Eusebio Gomes
It is a sad day for the Catholic Church and the Catholic community as our religious head, beloved Pope Francis passed away on April 21, Easter Monday. With his passing away, the Church has lost a dynamic leader who was a voice for the voiceless and who advocated for the defence of the human rights. By birth he was Argentinean but his grandparents were Italians who migrated to Argentina with their son Mario (Pope’s father) in 1929. He was elected a pope on March 13, 2013 and was the first pope from Latin America. His original name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio and was the first Jesuit to become a pope and the first to take the name of Francis in memory of St Francis of Assisi.
Pope Francis was born on December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires. He entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest in 1969. In Latin America, majority of the people live in conditions of squalor, poverty, hunger and diseases. He was greatly inspired by the Church’s stand in Latin America i.e. ‘preferential option for the poor,’ the formula adopted by the Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops at Puebla in Mexico in 1979. The nomenclature Francis he adopted after Francis of Assisi was an indication of his simplicity, love and concern for the poor. He chose this papal name because St Francis of Assisi was a man of poverty and a man of peace. Pope Francis described the emotional moments immediately after his election in a secret conclave in the Sistine Chapel on March 13. He had been sitting next to Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the Archbishop Emeritus of Sao Paulo. Cardinal Claudio hugged him and kissed him and told him not to forget the poor. That word went to pope’s mind and he immediately thought of Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis had expressed his wish of having a poor Church for the poor. He was not interested in paraphernalia and showmanship and lived with his feet on the ground, identifying with the poor and the marginalised. For him, the office of a pope was a service of extending his arms to protect all of God’s people and embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important.
The encyclical letter “Laudato Si” of Pope Francis issued on May 24, 2015 called on to take care of our planet earth, the common home, which was accepted and appreciated by people of all religions as it addressed the issue of environment. Another encyclical letter “Fratelli Tutti” issued on October 3, 2020 aimed to promote universal aspiration toward fraternity and social friendship in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. He declared this year 2025, a Year of Jubilee with a papal bull, titled “Spes Non Confundit,” meaning “Hope does not disappoint.” In his Easter Message “Urbi Et Orbi”, he expressed his closeness to the sufferings of people of Palestine, Israel and Ukraine and appealed to the warring parties for ceasefire, to release the hostages and to come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace.
Let us pay homage to our beloved Pope who loved the people of God. Requiescat in pace!