Memorial Masses highlight Pope Francis' love for Jesus, care for the vulnerable

NEW YORK (OSV News) -- We cannot understand Pope Francis "if we don't understand that he was a man of God ... a friend of God," said Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations.

"He believed God was his compass," the archbishop said in his homily during a memorial Mass for the pope April 26 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. "His faith in God was also the source of his freedom."

Archbishop Caccia pointed to Pope Francis' very first encyclical -- issued in 2013 not long after his election as the 266th successor of Peter. It was titled "Lumen Fidei" ("The Light of Faith") and encouraged Catholics to embrace their faith more fully.

His belief in God "was his strength. That was his vocation and why we are here," said Archbishop Caccia, who also noted the pope upon his election gave three reasons for choosing St. Francis of Assisi as his namesake -- his service to the poor, his constant calls for peace and his focus on care for creation.

Pope Francis said he wanted "to be at the service of the poor, not just to be for the poor," and dreamed of "a church close to the poor, and that was not just a wishful thinking," because he put the poor at the front throughout his papacy, the archbishop said.

Francis also believed in the power of prayer, he continued. "Since the very evening (after his election in 2013) when he appeared on the balcony, he said to the people, 'Please pray for me.' And in any encounter and (in) every part of the world with all people, he always finished (a) meeting with 'please pray for me,' and not just to Catholics or Christians but to people of all faiths. He believed in the power of prayer, in the power of being close to God, and even to those who don't believe, he said, 'Please wish me well if you don't pray."

"Now it's our turn to ask you to pray for us so that we can follow in your footsteps," Archbishop Caccia said. "May he rest in peace. Hallelujah!"

At St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica in downtown Toronto at a noon Mass April 22 for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, Cardinal Francis Leo addressed the hushed congregation by saying that the requiem Mass was not solely a time of mourning.

"A service for the deceased always has a somber tone of sadness as a member of our family is no longer here with us physically, but in Jesus' words, 'Do not let your hearts be troubled,'" he said. "Christ promises to prepare a place for you, and when it's time, Christ said I will come to take you to be with me, so where I am, you too will be."

"We began Mass at Easter when the church was dark before we lit the light of Christ. When someone we care about dies, isn't it true that we might find ourselves in such darkness?" the cardinal asked during his homily. "What do you do in darkness but look for the light of Christ? Pope Francis had a unique mission on Earth in transmitting that light of Christ, so now we celebrate for the repose of his soul, a reflection upon how he shared that mission with us and the world."

Cardinal Leo said that three words Pope Francis used when describing Jesus were embodied by the late pontiff during his 12-year pontificate: "Closeness, compassion and tenderness."

"Pope Francis embodied the closeness of God, particularly when he came to our country (in July 2022) to be close to us and to the Indigenous peoples. He showed the compassion of God in reaching out especially to the sick, poor, imprisoned and those suffering on the margins. Finally, he led with the tenderness of God -- Francis embodied Christ's will to win others over to God and to the kingdom," he said.

"Jesus embodied these attributes of God's style, and Pope Francis reminded us as a model by teaching us how to do these in our day. We give thanks to God for the gift that Pope Francis has been to the church, and we pray for him that the Lord opens wide the gates of heaven and welcomes him home in the house of the Father," the cardinal concluded.

Pope Francis "will be remembered foremost as the 'pope of the peripheries,' roundly rejecting a 'self-referential' church. With implacable determination -- for Francis had a streak of stubbornness -- he pressed us to reach out to those on the margins: the poor, elderly, disabled, unborn, refugees, and prisoners," Archbishop J. Michael Miller, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, British Columbia, said in his homily at a memorial Mass for the late pontiff April 24 at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver.

"With boldness and a willingness to disregard papal customs, he used his pulpit to give voice to the voiceless, empower lay women and men in the church's government, and bring unprecedented regional diversity to the College of Cardinals charged with electing his successor," he said.

"The Holy Father," Archbishop Miller continued, "fiercely condemned what he described as 'the globalization of indifference' when it came to refugees and the poor; 'the ideological colonization' of the developing world by secularizing Western ideas such as those on transgenderism; and 'the throwaway culture' that treats everything and everyone deemed no longer useful, including the unborn and elderly, as disposable."

The archbishop quoted from the homily Pope Francis had prepared for Easter but had not delivered himself:

"Brothers and sisters, this is the greatest hope of our life: we can live this poor, fragile and wounded existence clinging to Christ, because he has conquered death, he conquers our darkness and he will conquer the shadows of the world, to make us live with him in joy, forever. This is the goal towards which we press on, as the Apostle Paul says, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (cf. Phil 3:12-14)."

In Washington, the solemn toll of 88 bells -- one for each year for Pope Francis' life -- could be heard April 21 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and a memorial Mass for the pope was celebrated in the basilica's Crypt Church, with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, as the principal celebrant.

Concelebrants included Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington; Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory and Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, retired archbishops of Washington; and Auxiliary Bishops Roy E. Campbell Jr. and Juan R. Esposito-Garcia of Washington.

In his homily, Cardinal Pierre described Pope Francis as a man deeply rooted in the Gospel and singularly devoted to a vision of the church as a "field hospital" -- a place of mercy, healing, and accompaniment. "The church as a field hospital continues," the nuncio said.

He underscored Pope Francis' consistent message of hope, mercy and being a witness to Christ's Incarnation.

"We are not the witnesses of an ideology," he said. "We are witnesses of the miracle of God's presence in human reality. And this presence of God in humanity is the source of our hope."

Following the Mass, Cardinal Pierre and Cardinal McElroy responded to questions from members of the media, including what the pope's death means for the wider world.

Cardinal Pierre emphasized the enduring value of a life shaped by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"It's worthwhile to leave this world with the Gospel, with Jesus. That's worthwhile," he said. "We cannot fix all the problems of the world. We can be, like what Jesus said in the Gospel ... the seed of the better world."

Cardinal McElroy pointed to hope as "particularly important" for the church, adding that "the first words of the church to anyone approaching are words of love and embrace, rather than judgment." He also affirmed that humility -- so clearly embodied in Pope Francis -- should remain a hallmark of leadership in the church.