legislature controlled by his party purged the country's courts , including the Supreme Court. The lawmakers stacked the courts with loyalists. 6. 2022: Bukele announced a 'state of emergency' to beat back El Salvador's gangs. The move suspended some constitutional rights, and has allowed the government to arrest 86,000 Salvadorans — more than 1% of the country's population — with little evidence. Detainees held in prisons have little access to due process. The government also passed an elections redistricting law that critics said would stack elections in favor of Bukele's party, which was already very popular. 7. 2023: Bukele opened a mega-prison for gangs, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), where Venezuelan deportees from the U.S. were detained for months this year. The prison has been the source of accusations of mass human rights abuses . 8. 2024: Bukele sought reelection, despite El Salvador's constitution clearly blocking consecutive presidential terms. In an interview with The Associated Press, the country's vice president denied last year that El Salvador had become a police state and refused to answer questions about whether he and Bukele would seek a third term. Following his landslide victory, Bukele railed against critics and press. Intensifying his crackdown in 2025 This year, watchdogs have warned that Bukele has ramped up his crackdown on dissent, emboldened by his new alliance with Trump. 9. In May, police violently repressed a peaceful protest near Bukele's house asking the president for help in stopping the eviction of their rural community. 10. Shortly after, the government announced it was passing a 'foreign agents' law, similar to those used by governments in Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Belarus to silence dissent by exerting pressure on organizations that rely on overseas funding. 11. Police have arrested a number of high profile critics. Among them was Ruth López, an anti-corruption lawyer for a top human rights organization. At a court appearance in June, a shackled López escorted by police shouted: 'They're not going to silence me, I want a public trial. ... I'm a political prisoner.' The government also arrested prominent constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya after he called Bukele a 'dictator' and a 'despot' on live TV. 12. In July, López's organization Cristosal announced it was evacuating all staff from El Salvador in the face of intensifying repression. It comes amid a flight of critics and other civil society leaders. What critics saying The recent constitutional reform has fueled a new wave of criticism by civil society in the Central American nation, with leaders saying that Bukele's government has finally done away with one of its last democratic norms. Roxana Cardona, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the Movement of Social Justice and Citizen Control, said 'a democratic state has been transformed into an autocracy.' Cardona was among those to provide legal representation for Venezuelans detained in El Salvador and other Salvadoran youth accused of being gang members. 'Today, democracy has died. A technocracy has been born. Today, we live in a dictatorship,' she said. Others, like human rights lawyer Jayme Magaña, said the idea of alternating power, crucial in a country that still has decades of civil war and dictatorships of the past simmering in its recent memory, has been broken. Magaña said she worried for the future. 'The more changes are made to the system of government, the more we see the state's repression of the Salvadoran population intensifying,' she said. —— Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
