Pope Francis gives an extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing in St. Peter’s Square, March 27, 2020. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Mar 27, 2025 / 19:00 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis’ historic “Statio Orbis” blessing during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic remains relevant for the Church as it did five years ago. Before an empty and rain-covered St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis held Eucharistic adoration and gave an extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing, praying for the world during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Holy Hour on March 27, 2020, included a reading from the Gospel and a meditation by Pope Francis, who spoke about faith and trust in God during a time when people fear for their lives, as did the disciples when their boat was caught in a violent storm.
Pope Francis gives an extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing from the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica on March 27, 2020. Credit: Vatican Media
These powerful words were a papal refrain throughout his 2020 address before an empty St. Peter’s Square.
“‘Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?’ Lord, your word this evening strikes us and regards us, all of us. In this world, that you love more than we do, we have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything. Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things and lured away by haste,” he prayed.
Pope Francis implored people to believe in God’s presence during the time of COVID-19 when he spoke of Jesus’ reaction to the cry of the disciples: “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” recorded in chapter 4 of St. Mark’s Gospel.
Pope Francis speaks in an empty St. Peter’s Square during a Holy Hour and extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing, March 27, 2020. Credit: Vatican Media
The pandemic’s impact on the life of the Church is yet to be fully researched and understood.
Recent studies from around the world suggest a decline in Church attendance in some regions. A new Pew study shows thousands of people have chosen to leave behind the religion of their childhood in some of the traditionally Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain.
At the same time, the study acknowledges the report’s figures “are not necessarily representative of the entire world’s population.”
A growing Church
While religious belief and practice may seem to be weakening in some parts of the world, the Holy Father’s “Statio Orbis” prayer five years ago can still resonate with millions of people of faith who trust and hope in God’s presence in times of world suffering and hardship.
According to the Vatican’s 2025 Annuario Pontificio, the Catholic Church has grown worldwide after the COVID-19 pandemic, with the highest growth recorded in Africa.
Pope Francis venerates the miraculous crucifix of San Marcello al Corso in St. Peter’s Square during his urbi et orbi blessing on March 27, 2020. Credit: Vatican Media
Between 2022 and 2023, the global Catholic population has grown from approximately 1.39 billion Catholics to 1.406 billion in the last two years. In Africa alone, the Catholic population increased by 3.31%, from 272 million in 2022 to 281 million in 2023.
As Pope Francis said on this day five years ago: “You ask us not to be afraid. Yet our faith is weak and we are fearful. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm. Tell us again: ‘Do not be afraid’ (Mt 28:5). And we, together with Peter, ‘cast all our anxieties onto you, for you care about us’ (cf. 1 Pt 5:7).”
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Pallbearers carry the wooden coffin of Pope Francis, marked with a cross, into St. Peter’s Square for the funeral Mass on April 26, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 26, 2025 / 05:03 am (CNA).
More than 200,000 people filled St. Peter’s Square for the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday as the world said goodbye to the first Latin American pope who led the Catholic Church for the past 12 years.
Under the bright Roman sun and amid crowds extending down the Via della Conciliazione, the funeral Mass unfolded within the great colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica. Heads of state, religious leaders, and pilgrims from across the globe gathered for the historic farewell.
An aerial view of St. Peter’s Square filled with thousands of mourners, clergy, and dignitaries gathered for Pope Francis’s funeral Mass under clear blue skies in Vatican City on April 26, 2025.`. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, presided over the Mass, delivering a homily that paid tribute to Francis’ missionary vision, human warmth, spontaneity, witness to mercy, and “charisma of welcome and listening.”
“Evangelization was the guiding principle of his pontificate,” Re said.
Pope Francis “often used the image of the Church as a ‘field hospital’ after a battle in which many were wounded; a Church determined to take care of the problems of people and the great anxieties that tear the contemporary world apart; a Church capable of bending down to every person, regardless of their beliefs or condition, and healing their wounds.”
As bells tolled solemnly, the funeral rite began with the intonation of the entrance antiphon: “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.”
The late pope’s closed plain wooden coffin lay in front of the altar throughout the Mass.
A view of the coffin of Pope Francis resting before the altar at the funeral Mass on St. Peter’s Square, April 26, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
“In this majestic Saint Peter’s Square, where Pope Francis celebrated the Eucharist so many times and presided over great gatherings over the past twelve years, we are gathered with sad hearts in prayer around his mortal remains,” Re said.
“With our prayers, we now entrust the soul of our beloved Pontiff to God, that he may grant him eternal happiness in the bright and glorious gaze of his immense love,” he added.
View of St. Peter’s Basilica during the Funeral Mass of Pope Francis on April 26, 2025. Peter Gagnon / EWTN
Among the more than 50 heads of state present were U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, alongside former President Joe Biden. Also in attendance were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Argentine President Javier Milei, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva joined the throng of international dignitaries along with representatives of religious traditions from around the world.
Royal families also paid their respects, with Prince William representing King Charles III and Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia seated near the altar.
Pilgrims arrived before sunrise to claim their spots in St. Peter’s Square for the Mass with the first in line camping out the night before.
The funeral followed the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, the official liturgical order for papal funerals, which was updated at Pope Francis’ own request in 2024. Scripture readings included Acts 10:34-43, Philippians 3:20–4:1, Psalm 22, and the Gospel of John 21:15-19 — a passage in which the risen Christ tells Peter: “Feed my sheep.”
More than 200 cardinals and 750 bishops and priests concelebrated the funeral Mass. More than 4,000 journalists representing 1,800 media outlets reported on the event. All told, the Holy See said more than 250,000 mourners attended.
In his homily, Cardinal Re reflected on key moments in Pope Francis’ pontificate from his risk-defying trip to Iraq to visit Christians communities persecuted by the Islamic State to his Mass on the border between Mexico and the United States during his journey to Mexico.
“Faced with the raging wars of recent years, with their inhuman horrors and countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice imploring peace and calling for reason and honest negotiation to find possible solutions,” the cardinal said, causing the crowd to erupt in spontaneous applause.
Pope Francis’ coffin lies in St. Peter’s Square during the papal funeral Mass on Saturday, April 26, 2025. Credit: EWTN News
“Pope Francis always placed the Gospel of mercy at the center, repeatedly emphasizing that God never tires of forgiving us. He forgives, whatever the situation might be of the person who asks for forgiveness and returns to the right path,” Re reflected. “Mercy and the joy of the Gospel are two key words for Pope Francis.”
The cardinal presided over the final commendation and farewell for Pope Francis, praying: “Dear brothers and sisters, let us commend to God’s tender mercy the soul of Pope Francis, bishop of the Catholic Church, who confirmed his brothers and sisters in the faith of the resurrection.”
“Let us pray to God our Father through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit; may he deliver him from death, welcome him to eternal peace and raise up him on the last day,” he said.
After the crowd chanted the Litany of Saints in Latin, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, offered a final prayer: “O God, faithful rewarder of souls, grant that your departed servant and our bishop, Pope Francis, whom you made successor of Peter and shepherd of your Church, may happily enjoy forever in your presence in heaven the mysteries of your grace and compassion, which he faithfully ministered on earth.”
A poignant moment followed as Eastern Catholic patriarchs, major archbishops, and metropolitans from the “sui iuris” Churches approached the coffin while a choir chanted a Greek prayer from the Byzantine Funeral Office.
Re blessed the coffin with holy water and incense as the choir sang in Latin: “I know that my Redeemer lives: on the last day I shall rise again.”
At the end of the Mass, the traditional antiphon “In Paradisum” was sung in Latin, asking for the angels to guide the pope’s soul to heaven.
“May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come and welcome you and take you to the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem. May choirs of angels welcome you and with Lazarus, who is poor no longer, may you have eternal rest.”
In keeping with his wishes, Pope Francis will not be buried in the Vatican grottoes alongside his predecessors. Instead, his body will be taken in procession through the streets of Rome in a vehicle to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, a church he visited over 100 times in his lifetime to pray before an icon of the Virgin Mary, “Salus Populi Romani,” particularly before and after his papal journeys.
Pope Francis’ wooden coffin is transported on the popemobile through the streets of Rome as crowds of faithful line the procession route from St. Peter’s Basilica to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, April 26, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
In Rome’s most important Marian basilica, Pope Francis will be laid to rest in a simple tomb marked with a single word: Franciscus.
Remembering Pope Francis
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on Dec. 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and entered the Society of Jesus at age 21. Following his ordination in 1969, he served as a Jesuit provincial, seminary rector, and professor before St. John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992. He became archbishop of the Argentine capital in 1998 and was created cardinal in 2001.
The surprise election of Cardinal Bergoglio on March 13, 2013, at age 76 marked several historic firsts: He became the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first to choose the name Francis, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi’s devotion to poverty, peace, and creation.
His 12-year pontificate was characterized by a focus on mercy, care for creation, and attention to what he called the “peripheries” of both the Church and society. He made 47 apostolic journeys outside Italy, though he never visited his native Argentina.
During his tenure, Pope Francis canonized 942 saints — more than any other pope in history — including his predecessors John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II. He published four encyclicals and seven apostolic exhortations while promulgating 75 motu proprio documents.
Throughout his papacy, Francis significantly reshaped the College of Cardinals through 10 consistories, creating 163 new cardinals. His appointments reflected his vision of a global Church, elevating prelates from the peripheries and creating cardinals in places that had never before had one, including Mongolia and South Sudan.
Health challenges marked the pope’s final years. He underwent surgery in July 2021 and in June 2023. In November 2023, he suffered from pulmonary inflammation, and in February 2025, he was hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for bronchitis and a respiratory infection.
His papacy faced unprecedented challenges, including the global COVID-19 pandemic, during which he offered historic moments of prayer for humanity, notably the extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing in an empty St. Peter’s Square in March 2020. He also repeatedly called for peace amid conflicts in Ukraine and the Holy Land.
Francis convoked four synods, including the Synod on Synodality, whose second session concluded in October 2024. He implemented significant reforms of the Roman Curia and took several steps to address the clergy abuse crisis, including the 2019 motu proprio Vos Estis Lux Mundi.
Pope Francis’ funeral marks the first day in the Catholic Church’s traditional nine-day mourning period that will include nine days of requiem Masses to be offered for the repose of his soul.
“Pope Francis used to conclude his speeches and meetings by saying, ‘Do not forget to pray for me,’ Re recalled at the end of his homily.
“Dear Pope Francis, we now ask you to pray for us. May you bless the Church, bless Rome, and bless the whole world from heaven as you did last Sunday from the balcony of this Basilica in a final embrace with all the people of God, but also embrace humanity that seeks the truth with a sincere heart and holds high the torch of hope.”
Chelsea Clinton. / Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0).
CNA Staff, May 7, 2021 / 17:00 pm (CNA).
On the second day of an online Vatican conference on “exploring the mind, body, and soul,” Chelsea Clinton called for the regulation of “anti… […]
Rome, Italy, May 5, 2018 / 05:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics have a mission to evangelize, teaching people that God never tires of loving them, Pope Francis said to members of the Neocatechumenal Way Saturday at a gathering for the 50th anniversary … […]
9 Comments
That was a moving moment. What I fear is that we have not “moved” beyond it. We will sentimentally remember the Pope in that picture (and maybe defer from being critical because he’s sick) but this trip down memory lane has to be joined to the purification of memory. And THAT involves an honest, public, and broadly participatory (even more than “synodal”) input that asks and assesses the performance of the “field hospital” (that fled the battlefield for at least a half a year in most places), whether the protocols followed were good, and what we will do the next time something like this threatens. THAT kind of discussion doesn’t seem to be forthcoming (COVID isn’t even mentioned in the Synodal Final Document, a risible omission considering it closed the ecclesial communion, participation, and mission for months if not a year). If it isn’t, these pictures are nice but they’re kind of like Facebook: “We thought we’d share a memory with you….”
Unfortunately, when it came to Covid, many at the highest levels of Church leadership appeared to have no more faith than anyone else– and today’s bishops should be leading the call for accountability for the sins of 2020-2023, except that many of them are among the guilty. We need to make sure that the abuses of power in secular government and the cowardice of Church leaders is not repeated.
I posted this over at NC Register. (Rather obviously, I did not defer because the Pope is not doing well physically. Five years later, I’m still salty about this.)
.
“Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”
.
Seriously? It wasn’t the laity that closed the parishes, withheld the Eucharist, refused to celebrate weddings, denied Last Rites, demanded everyone be vaccinated with an experimental vaccine. Not that a lot of folks would not have come to Mass if parishes had not been closed–many would have stayed home, but many would have gone. Many would have joined together to pray the rosary in front of a Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament if that had been an option.
.
But it wasn’t. This is on the Hierarchy, and to the best of my knowledge, there has been no acknowledgement or apology.
The photo at the top says more than a thousand words. What the solitary man said may have been recorded but no one was present to listen. And now, who cares?
I don’t claim to be good at math, but if y’all will check my figures, I’d appreciate that. The Church in Africa grew by 9 million members from 2022 to 2023, while the rest of the world added only another 7 million?? Can we conclude that the historical home of Christendom continue to shed Christians while the number of Catholics grows and apparently thrives in traditional missionary land.
🕊️ Thoughtful reflections here—COVID challenged the Church deeply, not just spiritually but institutionally. 😔🙏 A sincere, open reckoning is needed to heal, learn, and ensure we never close the doors on the faithful again. ⛪💔 #FaithAndAccountability #ChurchAfterCovid
⛪🌧️ That unforgettable moment in the rain still speaks volumes today — faith over fear. Thank you, Pope Francis, for reminding us to trust in God’s presence through every storm. 🙏🌍 #StatioOrbis #DoNotBeAfraid
“Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”
Sad the man who participated in locking down of parishes and preventing the Mass. And participated in mandatory masks, forced vaccination schemes and vaccine pass ports.
That was a moving moment. What I fear is that we have not “moved” beyond it. We will sentimentally remember the Pope in that picture (and maybe defer from being critical because he’s sick) but this trip down memory lane has to be joined to the purification of memory. And THAT involves an honest, public, and broadly participatory (even more than “synodal”) input that asks and assesses the performance of the “field hospital” (that fled the battlefield for at least a half a year in most places), whether the protocols followed were good, and what we will do the next time something like this threatens. THAT kind of discussion doesn’t seem to be forthcoming (COVID isn’t even mentioned in the Synodal Final Document, a risible omission considering it closed the ecclesial communion, participation, and mission for months if not a year). If it isn’t, these pictures are nice but they’re kind of like Facebook: “We thought we’d share a memory with you….”
Unfortunately, when it came to Covid, many at the highest levels of Church leadership appeared to have no more faith than anyone else– and today’s bishops should be leading the call for accountability for the sins of 2020-2023, except that many of them are among the guilty. We need to make sure that the abuses of power in secular government and the cowardice of Church leaders is not repeated.
I posted this over at NC Register. (Rather obviously, I did not defer because the Pope is not doing well physically. Five years later, I’m still salty about this.)
.
“Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”
.
Seriously? It wasn’t the laity that closed the parishes, withheld the Eucharist, refused to celebrate weddings, denied Last Rites, demanded everyone be vaccinated with an experimental vaccine. Not that a lot of folks would not have come to Mass if parishes had not been closed–many would have stayed home, but many would have gone. Many would have joined together to pray the rosary in front of a Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament if that had been an option.
.
But it wasn’t. This is on the Hierarchy, and to the best of my knowledge, there has been no acknowledgement or apology.
Well said, MrsHess.
The photo at the top says more than a thousand words. What the solitary man said may have been recorded but no one was present to listen. And now, who cares?
I don’t claim to be good at math, but if y’all will check my figures, I’d appreciate that. The Church in Africa grew by 9 million members from 2022 to 2023, while the rest of the world added only another 7 million?? Can we conclude that the historical home of Christendom continue to shed Christians while the number of Catholics grows and apparently thrives in traditional missionary land.
It’s known. Confidence, faith, and fearless minds add life to our life span.
🕊️ Thoughtful reflections here—COVID challenged the Church deeply, not just spiritually but institutionally. 😔🙏 A sincere, open reckoning is needed to heal, learn, and ensure we never close the doors on the faithful again. ⛪💔 #FaithAndAccountability #ChurchAfterCovid
⛪🌧️ That unforgettable moment in the rain still speaks volumes today — faith over fear. Thank you, Pope Francis, for reminding us to trust in God’s presence through every storm. 🙏🌍 #StatioOrbis #DoNotBeAfraid
“Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”
Sad the man who participated in locking down of parishes and preventing the Mass. And participated in mandatory masks, forced vaccination schemes and vaccine pass ports.