May you rest in eternal peace and light.
On Pentecost Sunday of 2015, three years into the Pontificate of Pope Francis, he released his extraordinary Encyclical, Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home.
I couldn’t believe my joy in reading it, having spent so many years exploring the mystery of the land as sacred!
The new teaching of Laudato Si’ focused on what was happening to our common home. The theological, spiritual, ethical, cultural, scientific, biological, economic, political, sociological and ecological threads explored in this encyclical revealed that ‘everything is connected’. The call was to an ecological conversion of heart, to live an ‘integral ecology’.
It was a call to a new bridge of mission for the church to communicate effectively with the contemporary world, particularly with the young, with those sceptical of climate change
and also with global leaders who were becoming more deeply aware of the implications of global warming.
And so, on Easter Sunday of 2025, Pope Francis, aged 88 years and in very fragile health, mustered his energy and drew on the desire of his big heart to offer the thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Square and millions present on the world’s screens, the Easter greeting of ‘brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!’ and then the ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing to the city of Rome and to the world.
The extended Easter message of Pope Francis, read by Archbishop Diego Ravelli, expressed profound awareness of both the sufferings and hope in our contemporary world, particularly in his strong pleas for peace and the end to wars.
“Christ, my hope, has risen…love has triumphed over hatred, light over darkness, and truth over falsehood. Forgiveness has triumphed over revenge”, he said.
Francis was wheeled from the balcony of St Peter’s after offering the final message of his 12 years as our extraordinary Pope. He was then driven around the people in St Peter’s Square below, gently blessing a baby and smiling to the vast crowds in what would be his last public engagement.
At 7.35am on Easter Monday, Roman time, the world received the news that Pope Francis had died.
While the news was a shock, accompanied by deep sadness, it was not a surprise.
Francis had given every ounce of his life’s energy to share his belief in and his love of Jesus the
Christ, the Risen One who continues to reveal to us the life, love and ongoing call of the Creator Spirit of God.
I am so grateful that in my lifetime I have known this inspiration of Pope Francis!
He has brought the Gospel to life and been a powerfully credible faith leader for our times with his profound humility, mercy, justice and compassion.
As a global leader Francis has shown remarkable social, emotional, cultural and political intelligence in his capacity to respond effectively to the complex challenges of our time.
It has also been a joy to meet Pope Francis within the context of Laudato Si’ related conferences in Rome, and at the presentation stage of the recent ‘theology from the peripheries’ Project where the voices of people in Oceania, particularly the voices of Indigenous people, were heard.
Their concerns about saving ‘Our Common Home’ were clearly expressed, with great urgency, and received as a call to all for deeper ecological consciousness and action.
Thank you, Pope Francis for your boundless inspiration, your brave agenda for life-giving change and your courageous actions!
May you rest in eternal peace and light.
Adele Howard rsm