VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis was “a pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone,” said Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, as he presided over the funeral of the pope, who died on April 21 at the age of 88.
And the people—an estimated 200,000 of them— were present as 14 pallbearers carried Pope Francis’ casket into St. Peter’s Square and set it on a carpet in front of the altar for the funeral Mass on April 26.
He was was buried later the same day in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major after being driven in a motorcade through the centre of the city where he served as bishop from the day of his election to the papacy 13 March 2013.
Security around the Vatican was tight, not only because of the number of mourners expected but especially because of the presence of kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers from more than 80 countries and official representatives from scores of other nations.
Also present were the residents of a Vatican palace Pope Francis had turned into a shelter for the homeless and the 12 Syrian refugees he brought to Rome with him from a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos in 2016.
Pope Francis was ‘a pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone’
Cardinal Re
The gospel reading at the funeral was John 21:15-19 where the Risen Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” And when Peter says yes, Jesus tells him, “Feed my sheep.”
Cardinal Re said in his homily, “Despite his frailty and suffering toward the end, Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life. He followed in the footsteps of his Lord, the Good Shepherd, who loved his sheep to the point of giving his life for them.”
The 91-year-old cardinal told the crowd that the image of Pope Francis that “will remain etched in our memory” was his appearance on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica the day before he died to give his Easter blessing Urbi et Orbi [to the city and the world] and then to ride in the popemobile among the people who had come to celebrate Christ’s victory over death.
Cardinal Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, blesses the coffin of Pope Francis as he leads the funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 26. Photo: OSV News/Vatican Media
“The outpouring of affection that we have witnessed in recent days following his passing from this earth into eternity tells us how much the profound pontificate of Pope Francis touched minds and hearts,” Cardinal Re said. The Vatican estimated that 250,000 people—many of whom waited in line for three or four hours—filed past the late pope’s body in St. Peter’s Basilica from April 23-25.
Within the Church, the cardinal said, “the guiding thread” of Pope Francis’ ministry was his “conviction that the Church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open.”
Despite his frailty and suffering toward the end, Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life. He followed in the footsteps of his Lord, the Good Shepherd, who loved his sheep to the point of giving his life for them
Cardinal Re
For Pope Francis, he said, the Church was a “field hospital,” one “capable of bending down to every person, regardless of their beliefs or condition, and healing their wounds.”
Cardinal Re said that “faced with the raging wars of recent years, with their inhuman horrors and countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice imploring peace and calling for reason and honest negotiation to find possible solutions.”
The cardinal added, ‘”Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times, and his service of faith as successor of the Apostle Peter always was linked to the service of humanity in all its dimensions.”
Cardinal Re also recalled Pope Francis’ constant concern for migrants and refugees from his first papal trip outside of Rome to pray for migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, his visit to Lesbos and his celebration of Mass in 2016 on the US-Mexican border.
At the end of the Mass, Baldassare Cardinal Reina, papal vicar of Rome, offered special prayers for the city’s deceased bishop, Pope Francis. Then Eastern Catholic patriarchs and major archbishops gathered around the casket and led funeral prayers from the Byzantine tradition in honour of the pastor of the universal Catholic Church.
Pope Francis’ lasting legacy would be the call to be ‘a synodal Church,’ one where every person takes responsibility for the Church’s mission and where all members listen to one another and to the Holy Spirit
Cardinal Tobin
Missionary of Jesus Sister Norma Pimentel, director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, said, “The funeral of Pope Francis is a very important part of who we are as people of faith. We walk together, we cry together, we work together … doing what we believe is important in our lives as people of faith, and we say farewell together at the end.”
The funeral, she said, is a time “to join him in this last farewell and say thank you: Thank you for being you, for being there with us, and we’ll see you.”
Sister Pimentel, known especially for her work with migrants and refugees, observed, “He was all about making sure that we understood the importance” of welcoming newcomers, she said. His message was: “Please open your hearts. Please care for them. That’s all they’re asking.”
Joseph Cardinal Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, said Pope Francis “had played such an important role in my life as a mentor, as a teacher. It was really a 20-year friendship.”
The cardinal, who concelebrated the funeral Mass, said, “We have many reasons to grieve, but we have every reason to hope.”
Cardinal Tobin said he thought Pope Francis’ lasting legacy would be the call to be “a synodal Church,” one where every person takes responsibility for the Church’s mission and where all members listen to one another and to the Holy Spirit.
“That kind of Church is really necessary to bring to fruition all of his other prophetic teachings,” the cardinal said.
“Without a synodal Church,” he said, it will be difficult to put into practice Pope Francis’ teaching on the environment, on dialogue and human fraternity and even on sharing the joy of the gospel.
