With clear blue skies and temperatures in the high-50s, a perfect day for the world to bid farewell to Pope Francis drew estimates of 1 million people to St. Peter’s Square April 26 to witness the funeral rites for the pontiff, who died April 21 at age 88.
“As I looked out, you could see the whole square was filled and people were down the Via della Conciliazione, really almost as far as you could see,” Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, who attended the funeral, told the Catholic Review by phone.
Thousands more lined the streets of Rome as the pope’s earthly remains were transported by popemobile from St. Peter’s to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where he was laid to rest.
The archbishop said the homily by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, was “a very beautiful and clear summation of Pope Francis’s pontificate and really hit the themes that I’m sure were near and dear to his heart and at the center of his ministry as the successor of Peter.”
The cardinal ended the homily by noting that during the Jubilee Year of Hope, Pope Francis in his death was passing the torch of hope. “Of course, (Cardinal Re) spoke to the future, which means that the College of Cardinals, the eligible electors, will meet to determine who will carry forward the ministry of Peter in our midst,” Archbishop Lori said.
He noted that one of the cardinals present will be the next pope. “There is someone who came to Rome at some point who will probably never go home, or if so, will go home rarely, so it’s a very momentous thing,” he said.
Pope Francis had purchased a round-trip ticket back to Argentina when he came to Rome for the conclave in 2013, but never returned to his homeland after his election.
Looking to the future, Archbishop Lori said, “First of all, it is the Lord’s church and I pray that the Lord will watch over his church, that we will do the will of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and that the Holy Spirit will be upon the cardinal electors.
“But mostly, I pray that there will be unity, that there will be peace in the church, that we will be focused on the mission of the church to spread the Gospel and to transform our ministries and parishes into missionary centers,” he said. “That’s really what I’m praying for, and that we will be a true beacon of justice and peace and compassion in the world.”
The archbishop said the papal funeral compares to almost nothing else in the world. “It was a beautiful tribute to Pope Francis, but at the same time, it was a moment when we sought God’s mercy upon us all. We pray for Pope Francis, but we also sought Pope Francis’ prayers for us. It was quite a profound and moving experience to be a part of this.”
He recalled that he has visited with Pope Francis many times – in his role as supreme chaplain of the Knights of Columbus, as vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, an ad limina visit in 2019, a visit in 2016 with an interfaith group from Baltimore praying for peace and reconciliation in the city and other occasions. “I certainly found myself reminiscing about those visits and about how attentive he was, how kind he was, his great sense of humor, but also saying things that were really important. So, all those visits were significant, and I found myself recollecting about those as well.”
Archbishop Lori was pleased to learn of another connection to the Archdiocese of Baltimore at the Mass, as the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles was proclaimed in English by Kielce Gussie, a 2019 graduate of Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg who now works as a journalist at Vatican News. “As an old Mountie myself, that makes me proud,” the archbishop said.
He arrived in Rome the afternoon before the funeral and celebrated a private Mass at the Pontifical North American College, the home to Americans studying for the priesthood near the Vatican.
He said he hopes to visit the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where Pope Francis will be buried, if he can, after the basilica reopens for visitors Sunday, April 27. “I can imagine the crowds will be enormous,” he said.
Email Christopher Gunty at editor@CatholicReview.org
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