'Humble people from Cleveland' invited Pope Francis to their wedding. They received a thoughtful response.

While many people around the world continue to mourn the passing of Pope Francis, some have also recounted their memories of him on social media. Among them was Reverend Ian Anderson, a Unitarian Universalist Minister-in-training in Cleveland, Ohio, who shared to Reddit. When Ian and his now-wife Ash were sending out their wedding invitations in 2023, they had a few extras. They decided to send them to some of their favorite celebrities, among them Jack Black, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Judge Judy, and Pope Francis, Newsweek shares.

Ian told Newsweek, "It was really just for fun." As "two humble people from Cleveland," they didn’t expect a response from anyone, but they did write a nice letter to the Pope in particular. "The invite we sent him was slightly more formal than the others," Ian noted. "We included much more formal language, referred to him as 'His Holiness,' and said we wanted to extend this invite because he is someone we admired. We also asked him to please pray for us.” Their response came the following month, in June 2023.

Ian and Ash received a letter at his parents’ house from Monsignor Roberto Campisi at the Vatican, written on behalf of the Pope.

Anderson's photo of his letter written on the pope's behalf.Screenshot from Anderson posting as u/Misther__ on Reddit

“His Holiness Pope Francis has received your kind letter, and he has asked me to thank you.

His Holiness will pray for you and your fiancée on the happy occasion of your wedding. He invokes upon you God’s abundant blessings.”

At first Ian and Ash were surprised, especially since they learned about it at their niece’s t-ball game: “My dad came up to me all serious and confused, asking why I had a letter from the Vatican. The return address was my parents' house, and at first I forgot that we sent him a wedding invite, but then it hit me. I just thought, did we really get a letter from the Pope?"

In addition to Pope Francis, Anderson and his wife also invited Barack Obama to their wedding. obamawhitehouse.archives.gov

Indeed they did, and the letter is framed in their house to this day. Ian’s post about the letter has since gone viral, with over three million views on TikTok and 149K upvotes on Reddit.

Ian and Ash appreciated the Pope’s dedication to practicing what he preached: humility, kindness, and courteousness. This is something Ian preaches as well as a self-described “punk minister” who occasionally shares live services on TikTok and plays in metal bands. “We as humans have an abundance of thought, logic and opinions,” Anderson said. “I don’t care if you believe in a higher power, believe in none, or believe in many: the spiritual path you walk is worthy of dignity (so long as you are responsible with it) and has a place at the table of spiritual unity.”

Rev. Ian A introduces himself on TikTok.www.tiktok.com

In his final Easter address, one day before he passed, Pope Francis’s own messages of faith and humanity were similar: “On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!" he said, as reported by ABC News.

Living amongst a multitude of ideas is what makes us human, whether you’re the Pope, a minister-in-training from Ohio, or somewhere in between. If we can do so with kindness, courtesy, and humility, too, all the better.