Maria Immacolata Church

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis was "a pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone," said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, as he presided over the funeral of the pope, who died 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 April 26.

His burial was scheduled for later the same day in Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major after being driven in a motorcade through the center of the city where he served as bishop from the day of his election to the papacy March 13, 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 -- including U.S. President Donald J. Trump -- 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.

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."

"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," Cardinal Re said in his homily. "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.

"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 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."

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."

With President Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olga Lyubimova, Russian minister of culture, seated near the altar, 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."

'"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," the cardinal said.

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 U.S.-Mexican border.

At the end of the Mass, Cardinal Baldassare 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 honor of the pastor of the universal Catholic Church.

Sister Norma Pimentel, a Missionary of Jesus and director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, had knelt in prayer before the body of Pope Francis April 25 and was present for the funeral.

"The funeral of Pope Francis is a very important part of who we are as people of faith," she told Catholic News Service. "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 is known especially for her work with migrants and refugees, a ministry close to the heart of Pope Francis.

"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."

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, also prayed alongside the pope's body April 25 as it lay in state in St. Peter's Basilica. "It was an important moment of confirming the news that I had heard but did not want to believe" -- that the pope had died.

Pope Francis "had played such an important role in my life as a mentor, as a teacher," the cardinal said. "It was really a 20-year friendship."

"We have many reasons to grieve, but we have every reason to hope," said the cardinal, who concelebrated the funeral Mass and would be among the cardinals voting to elect a new pope.

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.
 

ROME (CNS) -- "The Virgin Mary told me, 'Prepare the tomb.'" That is what Pope Francis said Mary told him when he was discerning whether to be buried in the historic Marian church where his body will be laid to rest April 26. 

Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major, discussed the pope's decision to be buried at the papal basilica some three miles outside the Vatican during a news conference April 25, the day before the late pope's funeral.

The cardinal said that during a meeting with the pope in 2022 to discuss a remodeling project in the basilica, he asked the pope if he wanted to be buried there given his devotion to the Marian icon "Salus Populi Romani" ("health of the Roman people"), which is housed in the church.

"In that moment he said no, because the popes are buried in St. Peter's Basilica," Cardinal Makrickas said, but after a week the pope called him to his Vatican residence and shared what Mary told him. 

In that conversation the pope added, "I am happy that Our Lady hasn't forgotten about me," the cardinal told reporters, and he was asked to begin preparing the tomb.

The basilica is the first and oldest Marian basilica in the West -- it began construction in 432, though it was completed in its present state in 1743.

Pope Francis specified that he did not want his tomb placed in the Pauline Chapel, where the Marian icon is on display, because "in this chapel people must pray to the Lord, venerate Our Lady, not look at the tomb of a pope," Cardinal Makrickas said. 

The late pope visited the Marian icon in St. Mary Major before and after each of his 47 international trips and after each of his hospital stays. He told people he also had visited it each time he came to Rome as a cardinal.

His connection to the basilica is also tied to his Jesuit roots: St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, celebrated his first Mass there in 1538, making it a fitting burial place for the church's first Jesuit pope.

Cardinal Makrickas noted that the basilica's location is also symbolically important. It is connected by a straight road to the Basilica of St. John Lateran, where St. Francis of Assisi once sought papal approval for his new religious community. According to tradition, Pope Innocent III had a dream of a humble man holding up that basilica to stop its collapse -- a vision believed to foreshadow St. Francis' mission.

Pope Francis, the first to use that papal name, chose it in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.

The pope's burial place will be near the icon that was so dear to him as well as to an altar dedicated to St. Francis, so "the place seems truly perfect," Cardinal Makrickas said.

Pope Francis will be the first pope buried at the basilica since Pope Clement IX who died in 1669. The last pope to be buried outside the Vatican was Pope Leo XIII who was buried in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in 1903.

A photo of the Pope Francis' tomb released by the Vatican April 24 showed it to be simple, adorned with an enlarged rendering  of his pectoral cross and made of white Ligurian marble -- a nod to the land of his Italian grandparents -- while bearing only the name "Franciscus."

"I see it as a connection between the decision to not live in the Apostolic Palace, but rather at Casa Santa Marta," Cardinal Makrickas said. "His life also ends in a place that is different and simple."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Given the late Pope Francis' care and concern for the poor, a representative group of them has been formally invited to welcome his casket to Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major for burial.

"The poor have a privileged place in the heart of God," the Vatican press office said in a statement April 24. It was the same "in the heart and magisterium of the Holy Father, who had chosen the name Francis to never forget them."

"For this reason, a group of the poor and needy will be present on the steps leading to the papal Basilica of St. Mary Major to pay their last respects to Pope Francis before the burial of his coffin," the statement said.

The College of Cardinals decided Pope Francis' funeral would be celebrated April 26 in St. Peter's Square. In his final testament, Pope Francis asked to be buried at St. Mary Major where he frequently went to pray to seek Mary's help or to thank her for her assistance.

The Vatican said the pope's casket would be driven to the basilica from the Vatican through the city of Rome. The motorcade is supposed to move slowly so that members of the public along the route can salute him for the final time.

The actual burial is a prayerful rite that will not be broadcast live, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

Pope Francis' tomb, in a niche in a side aisle of the basilica, is made of marble from Liguria and, in accordance with the pope's wishes, says simply, "Franciscus." A reproduction of his pectoral cross hangs above the marble slab. 

In his final testament, published by the Vatican a few hours after his death April 21, Pope Francis asked to be buried at St. Mary Major because he had entrusted his "priestly and episcopal life and ministry" to Mary.

"I wish my last earthly journey to end at this very ancient Marian shrine where I would go to pray at the beginning and end of each apostolic journey to confidently entrust my intentions to the Immaculate Mother and to thank her for her docile and maternal care," he wrote.
 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Benedictine abbot and a Capuchin cardinal will offer spiritual meditations on the needs of the Catholic Church to the cardinals preparing to elect a new pope, according to the Vatican press office.

Benedictine Father Donato Ogliari, abbot of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, will offer the first meditation soon after Pope Francis' funeral April 26, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office. 

Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the retired preacher of the papal household, will offer the second meditation inside the Sistine Chapel before members of the conclave begin to vote. Because Cardinal Cantalamessa is 90 years old, he is not eligible to participate in the voting.

The meditations should focus "on the problems facing the Church at the time and on the need for careful discernment in choosing the new Pope," according to the apostolic constitution, "Universi Dominici Gregis," containing the rules for running the church between the death or resignation of a pope and the election of a new one.

The two prelates were chosen April 24 during the third "general congregation," the title for the daily meetings of cardinals before the conclave begins. As of April 24, the cardinals had not decided what day the conclave would begin.

Bruni said 113 cardinals participated in the meeting April 24. Cardinals who arrived in Rome after the April 23 general congregation took their oaths at the beginning of the meeting. 

Cardinals are obliged to "promise, pledge and swear, as a body and individually, to observe exactly and faithfully all the norms" governing the period between the death of a pope and the election of a new one, and "to maintain rigorous secrecy with regard to all matters in any way related to the election of the Roman Pontiff."

The College of Cardinals currently has 252 members. The 117 cardinals who are ineligible to vote, mainly because of age, are still invited to participate in the general congregations. Bruni said he did not know how many of the 113 present April 24 were cardinal electors.

And while many of the cardinals still had not reached Rome, the cardinals began their discussions of the needs of the church and the world, with 34 cardinals speaking, Bruni said.
 

WASHINGTON – According to a new survey, nine in ten men who will be ordained to the priesthood this year were encouraged to consider this vocation by someone in their life. Three-quarters of them regularly participated in Eucharistic Adoration before entering the seminary.  “Encourage a young man to consider the priesthood or to attend Eucharistic Adoration; he could be your future pastor,” said Bishop Earl Boyea. “We express our deepest gratitude to the many priests, family members, mentors, formators, and laity who have encouraged and supported these men in their discernment of their call to the priesthood.” In conjunction with the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on May 11, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations released the Ordination Class of 2025 Study, conducted annually by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University.

“We pray for the continued fidelity of the newly ordained to the voice of God and for the faithful to whom they will minister,” said Bishop Boyea, who serves as chairman of the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations. “As witnesses of hope, we thank them for their courage to commit their lives to what Pope Francis said is a call that embraces their entire existence.” 

Out of the 405 men who are to be ordained this year, 309 completed CARA’s Ordination Class of 2025 survey, for an overall response rate of 76%. These ordinands represent 115 dioceses and eparchies in the United States and 36 distinct religious institutes.  

A few of the major findings in the report:  

• Nine in ten responding ordinands (89%) reported being encouraged to consider the priesthood by someone in their life, most frequently by a parish priest (60%), friend (52%), or fellow parishioner (42%). 
• Regarding prayer practices, three-quarters of responding ordinands participated in Eucharistic Adoration (78%) on a regular basis before entering the seminary. 
• Most of the ordinands received formation at a seminary in the Midwest (37%) followed by the South (29%), Northeast (16%), West (13%), and abroad (5%). 
• Responding ordinands indicate they first considered priesthood during elementary school (35%), followed by high school (20%).  
• Hispanics/Latinos constituted 12% of the responding ordinands. Between 2006 and 2025, the share of Hispanics/Latinos averaged 15% and ranged between 11% and 22%. 
• Ordinands who attended Catholic elementary school constituted 46% of all respondents, and 36% attended a Catholic high school. 
• Most respondents (92%) were baptized Catholic as an infant and raised primarily by their biological parents (95%) and a married couple living together (89%).  

The full CARA report and profiles of the Ordination Class of 2025 can be accessed here.   

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- From the moment he took the helm of the Catholic Church's sprawling hierarchy, Pope Francis positioned himself as a pastor close to the people he served, and he called out the behavior of priests who were distant from and thought they were superior to their flocks.

The pope set the tone early for his consistent rebukes of clericalism by including it in his first apostolic exhortation, "Evangelii Gaudium," the 2013 document that was considered a roadmap for his pontificate.

Discussing the need to recognize the baptismal dignity and gifts of the laity, the pope wrote that sometimes laypeople did not have the necessary training to exercise leadership, but often "room has not been made for them to speak and to act, due to an excessive clericalism which keeps them away from decision-making."

Pope Francis' campaign against clericalism was waged when meeting both ordinary parish priests and "princes of the church," as cardinals once were known.

In a 2016 homily -- given at a morning Mass with members of his international Council of Cardinals -- he said that modern-day priests "feel superior, clerics distance themselves from the people," and the poor and humble suffer as a result.

"The evil of clericalism is a really awful thing," he added.

In an open letter published in 2023, Pope Francis told priests of the Diocese of Rome that clericalism is "a disease that causes us to lose the memory of the baptism we have received" and leads to priests exercising authority "without humility but with detached and haughty attitudes."

The papal message has reached those preparing for priesthood, too, Msgr. Andrew R. Baker, rector of Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, told Catholic News Service.

In an email interview in March 2024, the monsignor, head of the largest Catholic seminary in the United States, said that since the start of Pope Francis' pontificate he has noticed "a growing desire among the seminarians to be other-centered," in contrast to a pervasive worldly mentality that emphasizes the needs of the self.

"Seminarians today are not becoming priests because they want an easy, revered, and privileged life," he said. "Pope Francis' message on clericalism serves the seminarians as a kind of warning if they don't forget about themselves and serve others."

At the Vatican Pope Francis tried to lead by example by appointing more laypeople, especially women, to positions of responsibility.

In a significant shift, the pope revised language about who can lead Vatican dicasteries, the departments that make up the Roman Curia, opening the door for laypeople to be at the helm of the church's governing bodies.

St. John Paul II's 1988 apostolic constitution "Pastor Bonus" had dictated that the top Vatican offices would be led by a cardinal or archbishop and specified that "matters requiring the exercise of power of governance be reserved to those in holy orders."

Pope Francis replaced that language in 2022, writing in his constitution "Praedicate Evangelium" that "any member of the faithful can preside over a Dicastery or Office."

Immediately following the promulgation of "Praedicate Evanglium," he named three women, including a laywoman, to the Dicastery of Bishops, the Vatican office that helps the pope choose bishops. Before the reform, only cardinals and a few bishops were members of the body.

One of the three women, Salesian Sister Yvonne Reungoat, told CNS that her appointment was "one sign among many" of Pope Francis' desire to respect the different vocations of the church's members and incorporate them into its decision-making.

While some priests still exercise their ministry as "a power over others, who then become inferior," Sister Reungoat said she receives "absolute respect of our vision and equality" from the cardinals and bishops in the dicastery.

Pope Francis, she said, understood the complementary nature of men and women working alongside one another as well as the fruitful collaboration of the church's lay and religious members -- both dynamics that cut down on clericalism.

The listening that took place as part of Pope Francis' 2021-2024 Synod of Bishops on synodality, she said, allowed "a large, free expression of the sufferings, many sufferings, caused by clericalism and which remain wounds to be healed."

Merely stating the problem of clericalism and its consequences is not enough to solve it, she said, but "the act of being able to express it and that such (sentiments) are accepted is a step on a journey of change."

"That doesn't mean these steps will necessarily change the whole world, but I believe they are irreversible," she said.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, told CNS that having women members of the dicastery "contributes significantly to the process of discernment in looking for who we hope are the best candidates to serve the church in episcopal ministry."

To deter attitudes of clericalism among bishops, he said, "it's important to find men who are truly interested in serving, in preaching the Gospel, not just with eloquent words, but rather with the example and witness they give."

In fact, the cardinal said, Pope Francis' "most effective and important" bulwark against clericalism was his being "a pastor who preaches by gesture."

Pope Francis tackled the issue "head on through some of the talks he's given to the Roman Curia," urging clerics at the highest levels of the church's hierarchy "to examine ourselves and think about what it means to also be at the service of the church."

"His message is precisely to inspire, to lead, to push all of us who are members of the clergy to not get so caught up in a lot of the external trappings but look for ways to truly be examples of the mercy, the compassion, the healing of Jesus Christ," Cardinal Prevost said.

VATICAN CITY -- To the chanting of Christ's promise, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live," the mortal remains of Pope Francis were carried into St. Peter's Basilica by 14 pallbearers.

Thousands of people had made an early morning pilgrimage to St. Peter's Square April 23 to witness the transfer and pray for the late pope; they erupted in applause when his body, in an open casket, reached the square and again when it reached the top of the basilica steps.

The basilica was to be open until midnight April 23, from 7 a.m. to midnight April 24 and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. April 25 for visits by the public. Another rite, to close the casket, was scheduled for late April 25. The pope's funeral was scheduled for April 26 in St. Peter's Square with burial to follow in Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major. 

U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, as chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, led the prayer service that accompanied the transfer of the body from the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where the pope had lived and where he died April 21 at the age of 88.

More than 80 cardinals joined the procession ahead of Cardinal Farrell, who was wearing a red and gold cope, and immediately preceded the pallbearers flanked by members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard.

Directly behind the casket were the men closest to the pope in his final days: his nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti; his two valets; and his personal secretaries. 

Three religious sisters and a laywoman, whom the pope had appointed to top positions in the Roman Curia, came behind them: Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist Raffaella Petrini, president of the office governing Vatican City State; Salesian Sister Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops; and Emilce Cuda, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

The basilica's bell-ringer sounded the death knell as the procession began.

To the singing of Psalms, beginning with "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23), the procession with the casket went into St. Peter's Square amid the public and then up the central ramp -- where Pope Francis would ride in the popemobile -- and into the church.

Inside the basilica, the choir and assembly chanted the Litany of Saints and then "Subvenite Sancti Dei," which begins with the petition: "Saints of God, come to his aid. Hasten to meet him, angels of the Lord. Receive his soul and present him to God the Most High."

Pope Francis' body, in a zinc-lined wooden casket covered in red fabric, was placed before the main altar on a low platform cut at an angle so that people coming to pay their respects could see his face.

Cardinal Farrell blessed the pope's body with holy water and incense and led those assembled in praying the Lord's Prayer.

Removing their red zucchettos, the cardinals bowed before the coffin, made the sign of the cross and left the basilica. They were followed by bishops, both those who work at the Vatican and those who head dioceses, then hundreds of priests and religious and top Vatican lay employees.

Mary Frances Brennan, who teaches at Kennedy Catholic High School in Seattle, was in the front row in St. Peter's Square.

She said she had learned the pope had died just a few hours before her flight to Rome was scheduled to leave.

"It was devastating," she said. "We really wanted to see the pope."

"He's my pope," she said. "I love him and want to honor him."

Additionally, Brennan said, "now all the people back home have a contact here and can see this through my eyes."

Waiting in line later to enter the basilica, Adjani Tovar from Mexico City told Catholic News Service that Pope Francis "was a very disruptive pope: As a Jesuit, a true Jesuit, he naturally had a closer connection with people, especially young people."

"He addressed topics that had been off-limits in the Catholic Church for a long time, and he's going to be remembered as a turning point for all the openness he showed to different communities, for his focus on inclusion, his relationships with heads of state, and his constant calls for peace," Tovar said.
 

Pilgrims line up to say goodbye to Pope Francis

In a solemn ceremonial procession with the College of Cardinals April 23, Pope Francis' body was moved from his residence to St. Peter's Basilica, where the faithful could gather and pay their respects to the pope before his funeral, set for April 26.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis was a pastor first, "so consistently, so spontaneously and with such deep conviction," that it will remain a gift to the Catholic Church, said Cardinal Michael Czerny.

The cardinal, who served as prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, spoke with Catholic News Service April 22, the day after Pope Francis died at the age of 88.

"Pope Francis will be remembered as a pastoral pope," he said. "The word 'pastoral' is easy to use, and you can apply it to many things, but to see it lived consistently by the person with the highest responsibility in the church is a really important contribution."

Cardinal Czerny, 78, said it is not that previous popes were not pastoral, but Pope Francis excelled at "showing how the church was first and foremost interested in the welfare, the salvation, the happiness, the development of people and ready to reach out as far as possible, to accompany people in their path of salvation and of development." 

Making the pastoral a priority -- learning "to go out and bring the Gospel to reality, to all creation" -- is something the church needs "to relearn" with every generation, the cardinal said. "And Pope Francis showed us how."

Cardinal Czerny, a Jesuit like Pope Francis, said the late pope clearly embodied the Jesuit ideal of "finding God in all things."

"He was able to find God and to hope to meet God in every circumstance and in every person," the cardinal said. "He never gave up on 'these people' or on 'that situation,' and that's also a gift of our spirituality, which, in a sense, overcomes a false distinction between what's religious and what isn't."

One of the aims of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, is to help believers focus on finding "the freedom to serve God and to serve people free from the forces, the powers, the confusions that can lead us in the wrong way," the cardinal said.

"I will personally remember him for his freedom," he said. "I found him so free in his attitudes, in his reactions and his responses."

Unlike his two predecessors, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis did not participate in the Second Vatican Council. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1969, four years after the council ended.

But, Cardinal Czerny said, "his legacy to the church at large will be his renewal of the implementation of Vatican II, and precisely the implementation of Vatican II as a pastoral council. This is something that we urgently needed, and which he began wholeheartedly and developed in many interesting directions, but always very, very faithful to the council, always rooted in the council."

Pope Francis advocated tirelessly for the people and issues Cardinal Czerny's dicastery focuses on most: migrants, refugees, the poor, peace and the environment. 

Asked if people accepted the pope's teaching on the Christian requirement to "listen to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth," the cardinal said, "In fact, the people have accepted it. The governments haven't."

"I think he has reached people -- ordinary people, parishes, other communities, Christian movements, and also groupings and movements of people outside the church," the cardinal said. "He has reached them widely and deeply."

"And it's a real pity that governments are opting for short term gain, populism, with their eye only on the next election and on the bottom line," the Cardinal Czerny said. "It's up to people to correct their governments, and I really hope this will happen."

The cardinal said the migrants, refugees and poor people he works with have reacted to Pope Francis' death much like he has.

"First of all, we're shocked because we didn't expect it; seeing the Holy Father on Sunday doesn't prepare you for hearing that he died on Monday morning," he said.

But "at the same time, the real feeling is not the shock or even the sorrow, but gratitude," he said. "We can't help thinking of him without gratitude, without thanking God for this pastor, this pastor with the smell of the sheep, who has guided and encouraged the church so much over the past 12 years and who leaves us with hope and with a lot to do."
 

Cardinal: Pope's legacy is pastoral

After the first general congregation of the college of cardinals following the death of Pope Francis, Cardinal Michael Czerny, one of the late pope's closest collaborators, spoke to CNS about his legacy.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' final moments were peaceful, and he managed to give one last farewell to his nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, before slipping into a coma early April 21, Vatican News reported.

Among his last words were his thanks to Strappetti late April 20 when he said, "Thank you for bringing me back to the square," referring to the pope's surprise appearance after giving his Easter blessing from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.

The 88-year-old pope, who was still recovering from pneumonia, did not attend the Easter Mass April 20, but he did appear shortly after noon to give the solemn blessing. With his voice still weak, he wished everyone a Happy Easter and he barely raised his arms as he made the sign of the cross. 

"The pope wanted to make one last significant surprise by going to St. Peter's Square for a ride in the popemobile," Vatican News said in a report April 22. However, the pope was a little unsure and asked Strappetti, "Do you think I can do it?"

The nurse, who had been by his side for the 38 days he was hospitalized in Rome's Gemelli hospital and then by his bedside 24/7 at the pope's residence in the Domus Sanctae Marthae since his return March 23, reassured him that he could, Vatican News reported. 

For 15 minutes, Pope Francis rode around St. Peter's Square and a portion of the wide boulevard leading to the square, filled with about 50,000 people. He blessed a few babies and tried to wave; the crowds were thrilled, waving and running where possible to get a closer view. 

Even though the pope made a number of surprise appearances in his wheelchair in St. Peter's Basilica after he was discharged from the hospital and he appeared briefly in the square in his wheelchair at the end of the closing Mass of the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers April 6 and Palm Sunday April 13, Easter marked his first open popemobile ride since his one-day trip to Corsica in December.

Vatican News reported the pope returned to his residence April 20 "tired, but happy" and he thanked Strappetti for "bringing me back to the square." The pope hired him to be his personal nurse in 2022.

The pope then rested that afternoon and had a relaxing dinner, Vatican News said.

The first signs that something was wrong happened the next day around 5:30 a.m. followed by "prompt intervention by those watching over him," it said. 

More than an hour later, the pope, who was lying on his bed in his apartment, gestured to wave farewell to Strappetti and slipped into a coma, it said.

"He did not suffer, everything happened quickly," according to those who were with the pope those final moments, Vatican News reported.

The pope died at 7:35 a.m. from a stroke, the coma and heart failure, the Vatican said.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The funeral Mass of Pope Francis will be celebrated April 26 in St. Peter's Square, the Vatican announced.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, will preside over the liturgy, which begins a nine-day period of official mourning and daily memorial Masses.

The deceased pope's body, which was taken to the chapel of his residence late April 21, the day of his death, will be carried into St. Peter's Basilica for public viewing and prayer early April 23.

The public viewing was scheduled to end late April 25 with another prayer service to close the coffin.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said the Mass originally scheduled for the Jubilee for Adolescents April 27 would be one of the eight memorial Masses that follow the funeral of the pope. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was secretary of state under Pope Francis, will preside.

The rites and rituals for dressing the body, moving it to St. Peter's Basilica and celebrating the funeral are published in the "Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis" ("Funeral Rites of the Roman Pontiff"). 

The rites originally were approved by St. John Paul II in 1998 but were released only when he died in 2005. Modified versions of the rites were used after Pope Benedict XVI died Dec. 31, 2022, and Pope Francis revised and simplified them in 2024.

U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, the chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, presided over a prayer service for the formal verification of the pope's death April 21 in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis celebrated an early morning Mass most days before his final illness.

Cardinal Farrell will lead the prayerful procession to take the pope's body, already in its coffin, from the chapel, into St. Peter's Square and then into the basilica.

According to the book of rites, he will say, "Dearest brothers and sisters, with great emotion we accompany the mortal remains of our Pope Francis into the Vatican basilica where he often exercised his ministry as the bishop of the church that is in Rome and as pastor of the universal church."