It is with deep sadness and great gratitude that we bid farewell to Pope Francis, who went home to the Father on Easter Monday this year. Until the end, we experienced him as a pastor who wanted to be close to people – as a shepherd who travelled with those entrusted to him. He challenged us and gave us an example of leaving our comfort zones and going to the peripheries, seeing the marginalised and meeting them as fellow human beings, taking responsibility for our common home, the earth, and living fraternity with all people, children of the one Father. He was a true pontiff, a bridge-builder who sought to meet and engage in dialogue. He was interested in his counterpart and listened. And he invited the entire worldwide Church to walk the path of synodality in communion, participation and mission and to allow herself to be led by the Holy Spirit.
Some things will remain indelibly etched in our memories:
• The celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursdays in various prisons, during which he washed the feet of the prisoners. On Holy Thursday this year, despite his failing health, he met inmates at the Regina Coeli prison in Rome.
• He travelled to countries where no pope had ever been before. The most recent destinations were the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, as well as Mongolia two years ago, and then to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore last year.
• And his first trip to Lampedusa, where he threw a wreath into the waves in memory of the many refugees for whom the Mediterranean Sea had become a grave.
• His encounters with indigenous people and the protection of their cultures and habitats, which he repeatedly called for.
• The extraordinary Jubilee Year 2016, in which he focussed on God’s mercy.
• And the round tables in the Audience Hall, where the participants in the World Synod 2023 and 2024 met at eye level practising together how to listen to the Spirit.
• The memorable images that he used so often: for example, when he imagined the church as a field hospital at the beginning of his term of office or when he confessed that he preferred a battered church to a closed and comfortable one that took care of its own security; when he exhorted shepherds to take on the scent of the sheep or when he denounced the globalisation of indifference.
On 1 February this year, we prayed the first vespers with him for the Day of Consecrated Life in St Peter’s Basilica. When he was taken out in his wheelchair afterwards, our Superior General, Sr Josephina D’Souza, was able to meet him briefly and greet him.
Two weeks later, on 14 March, he went to the Gemelli Hospital for treatment. From 24 February onwards, many of the faithful gathered every evening to pray the rosary for the sick Pope in St Peter’s Square, and we also took part from time to time. He was finally discharged on 23 March, but for a long time it remained unclear whether he would be able to take part in the liturgies of the Easter Triduum; the doctors had advised him not to attend any public events for two months. His health improved slowly but steadily. Although he still visibly lacked the strength to take part in the long Solemn Masses, he repeatedly showed through surprising short visits that he wanted to be close to the people: when he came to St Peter’s Square for a short visit at the end of the Mass for the Jubilee of the Sick on 6 April or a week later at the end of Palm Sunday’s Holy Mass. On Holy Thursday, he did not miss the opportunity to be with prisoners as usual. And on Easter Sunday, it was not clear until the very end whether he would be able to give the Urbi et Orbi Blessing to the city and the world after the Solemn High Mass. It was already a few minutes after 12 noon when he came out onto the loggia of St Peter’s Basilica in a wheelchair and wished the crowd in a weak but clear voice: ‘Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!’
After the Easter message he had prepared being read out, he gave the Urbi et Orbi Blessing with a barely audible voice. While the first people were already leaving St Peter’s Square, there was an unexpected announcement that the Pope wished to come down to the square to be close to the people. And once again he made a round of St Peter’s Square in the Popemobile and right up to the edge of the gathered crowd, into Via della Consciliazine, giving people a wave and occasionally stopping so that parents could hold their small child up to him for a blessing.
So, for us here in Rome, as in many other places around the world, the news that he had returned home to the Father that morning came completely unexpectedly and surprisingly – for many during the celebration of Easter Monday Holy Mass.
Together with around 12,000 faithful people, we gathered in the evening to pray the rosary for the deceased, which Cardinal Gambetti concluded with the words:
“O God, great in love,
turn your gaze towards those who pray to you:
We thank you for the gifts,
given to the Church through the apostolic ministry of Pope Francis;
and to him who has borne witness among us
of your tenderness for the little ones and the poor,
of your mercy for sinners,
of your benevolence towards all,
grant participation in the marriage of the Lamb,
in communion with the Virgin Mary, the Apostle Peter
and all holy men and women in heaven.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Sr. Adelheid Scheloske, SAC
Photos from: www.sac.info (1), VaticanMedia (1), Sr. Adelheid Scheloske SAC (5)
