Pope Leo XIV: God ‘cannot be enlisted by darkness’

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. 

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. 

“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. 

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 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. 

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.” 

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Map of Kazakhstan. / Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 1, 2022 / 05:05 am (CNA).
Plans are now set for Pope Francis to visit Kazakhstan in September for an interreligious meeting.Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, co… […]

Vatican City, Jan 29, 2018 / 11:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a speech to the Roman Rota Monday, Pope Francis said there is a need to develop better means of forming the consciences of the faithful in the Church, especially those preparing for marriage and family life.  

“How precious and urgent is the pastoral activity of the entire Church for the recovery, safeguarding and protection of Christian conscience, illuminated by Gospel values!” the Pope said Jan. 29.

This “long and difficult task” requires bishops and priests to work untiringly “to enlighten, defend and sustain the Christian conscience of our people,” the Pope said.

The Pope explained that conscience “assumes a decisive role” in choices that couples must make to “welcome and build their conjugal union and family according to God’s design.”

Pope Francis spoke during his annual audience with members of the Roman Rota, at the inauguration of the court’s judicial year. The Roman Rota is one of the three courts of the Holy See, the other two being the Apostolic Penitentiary and the Apostolic Signatura.

The Rota is the Vatican’s court of higher instance, usually at the appellate stage, charged by its governing document, Pastor bonus, with “safeguarding rights within the Church; it fosters unity of jurisprudence, and, by virtue of its own decisions, provides assistance to lower tribunals.”

Among the Rota’s primary responsibilities is to consider appeals in marriage nullity, or annulment, cases. The nullity process was streamlined by Pope Francis in December 2015, strengthening the role of local bishops and cutting the requirement that initial affirmative judgments be reviewed by a higher court.

In his speech, the Pope said the activity of the Rota is expressed “as a ministry of the ‘peace of consciousness’ and requires being exercised with the ‘whole conscience.’”

The Pope told Rotal auditors, or judges, that “you place yourselves, in a certain sense, as experts on the conscience of Christian faithful,” he said, adding that judges are constantly required to ask for divine help in order to “carry out with humility and measure the serious task entrusted to you by the Church.”

He said conscience was an important theme during the 2014-2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family and the 2015 post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

The synods, he said, placed a strong emphasis on the relationship between the “’regula fidei,’ (rule of faith), which is the fidelity of the Church to the untouchable teaching on marriage” and the Eucharist, as well as the “urgent attention of the Church itself to the psychological and religious processes of all people called to the choice of marriage and family.”

The synods and Amoris Laetitia also emphasized the “urgent need” for pastors of the Church to listen to the “requests and expectations of those faithful who have rendered their own consciences mute and absent for many years,” but who through grace have come back to the Church to “have peace in their conscience,” he said.

Francis then referred to the suggestions he gave in Amoris Laetitia for marriage preparation, which include a longer process, with the involvement of more couples.

Careful preparation and “a continuous experience of faith, hope and charity is needed now more than ever so that young people may decide, with a secure and serene conscience, that conjugal union open to the gift of children is a great joy for God, for the Church and for humanity,” he said.

While this task is primarily the concern of pastors, Francis stressed that the care of consciences “cannot be the exclusive commitment of pastors.” Rather, “with responsibility and in different ways, it is the mission of all, ministers and baptized faithful.”

Marriage and family, he said, “are the future of the Church and of society.” Because of this, he said it’s necessary to have a “permanent catechumenate” so that the consciences of those who have been baptized are constantly open to the Holy Spirit.

“The sacramental intention is never the fruit of an automatism, but always of a conscience illuminated by faith, as the result of a combination between human and divine,” he said, explaining that in this sense, “the spousal union can be said to be true only if the human intention of the spouses is oriented to what Christ and the Church want.”

In order to help future spouses, the Church needs the contribution of bishops and priests, and also of other people involved in pastoral care, such as religious and lay faithful “who are jointly responsible in the mission of the Church.”

Pope Francis closed his speech cautioning members of the Rota not to allow their work in the exercise of justice to be reduced “to a mere bureaucratic task.”

“If the ecclesial tribunals were to fall into this temptation, it would betray Christian conscience,” he said.

“We must prevent the conscience of the faithful in difficulty as regards their marriage from closing to the path of grace,” he said, adding that this can be accomplished through pastoral accompaniment, the discernment of conscience and the work of the Church’s tribunals.

“This work must be carried out in wisdom and in the search for the truth,” he said. “Only in this way can the declaration of nullity produce a liberation of consciences.”

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