As the world mourned Pope Francis following the announcement of his death Monday morning, reporters who had covered Roman Catholicism’s first-ever pope from the Western Hemisphere shared their reminiscences.

For me, the most memorable “Francis story” was his visit to the United States in 2015 two years after his surprise election to the papacy. Arriving in Washington D.C., Francis eschewed the limousine normally reserved for visiting dignitaries and chose to get around the nation’s capital in a modest Fiat 500L — his surprise mode of transportation drawing swatches of publicity and instantly spiking sales in Fiats.

“And thank God he wasn’t driving a Volkswagen!” my colleague Sabrina Fritz of German AWD Radio said at the time, referring to the ongoing scandal over the German auto manufacturer cheating on emissions tests.

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