Requiem for Pope Francis

On Wednesday 21 May, the Grand Priory held a Requiem Mass for Pope Francis, on the thirtieth day since his death (also called the ‘month’s mind’ in England).

Mass was sung by Fr Mark Elliott-Smith, rector of Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street (due to be inducted as a chaplain of the Order this summer), and the Holy Sacrifice was further beautified by the music of Victoria and Clemens Non Papa.

At the end of Mass, absolutions was prayed at the catafalque in the middle of the church, asking God to have mercy on the soul of our late Holy Father.

Our Principal Chaplain, Mgr John Armitage, preached a profound sermon about the Petrine office and the relationship between the holder of that office and the office itself, each Pope a ‘new Peter’ who becomes ‘Peter’ when he is called toe “feed My sheep” by the Lord, whatever his personal challenges and struggles.

Fr Mark has also offered the following reflection on the occasion, which we are grateful to be able to publish here:

On the death of Pope Francis

‘Fratelli e sorelli, buona Pascua!’

We didn’t know it at the time, but those words uttered in a voice weakened by illness and suffering, would be the conclusion of Pope Francis’ Petrine ministry. For many of those watching, it brought to mind a similar occasion, twenty years ago, when the great St John Paul II imparted his final Easter Urbi et Orbi blessing just days before he died.

Both were great witness to the dignity and worth of human life, from conception, right to its natural end. Only a few days before, Pope Francis decided to visit St Peter’s Basilica, still in hospital attire, and prayed at the tomb of Pope St Pius X. He had been advised by doctors to rest completely in order to recover his physical strength, but he clearly understood that, like St Paul, the finishing line was in sight, and for him, the race of faith ended.

One of the pastoral duties which he most cherished was his annual visit to the Regina Coeli prison in Rome, where he used to wash the feet of the inmates during Holy Week. This year, recovering from the pneumonia that made him so gravely ill, he was unable to wash the prisoners’ feet, but was able to visit the prison. He would often reflect on the mysteries of grace, and would ask himself why they, and not he, had ended up there.

Pope Francis was deeply aware, then, that he was in as much need of mercy as the rest of humanity, and knew himself to be a sinner, like all of us, called to be a saint, like all of us. That humble awareness touched the hearts of many, as did his emphasis on mercy; and his words and gestures reached far beyond the visible boundaries of the Church and resonated with Christian and non-Christian alike.

There will be a time when it will be appropriate to stand back and make an assessment of his legacy to the Church, and as with any Pontiff there will be wheat and tares, but that is not the task of the moment. The task for now is the solemn duty to give thanks for his Petrine ministry, and to assist him with our prayers. Some souls, as we know, are so infused with God’s love, so radically open to the Father’s will in their lives, so willing to pour out their lives in the service of their neighbour, that the completion of their earthly pilgrimage is simply the beginning of their life in the joy of Heaven.

And yet, few of us can lay claim to being in such a state. Strive as we might to live lives of virtue and closeness to God, many of us fall in a variety of ways, whether into sins of uncharity, or moral failures of various kinds. But our God is indeed merciful and tender, but the fire of his love burns away all falsehood, all that renders us unfit to take our place at the eternal Banquet. Pope Benedict in his great encyclical Spe Salvi reminds us that the process of purification that we call Purgatory can’t be reckoned in days, months, years, decades or centuries, because it ‘eludes earthly reckoning’[1]; time, in the sense that we know it, is superseded.[2]

And yet our prayers make their way to the throne of judgement and grace. Not only do they assist the departed, but they assist us, too. To pray for the dead is a movement of charity, when we try to see with the eyes of Jesus, and to love with the Heart of Jesus.

For all we know, Pope Francis, who did, after all, carry the burden of the governance of God’s Church for twelve years, might already be in Heaven, praying for us. But we don’t know that, and only the Church can pronounce on that, and so we pray for him with fervour and charity. What we do know is what St Paul tells us:

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”[3]

This is the victory for which we pray for Pope Francis. His final public words were an affirmation of the victory of Jesus over death. The happiness of Easter is a happiness that is not of human making, but a joy and a peace that comes from the believing that Christ is not dead but lives, and that his triumph over death has opened up Heaven for those who, by Baptism, have become God’s children; and who, by grace, have sought and found Jesus, and having found him, never let him go.

May the soul of Pope Francis, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

[1] Pope Benedict XVI Spe Salvi 47

[2] Cf Ibid 48

[3] I Corinthians 15:54-55 (ESVCE)