“Dear brothers and sisters, with deep pain I have to announce the death of our Holy Father Francis”. These are the words with which Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Joseph Farrell announced the death of the Pope in a video recorded by Casa Santa Marta. «At 7:35 this morning the bishop of Rome, Francesco, returned to the father’s house. His whole life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and his Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with loyalty, courage and universal love, in particular in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example of true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we recommend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of God one and trine “.
Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, his last apparition in public in St. Peter’s Square and his greeting to the crowd who had gathered for Mass, celebrated by Cardinal Comastri, for the Blessing Etbi et orbi.
The Pope’s body will be brought, according to the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, in the Santa Marta chapel where the observation of death will take place. Always following the indications provided for by the agreement, all this should take place in the evening.
Reactions
The news arrived in a square of San Pietro Attonita where many faithful who arrive do not know about the Pope’s death. Many pilgrims who were crossing the holy door for the Jubilee this morning. As in other Sundays, the written text of Queen Coeli was expected (the Marian prayer that during the Easter period replaces the Angelus) even if it was known that the Pope would not appear.
The last appearance of Bergoglio, 88, was yesterday in the Easter Sunday When Francesco appeared from the central loggia of the blessings of the Basilica of San Pietro for the blessing after the Urbi et orbi message and then he wanted to take to the streets between the faithful on the Papamobile to greet the faithful present.
In this Holy Week there have been numerous apparitions of the Pope, even if suffering and very proven. Last Sunday, on the occasion of the palm trees, he had arrived in the churchyard in a wheelchair to greet the faithful at the end of the celebration.
Holy Thursday wanted to go to the prison of Regina Coeli to greet the prisoners. At the exit, he had told the reporters, “I will live Easter as I can”. The rites of the Easter Triduum were chaired by the various cardinals delegated by the pontiff. At the announcement of death, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where the Pope had gone to pray before the palm trees and where he chose to be buried, played in mourning.
Now the period of vacant headquarters opens, during which the Holy See is lined by Cardinal Camerlengo, Kevin Farrell, The same that announced the announcement of the Pope’s death from the chapel of the Santa Marta house. Period that will end with the call of a conclave and the election of a new bishop of Rome. Francesco has appointed eighty percent of the cardinals who, with less than 80 years old, will enter the Sistine chapel. Many of them, however, chosen in the most disparate countries of the world, are not known.
Numerous reactions of condolence by leaders around the world and from the Catholic world. “It is a painful and very suffering moment for the whole church,” said the president of the CEI in a note, the Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, “We entrust our beloved Pope Francis to the embrace of the Lord, in certainty, as he himself taught us, that” everything proves to be in mercy; everything is resolved in the merciful love of the father “. I ask all the churches in Italy that the bells of the churches are played as a sign of mourning and that they are favored moments of personal and community prayer, in communion between us and with the universal Church ».
Also the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella He expressed his condolence: “I learned with great personal pain the news of the death of Pope Francis, warning the serious emptiness that is created with the coming of the reference point that has always represented for me”, he said in a message, “The death of Pope Francis arouses pain and emotion between Italians and all over the world. His teaching has recalled to the evangelical message, to solidarity between men, To the duty of closeness to the weakest, to international cooperation, to peace in humanity. The gratitude towards him must be translated with the responsibility to use himself, as he has constantly done, for these objectives “
