Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome and Successor of St Peter died this morning – Easter Monday – at 7.35am. May the risen Lord receive him! His passage to eternity will be made on a tide of prayer rising from every corner of the earth.

Much will be said and written about him. He will be remembered as the Pope of surprises, bringing the freshness of Latin America into the bloodstream of the universal Church. He lived and spoke with a zeal for souls, a concern for people, especially the poor and migrants, and a pastoral sensitivity that had roots both in his own experience of life and in his Ignatian, Jesuit spirituality. He had a gift for connecting with people of different backgrounds, beliefs and lifestyles. He sought to renew the Church’s connection to the Gospel and its missionary imperative (Evangelii Gaudium), to restore humanity’s connection with our common home (Laudato Si) and to bind up the fractures of society (Fratelli tutti). He deplored war with a passion. Under the rubric of Synodality, much of the effort of the last years of his pontificate was devoted to renewing the Catholic sense of the Church as a pilgrim People of God, travelling together through time to eternity: clergy and laity united in the variety of their personal vocations, listening to the Lord and one another and discerning the way forward in the light of the Holy Spirit. He leaves us the legacy of this Jubilee Year, of “the hope that does not disappoint”, his last public words, “Buona Pasqua! Happy Easter!”

May he rest in peace and the Church be guided to find a worthy successor.

Hugh Gilbert OSB
Bishop of Aberdeen

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