Buenos Aires, Dominican Republic: A mourning pope’s final restraints following the resignation of Benedict XVI

Outside St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Doug and his wife, Ruth Angelettia were among those who were mourning the death of Francis.

Francis died one day after Easter Sunday at the age of 88. His death marks the end of a 12-year papacy that began in 2013 following the historic resignation of Benedict XVI — the first pontiff to step down in nearly six centuries.

The pope’s body would be put in a coffin on Monday evening and Cardinal Kevin Farrell would preside over the necropsy, according to the Vatican. The head of the Vatican is acting until a new pope is elected.

Bianca Lott, from Minnesota, is studying in Rome for a semester. Given that Francis died on Easter Monday, she said she felt “a strange happiness at the timing,” which she called “poetic.”

Our world has lost a very strong prophetic and loving voice, and that is something I am very sad about. Yet I rejoice in what I pray is a blessed reward of joy beyond all understanding for a truly great and loving Universal Shepherd.”

Francis, the first-ever Latin American pope, once served as archbishop in Buenos Aires. In the Argentine capital, the government declared seven days of mourning and citizens gathered for a special mass at the city’s cathedral, Reuters reports.

The pope talked to many Latino’s in Spanish and touched their lives. The lifelong Catholic Hatciri Lopez told WUNC that Francis grew her faith.

“It’s just easier for the message to get to your heart, instead of hearing it from a translator,” she said. It would strike my heart as soon as I heard him speak. I would just want to cry and just feel a sense of happiness and hope for the future.”

The first pope to call the Jewish people — a catholic friend of the pope, George Antone, and his friend, John Paul II

Martin Pendergast, secretary of LGBT Catholics in London, said that Francis was the first pope to use the word “gay”, so even the way he spoke has been a radical transformation.

There are Christians in Gaza, and they were moved by Pope Francis’ nightly phone calls, which offered solace during the war. The priest of the Holy Family Church said that the pope called on the night before his death.

George Antone told the news agency that a saint taught them how to be brave, stay patient and stay strong.

Francis was the first pope to visit Iraq in 2021, and he met the spiritual leader of the Shiites, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani.

“His humanitarian stance against war and violence, and his continuous calls for peace and coexistence, will leave an indelible impact on the world,” Rashid wrote.

That’s because the conservatives whose convictions he unsettled were the last believers in the imperial papacy, the custodians of infallibility’s mystique. He kicked away the last major prop that supported a strong papacy, and left the office of St. Peter in the same position as most other 21st-century institutions.

But just by creating that novel form of conflict, in which Catholics who had been accustomed to being on the same side as the Vatican found themselves suddenly crosswise from papal authority, Francis helped to demystify his office’s authority and undermine its most imposing claims.

When I first met Pope JohnPaul II, I was a radio reporter. It was a ceremonial event welcoming journalists. I broke the protocol and asked when he’d visit Russia, even though I was still in the Soviet Union. The pope moved quickly after he responded in Latin. I was unable to decipher his meaning.

I had much better luck with Pope Francis. In 2015, I was among the Vatican reporters onboard the plane for a papal visit to Cuba and the United States. Pope Francis went back to the economy section of the plane after takeoff to greet members of the traveling media individually. Several reporters had photos of family members and asked the pope to bless them. Some others raised arcane theological subjects. I had no idea what I was going to say until he came to me.

I exclaimed, “You and I have something in common,” after he stuttered to go on to another reporter. That grabbed his attention. Both of our parents were anti-fascists. Yours left Italy for the U.S. while mine went to Argentina.

He said a story hadn’t been publicized before then. When his grandparents and their only son Mario decided to leave Italy in the 1920s, they bought tickets for passage on a ship to Argentina. They were unable to go on that trip for some reason.

A few months later, Francis told me, the Principessa Mafalda ocean liner that they were ticketed to travel on sank off the coast of Brazil in October 1927, killing hundreds.

On Francis’ Message to Refugees and Dispossessed in his 12 Years of Papal American Service to the Poor and Immigrants

It’s no surprise that throughout his 12-year papacy, Francis spoke out forcefully on behalf of immigrants, refugees and the dispossessed. He was one of their offspring.