Cebuana bizwoman looks back at encounters with Pope Francis: 'I felt God'

Local

THE moment the she was informed about the news, she stood frozen in the Archbishop’s Palace. Around her, conversations faded, but inside her chest, a quiet grief stirred.

For Fe Mantuhac-Barino, a businesswoman and international leader in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, it felt like losing a spiritual father.

The passing of Pope Francis hit close to home for Barino — not just as a Catholic, but as someone whose life had been directly shaped by three personal encounters with the pontiff.

Barino found both affirmation and mission in the Pope’s quiet presence and simple words.

Three encounters

Her first glimpse of him was in 2015 in Tacloban, where she stood in the crowd as the Pope visited typhoon survivors. That moment, she said, revealed the kind of shepherd he was — one who walked with the wounded.

But it was in 2017, during a personal meeting in Rome, that Barino experienced something more profound. With the help of Cebuano Vatican-based Monsignor Jan Thomas Limchua, she was introduced to the Pope.

Through the help of the Cebuano priest, she shared the story of her advocacy, Surrender to God or "SuGod," a spiritual rehabilitation program for drug dependents and the marginalized.

After hearing her out, the Pope offered a short but powerful response. “It is very important," Pope Francis said in Italian.

To Barino, those four words were more than encouragement, but they were a commissioning.

“I knew then that what I was doing wasn’t just a personal initiative. It was part of a larger mission. I felt God was affirming it through him," she told MyTV Cebu on Wednesday, April 23.

That encounter deepened her commitment to serve what she calls “the wounded of society," or the drug dependents, the homeless, and the spiritually lost.

She met Pope Francis again in 2023, just before joining the international council of Charis, the Vatican body overseeing the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

That final encounter, she said, felt like a quiet goodbye, one where she held his hand, full of gratitude.

Hopes for a Filipino Pope

Now, as the Church begins its search for a new pope, Barino carries a hope close to her heart: that the next pontiff might be Filipino.

“We are a people formed by the Church. Having a Filipino pope wouldn’t just be symbolic, it would bring the Church closer to the margins," she said.

She sees Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a top Vatican official and former Archbishop of Manila, as a natural choice, humble, joyful, and deeply pastoral.

She believed Cardinal Tagle could continue Pope Francis’ vision of a synodal Church.

To her, the call for a Filipino pope was not rooted in nationalism, but in the desire to lead a Church that walks closely with those who suffer.

In Cebu, she is now joining the celebration of a memorial Mass set for April 25, alongside Archbishop Jose Palma and the Commission on the Laity. Charismatic groups and lay communities will gather to honor the Pope’s memory with prayer and solidarity.

For Barino, Pope Francis’ death is not an ending, but a reminder to remain faithful to the mission, to serve with compassion, and to lead always with love.

“Even in death,” she said, “Pope Francis calls us to unity and love.”(MyTVCebu)