Patriarch Kirill recalls the historic meeting in Cuba in 2016 and Francis' desire to “heal the wounds of conflict”. Putin's tribute: “A consistent defender of the great values of humanism and justice”. Orthodox writer Andrei Lorgus: ‘His death on Easter has a special meaning for the whole Christian world’.
The Xinde Catholic website has widely reported Francis’s death. So far, no word has come from President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government, nor the Patriotic Association. The Diocese of Hong Kong remembers the pontiff’s trip to Mongolia and his attention for relations between the Vatican and China.
For Indian Prime Minister Modi, the pontiff “was a beacon of compassion, humility and spiritual courage.” The President of Israel Isaac Herzog hopes “his prayers for peace in the Middle East and for the safe return of the hostages will soon be answered.” Iran also offered its condolences. “Until the end,” he “showed the world a beautiful example,” South Korean bishops write. A Mass of suffrage will be held on Wednesday morning at the Holy Sepulchre.
One of the great signs of the pontificate that ended this morning with the death of Pope Francis is his care for the peripheries of the world. The archbishop of Hyderabad, the first Dalit called to join the College of Cardinals in 2022, pays tribute to the late pontiff who “looked each person in the eye, not as a number, but as a soul beloved by God.”
The pontiff died suddenly this morning at 7:35 am. Card Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity and Camerlengo of the Church, made the announcement. “He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized.” His last Urbi et Orbi message came yesterday.
From the loggia of St. Peter's, Francis gave his blessing with a voice weakened by illness. In his Urbi et Orbi message, read by the master of papal ceremonies, his gaze turms to armed conflicts and trade wars, but also at lives wounded in their mothers' wombs, the elderly and migrants. ‘May the ceasefire be a sign of hope for Myanmar’.
