Author: Editor

Pope Francis ended his service as the successor to Peter just as he began his ministry many years ago: in the midst of his people.

That poignant photo of Pope Francis yesterday at St. Peter’s Square will remain for all of us his historical stamp on his desire to live out his ministry exactly as Jesus did — in humble service. He was present to everyone, and he was struggling as Jesus did.

Pope St. John XXIII urged the Church to “open the windows and let in the fresh air” of the Holy Spirit. Pope Francis then urged the Church to “open the doors to allow everyone in, and to go out into the far corners of the world” to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis’ entire life was riveted on the reality that Jesus came to fulfill the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah: “He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.” (Is 61:1-4)

His first trip outside Rome was to Lampedusa, the very southern tip of Italy, where refugees from Africa and the East first found land. And many drowned trying to reach a better life. He went there to be present with the suffering and to bring them some comfort.

Every time there was some calamity around the world, either caused by nature or by people, Pope Francis reached out to them with those constant words: “I am with you in closeness and I accompany you in your pains and sufferings.”

His papal visits were often to smaller places around the world, places previous popes had never been. He wanted to be present to them and to include them. He greatly expanded the College of Cardinals to represent all the corners of the world. Those cardinals will now be given the opportunity to elect the next successor to Peter.

Shortly after his election in 2013, I remarked that it was obvious how his pontificate was unfolding: he wanted all of us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus far more deeply so that we saw the face of Jesus in the poor and most vulnerable; and he worked to make the Church of today harmonize with the Church of the Acts of the Apostles.

His emphasis on synodality was simply a reminder of how the Church functioned at its very beginning: listening, praying, involving the Holy Spirit, discerning, and then taking bold steps forward.

Pope Francis spoke Gospel truths. Not everyone embraced his Gospel teachings because those teachings did not harmonize with their own personal, economic, and political agenda. He brought Jesus and the Gospels to influence everyday life.

It was an enormous privilege and grace to have participated in the conclave that elected him back in 2013. He was a good and gracious friend, and we exchanged letters often during this pontificate. Although he was in the hospital on February 17, he signed a letter of congratulations as I celebrated my golden jubilee as a bishop.

As I prepare to travel to Rome for his funeral Masses, I go to help bury a friend and a brother. I go with prayers of gratitude to God for the indelible stamp which Pope Francis has made on the world and the Church: we are all God’s children, and we must care for each other and our common home, the earth.

May he rest in peace.

Pope Francis died April 21 after suffering a stroke and heart attack, said the director of Vatican City State’s department of health services. The pope had also gone into a coma.

“I certify that His Holiness Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 17, 1936, resident of Vatican City, Vatican citizen, passed away at 7:35 a.m. on 4/21/2025 in his apartment at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Vatican City, from: cerebral stroke, coma, irreversible cardiovascular collapse,” said the statement, signed by the director, Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, and published by the Vatican press office.

The doctor said the pope also had a history of: “a previous episode of acute respiratory failure due to polymicrobial bilateral pneumonia; multiple bronchiectases; arterial hypertension; and type II diabetes.”

A heart monitor or ECG was used to ascertain his death, that is, that there was no longer any heart activity, he wrote on the signed declaration.

The doctor also read the statement aloud during a special prayer service that began at 8 p.m. local time April 21 in the late pope’s residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, presided over the rite, which included the formal verification of the pope’s death, the placement of his body in a coffin, and its transfer to the chapel on the first floor of his residence. The pope died in his third-floor apartment at 7:35 a.m. April 21.

Others present at the closed-door ceremony included Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals; the late pope’s aides, assistants and members of the papal household; Dr. Arcangeli; and Dr. Luigi Carbone, deputy director of the Vatican’s health department and the pope’s personal physician.

This was the first of three rites that are divided into three “stations” based on the place they occur: “at home, in the Vatican basilica and at the burial place,” according to the “Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis” (“Funeral Rites of the Roman Pontiff”). There will be separate services for transferring the body to St. Peter’s Basilica, the funeral, the burial and the memorial Masses that follow the funeral for the next eight days.

The Vatican press office confirmed that, according to instructions guiding what happens after the death of a pope, the funeral and burial should take place “between the fourth and sixth day after death,” which would be between April 25 and 27.

The exact date will be determined at a meeting of all the cardinals able to reach the Vatican immediately after the papal death. The first meeting was being held at 9 a.m. April 22 in the Vatican Synod Hall.

The press office said the coffin would probably be brought to St. Peter’s Basilica April 23 for public viewing and prayer before the funeral. Instead of lying on a catafalque, that is, a kind of decorated platform, the body will be placed inside a zinc-lined coffin, which will remain open until the night before the funeral, which will be celebrated by Cardinal Re.