Patrick Comerford
Pope Francis died in Rome early this morning, Easter Monday (21 April 2025), at the age of 88, was from a far country. It would be impossible to add to outpourings of grief and tributes that are being paid to him all day since the news was announced.
There are others I know who have met him and who are saying all the things I would like to say myself. It is a symbol of his commitment to ecumenism that he went out of his way to meet King Charles just a few days ago, even though the king’s state visit to the Vatican had been cancelled due to the Pope’s final illness.
And it is indicative of the appalling tasteless and hectoring approach of the Trump/Vance/Musk regime that JD Vance could bully his way into seeing the Pope virtually on his deathbed a day before Pope Francis died. I can just imagine Vance pontificating to the Pope about he thinks it is to be Catholic, and the Pope gently rebuking him, reminding him of what true Christian values actually are, and about the hope and love that are at the heart of the Easter message.
Pope Francis shares a light moment during a visit to All Saints' Anglican Church in Rome
Pope Francis’s papacy was very different from those of his two predecessors, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. And it would be remiss of me to let this moment pass without saying something about the values that marked his Papacy.
He chose the name Francis after Francis of Assisi and as a reminder to never forget the poor, to protect creation and to seek peace. Throughout this papacy, he was known for his humility, for living simply, for his commitment to social justice and his conservatism on church teachings.
His casual informality was one of his hallmarks. He wore a simple white cassock instead of the red ermine-trimmed cape favoured by previous popes, and wore the same simple iron pectoral cross he wore as Archbishop of Buenos Aires rather than the gold ones that bedecked his predecessors.
Many had feared that the spirit of the reforms and advances made by Pope John XXIII had been reversed by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but since 2013 Pope Francis has put the Catholic Church back on track, and has admitted that he was ‘completely inspired’ by John XXIII.
His papacy was an attempt to move power from the centre of the church to the margins and the marginalised. Perhaps the single greatest achievement of this papacy has been the synodal process he launched in 2021, trying to return the church away from clericalism and urging priests to become ‘shepherds with the smell of the sheep on them’, grounded in their flock.
He chose to live simply and modestly in the Santa Marta guesthouse at the Vatican rather than in the Papal Palace. But all this made him an outsider in the Vatican, a champion of the marginalised, those on the periphery, and the excluded, and he faced determined internal opposition within the Vatican and within the Curia, which he criticised for abuses, clericalism and careerism.
His style was one of ‘the frayed edges’, allowing for and demanding compassion at all times. ‘Who am I to judge?’ he responded when he was asked in 2013 about the church’s attitude to gay people. ‘If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?’
Shortly after his election, he declared: ‘The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars. You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds … And you have to start from the ground up.’
He told victims of a clerical sexual abuse scandal: ‘I ask forgiveness of all those I offended …’
At times, he was messy in his use of language, speaking off-the-cuff and leaving it to his communications staff to clarify later what he meant. But he was never afraid to be wrong, to admit it, and to ask forgiveness, in public.
His encyclical Laudato sí (2015) on care for our common home has made creation and the environment an important agenda item in all theological and ecumenical dialogue.
He had strong views on migration, and one of his first acts as Pope was to visit to the small island of Lampedusa between Italy and Tunisia where thousands of people attempted to enter Europe, many drowning in the Mediterranean during the journey. He condemned global indifference to the plight of migrants and refugees and cast a wreath into the sea in memory of the many people who had drowned trying to reach refuge and safety.
His firm teachings brought him into direct conflict with the Trump regime in Washington and he condemned the forced deportations in a letter to the US Catholic bishops two months ago (February 2025), when he warned that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprived them of their inherent dignity and would end badly.
He appeared in his wheelchair yesterday to bless the people gathered in Saint Peter’s Square on Easter Day. He died this morning in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. His appointment of so many cardinals from around the world is going to strongly the election of his successor.
As he would say at the end of his prayers, ‘Good Night and Sleep Well.’
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