‘He’s my pope’ - At St. Peter's, pilgrims mourn Pope Francis
In the hours after he died, hundreds of mourners flocked to St. Peter's Square.
After the announcement of Pope Francis’ death on April 21, hundreds of pilgrims rushed to Saint Peter’s Square to pray for the soul of the Holy Father and for the Church.
While the surroundings of Saint Peter’s Square had a major police and media presence, in the hours immediately after the pope’s death was announced, the square was not completely full — looking most as it does on a typically busy spring day.
Thousands of tourists taking selfies in the square, sitting on its stairs and entering Saint Peter’s Basilica to contemplate its artistic wonders, seemingly oblivious of the significance of the pope’s death.
But in the square were also several hundred pilgrims in prayer, many with tears in their eyes or praying on their knees for Pope Francis.
Some had just arrived for a pilgrimage when they heard the news, others live in Rome, and others were soon to depart after spending Holy Week in the Eternal City – but most did not expect the pope would die while they were in town.
Why did they rush to Saint Peter’s Square to pray for the pope a few hours after his death was announced?
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“As a priest, he’s my papa, he always challenged me as a priest,” Fr. James Searby of the Diocese of Arlington told The Pillar.
“There were times in which I felt he confused me, but he rattled me. It’s like beautiful art, when you go to a beautiful basilica, the art there strikes you, it makes you stop,” Fr. Searby, who just arrived in Rome today with a group of pilgrims added.
“Pope Francis and his teaching had the same effect, it was the art of the ‘poverello,’ as his namesake Saint Francis. He was the poor little one, he shook us and made us look at those we wouldn’t normally look at, and made them beautiful to our eyes,” he concluded.
The pope’s death came just a day after a brief public appearance, which left many stunned.
“It’s a bit surprising because we just served the Mass yesterday as a college [as St. Peter’s], so we saw the Holy Father as he went by Saint Peter’s Square,” Jonas, a German seminarian at the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum, said.
“There are some mixed feelings involved, because we’re in mourning but we’re also living the joy of Easter. So there are two feelings in our souls, the sadness over the death of our beloved Holy Father and the joy of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he added.
Jonas said that, in his view, Pope Francis’ closeness to the people will remain one of his most enduring legacies.
“There’s a saying here in Rome, which is that people came to Rome to see John Paul II, to listen to Benedict XVI, and to touch Francis. He represented this very close style of being the pope, and he was a major advocate for peace. It’s beautiful that his last public words yesterday were an appeal to peace in the world,” he concluded.
For some, Pope Francis had a more personal impact.
“Pope Francis represents forgiveness, acceptance,” Claudia, a Roman, told The Pillar, fighting back tears.
“He has been great in accepting young people and the most lonely and marginalized in society,” she said, while her mother looked at her also in tears.
“One of the first things he said was that he was not to judge people, and he brought us back to the heart of the faith in its fullest sense,” she added.
Others, such as Fra Angelo, a Brazilian Capuchin friar studying in Rome, told The Pillar that Pope Francis influenced their conversion to Catholicism.
“To me, personally, the pope meant everything. I come from a Protestant background, so the pope was the Beast of the Apocalypse, responsible for all the heresies in the world.”
“But I converted six years ago and this feeling changed from a deep hatred towards the figure of the successor of Peter to now a feeling of deep love, affection, and veneration. The rule of my order says that we must always be at the feet of the Holy Roman Church, and that’s the pope, he represents the whole Church,” he added.
Pope Francis’ legacy is likely to be a contested one. Many Catholics have disagreed with his theological emphases or his approach to pastoral questions.
But even among those who found themselves distanced from his theology, there was affection and respect for his emphasis on mercy.
“I was ordained one month after his election,” Fr. Alati from Ivory Coast told The Pillar. “So he’s my pope, even if I wasn’t that close to him theologically, as I’m perhaps closer to Benedict XVI.”
“But his openness to people outside of the Church was very touching, as was the way he reached out to people. So I really respected and loved the way he insisted that we should reach for people outside of the Church and treat them with more mercy,” he added.
Deacon Fernando Castro, LC, was just arriving in Rome to prepare for his priestly ordination in 12 days when he heard the news of the pope’s death.
“The pope always brought us a lot of hope in these testing times. I will always have with me his constant reiteration that priests should be shepherds with the smell of sheep, to be priests for everyone,” he added.
Castro arrived in Saint Peter’s Square with a group of young pilgrims who spent the Holy Week in Rome.
“I feel both pain and hope,” Eduardo, from Brazil, told The Pillar. “I just loved Pope Francis, and he left a lot of teachings for us as Christians and for the world,” he added.
“He took the Church into a new era and into places it hadn’t gone before. It was the first pope I lived as an adult, you know?,” Matteo, from Rome added.
“So I came here because I wanted to accompany him and thank him for all he gave to the Church and to pray that the Holy Spirit gives us another holy pope, like him,” he concluded.
Students from Ave Maria University, spending a semester in Rome, also made their way to the square to pray after hearing the news.
“I was out getting coffee and heard the news about the pope a few minutes after it was announced and just came running,” Caroline Ventura, one of the students, told The Pillar.
“He’s our father, I’ve been praying for him in every Mass throughout my life and now to have him suddenly gone is shocking,” she added.
“We just ran out here as fast as we could to pray for him,” Monica Patti, another student, said to The Pillar. “He’s our father, he’s the successor of Peter, we really feel his absence now that we cannot look to him for that spiritual guidance he gave the Church.”
Very encouraging, thank you.
Father Searby!!!! What a great priest! And his words are so beautiful here.