This April 26 took place in the Plaza de San Pedro La Misa for the funeral of Pope Francis, which was chaired by the dean of the Cardinal College, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.
Before a completely full square, the purple made a review of the pastoral legacy of the Argentine Pontiff, who “chose to travel this delivery path until the last day of his earthly life.”
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Then the full homily:
In this majestic Plaza de San Pedro, in which Pope Francis has celebrated the Eucharist so many times and chaired great encounters throughout these 12 years, we are gathered in prayer around his mortal remains with the sad heart, but sustained by the certainties of faith, which assures us that human existence does not end in the tomb, but in the house of the father, in a life of happiness that will not know the life of happiness.
On behalf of the Cardinals College I cordially thank everyone for their presence. With great intensity of feeling I direct a respectful greeting and a deep thanks to the heads of state, heads of government and official delegations coming from numerous countries to express affection, veneration and esteem towards the pope who has left us.
The massive manifestation of affection and participation that we have seen these days, after its passage from this land to eternity, shows us how much minds and hearts have touched the intense pontificate of Pope Francis.
His last image, which will remain in our eyes and in our hearts, is that of last Sunday, solemnity of Easter, when Pope Francis, despite the serious health problems, wanted to give us the blessing from the balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro and then went down to this place to greet from the Papamóvil discovered the entire great crowd gathered for the Easter Mass.
With our prayer we want to trust the soul of the beloved pontiff to God, so that eternal happiness in the bright and glorious horizon of his immense love is granted.
We illuminates and guides the Gospel page, in which he resonated the same voice of Christ who questioned the first of the apostles: “Peter, do you love me more than these?” And Peter’s response was immediate and sincere: “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.” And Jesus entrusted him with the great mission: “Apacious my sheep” (cf. Jn 21,16-17). This will be the constant task of Peter and his successors, a love service in the image of Christ, Lord and Master, that “did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life in rescue for a crowd” (Mc10,45).
Despite his fragility and final suffering, Pope Francis chose to travel this delivery path until the last day of his earthly life. He followed his lord’s footprints, the good shepherd, who loved his sheep until they gave their own life. And he did it with strength and serenity, close to his flock, the Church of God, remembering the phrase of Jesus cited by the apostle Paul: “Happiness is more to give than to receive” (Acts 20,35).
When Cardinal Bergoglio, on March 13, 2013, was chosen by the conclave to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, had been on his shoulders of religious life in the Company of Jesus and, above all, he was enriched by the 21 -year experience of pastoral ministry in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, first as auxiliary, then as a coadjutor and then, especially, as Archbishop.
The decision to name Francisco immediately seemed a programmatic and style choice with which he wanted to project his pontificate, seeking to inspire himself in the spirit of San Francisco de Asís.
He retained his temperament and his form of pastoral, and immediately gave the imprint of his strong personality in the Government of the Church, establishing direct contact with people and with peoples, eager to be close to all, with special attention to people in difficulty, surrendering without measure, particularly by the last of the earth, the marginalized. It was a Pope in the midst of people with an open heart towards everyone. In addition, he was an attentive Pope to the new that arose in society and what the Holy Spirit raised in the Church.
With the vocabulary that was characteristic and his language rich in images and metaphors, he always sought to illuminate with the wisdom of the Gospel the problems of our time, offering an answer to the light of faith and encouraging to live as Christians the challenges and contradictions of these years of change, which he used to qualify as “time change”.
He had great spontaneity and an informal way to go to everyone, even to the people far from the Church.
Full of human warmth and deeply sensitive to current dramas, Pope Francis really shared the concerns, sufferings and hopes of our globalization time, seeking to comfort and encourage with a message capable of reaching people’s hearts directly and immediately.
His welcoming and listening charisma, together with a way of acting of today’s sensitivity, touched hearts, trying to awaken moral and spiritual forces.
The primacy of evangelization was the guidance of his pontificate, spreading with a clear missionary imprint the joy of the Gospel, which was the title of his first Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. A joy that fills the heart of all those who trust God with trust and hope.
The conductive thread of his mission was also the conviction that the Church is a house for all; A house of always open doors. He resorted several times to the image of the church as a “campaign hospital” after a battle with many injured; a specific and eager church to take care of the problems of people and the great evils that tear the contemporary world; A church capable of leaning before each person, beyond all creed or condition, healing their wounds.
Innumerable are their gestures and exhortations in favor of refugees and displaced. His insistence on acting in favor of the poor was also constant.
It is significant that Pope Francis’s first trip was to Lampedusa, island symbol of the emigration drama with thousands of people drowned in the sea. In the same line was also the trip to Lesbos, along with the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Archbishop of Athens, as well as the celebration of a mass at the border between Mexico and the United States, on the occasion of its trip to Mexico.
Of his 47 exhausting apostolic trips, Iraq will be especially in history in 2021, performed by challenging all risk. That difficult apostolic visit was a balm over the open wounds of the Iraqi population, which had suffered so much for the inhuman work of ISIS. It was also an important trip for interreligious dialogue, another relevant dimension of his pastoral work. With the Apostolic Visit of 2024 to four countries in Asia-Oceania, the Pope reached “the most peripheral periphery of the world.”
Pope Francis always put in the center the gospel of mercy, constantly highlighting that God does not tire of forgiving us: he always forgives, whatever the situation of those who ask for forgiveness and return to the good path.
The extraordinary jubilee of mercy wanted, highlighting that mercy is “it is the heart of the gospel.”
Misericordia and joy of the Gospel are two key concepts of Pope Francis.
In contrast to what he defined as “the culture of discarding,” he spoke of the culture of the encounter and solidarity. The theme of fraternity crossed its entire pontificate with vibrant tones. In the encyclical letter Fratelli Tutti wanted to reborn a world aspiration for fraternity, because we are all children of the same father who is in heaven. Strongly recalled that we all belong to the same human family.
In 2019, during his journey to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis signed a document on the “human fraternity for world peace and common coexistence”, remembering the common fatherhood of God.
Directing men and women around the world, with the encyclical letter Laudato if ‘drew attention to duties and co -responsibility with respect to the common house. “No one is saved alone.”
Faced with the outbreak of so many wars in these years, with inhuman and innumerable horrors dead and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice imploring peace and inviting the sensibility, honest negotiation to find possible solutions, because war – he said – is nothing more than death of people, destruction of houses, hospitals and schools. The war always leaves the world worse of what it was in precedence: it is for all a painful and tragic defeat.
“Building bridges and not walls” is an exhortation that repeated many times and its service to faith as the successor of the apostle Peter was always linked to the service to man in all its dimensions.
In spiritual union with all Christianity, we are here numerous to pray for Pope Francis, so that God welcomes him in the immensity of his love.
Pope Francis used to conclude his speeches and meetings saying: “Do not forget to pray for me.”
Dear Pope Francis, now we ask you that he recess for us and that from heaven you bless the Church, bless Rome, bless the entire world, as you did last Sunday from the balcony of this basilica in a last hug with all the people of God, but ideally also with humanity that seeks the truth with sincere heart and keeps the torch of hope high.
Central writing
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