Pope Francis is remembered as a Pope of the people. Read the complete homily of Cardinal Giovanni Battista re.

Pope Francis was remembered as a Pope of the people, a pastor who knew how to communicate to “less among us”, during the Homily at his funeral On Saturday.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91 -year dean of the Cardinals College, delivered a long and very personal homily during the Vatican service.

“He was a Pope among the people, with an open heart to everyone,” Re. He applauded the crowd gathered outside the Basilica of San Pedro when he related Francis’s constant concern for migrants, even when he celebrated Mass on the border between the United States and Mexico and traveled to a field of refugees in lesbos, Greece, and brought 12 migrants home with him.

“The guide thread of its mission was also the conviction that the Church is a home for all, a home with its always open doors,” Re.

Francis He died at the age of 88 On Monday, April 21, the day after Easter Sunday. He will be buried in the basilica of St. Mary Major (Santa María Maggiore) in Rome, where a simple underground grave awaits, registered, according to Your wishes – With just his name: Franciscus.

Read the full text of the homily of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re

This is the translated text of the homily given by Cardinal Re during the funeral of Pope Francis:

In this majestic Plaza de San Pedro, where Pope Francis celebrated the Eucharist so many times and presided over great meetings in the last twelve years, we are gathered with sad hearts in prayer around his mortal remains. However, we are sustained by the certainty of faith, which ensures that human existence does not end in the grave, but in the father’s house, in a life of happiness that knows no end.

On behalf of the Cardinals College, I cordially thank everyone for their presence. With a deep emotion, I extend the respectful greetings and the sincere thanks to the heads of state, heads of government and official delegations that have come from many countries to express their affection, veneration and esteem for our late Holy Father.

The effusion of the affection that we have witnessed in recent days after his death of this land to eternity tells us how much the deep pontificate of Pope Francis touched minds and hearts.

The final image we have of him, which will remain recorded in our memory, is that of last Sunday, on Easter Sunday, when Pope Francis, despite his serious health problems, wanted to give us his blessing from the balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro. Then he went down to this square to greet the great crowd gathered for the Easter Mass while traveling in the open Popemobile.

With our prayers, we now trust the soul of our beloved Pontiff to God, so that He can give him eternal happiness in the brilliant and glorious look of his immense love.

We are illuminated and guided by the passage of the Gospel, in which Christ’s very voice echoed, asking the first of the apostles: “Peter, do you love me more than these?” Peter’s answer was fast and sincere: “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you!” Jesus then entrusted the great mission: “Feed my sheep.” This will be Peter’s constant task and his
The successors, a love service in the steps of Christ, our teacher and Lord, who “did not come to be served but to serve, and to give their lives a rescue for many” (MK 10:45).

Despite his fragility and suffering towards the end, Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life. He followed in the footsteps of his Lord, the good shepherd, who loved his sheep to the point of giving him his life. And he did it with strength and serenity, near his flock, the Church of God, aware of the words of Jesus cited by the apostle Paul: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

When the Cardinal Bergoglio conclave was chosen by the conclave on March 13, 2013 to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, he already had many years of experience in religious life in Jesus’ society and, above all, he enriched himself with twenty -one years of pastoral ministry in the Archdiocese of good, first as auxiliary, then as a coadjutor and, above all, as Archbishop.

The decision to take the name of Francis immediately seemed to indicate the pastoral plan and style on which he wanted to base his pontificate, seeking inspiration of the spirit of San Francisco de Asís.

He maintained his temperament and form of pastoral leadership, and through his resolved personality, he immediately left his mark on the Church government. He established direct contact with individuals and peoples, anxious to be close to all, with a remarkable attention to those who are in difficulty, giving themselves without measure, especially to the marginalized, at least among us. He
He was a Pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone. He was also an attentive Pope to the signs of time and what the Holy Spirit was waking up in the Church.

With his vocabulary and characteristic language, rich in images and metaphors, he always sought to shed light on the problems of our time with the wisdom of the Gospel. He did it by offering a guided response for the light of faith and encouraging us to live as Christians in the midst of the challenges and contradictions in recent years, which he loved to describe as a “change of time.” He had a great spontaneity and an informal way to address everyone, even those away from the Church.

Rich in human warmth and deeply sensitive to today’s challenges, Pope Francis really shared the anxieties, sufferings and hopes of this era of globalization. He gave himself reconforting and encouraging us with a message capable of reaching people’s hearts in a direct and immediate way.

His welcome and listening charisma, combined with a form of behavior according to current sensibilities, touched the hearts and sought to awaken moral and spiritual sensibilities. Evangelization was the governing principle of his pontificate. With a clear missionary vision, he spread the joy of the Gospel, which was the title of his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium. It is a joy that fills the hearts of all who trust God with confidence and hope.

The guide thread of its mission was also the conviction that the Church is a home for all, a home with its always open doors. He often used the image of the church as a “field hospital” after a battle in which many were injured; a church determined to take care of the problems of people and the great anxieties that destroy the contemporary world; A church capable of bowing to each person, regardless of their beliefs or condition, and heal their wounds.

His gestures and exhortations in favor of refugees and displaced are innumerable. His insistence on working on behalf of the poor was constant.

It is significant that Pope Francis’s first trip was Lampedusa, an island that symbolizes the tragedy of emigration, with thousands of people drowned in the sea. In the same line was his trip to Lesbos, along with the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Archbishop of Athens, as well as the celebration of a mass at the border between Mexico and the United States during his trip to Mexico.

Of its 47 arduous apostolic trips, Iraq’s in 2021, challenging each risk, will continue to be particularly memorable. That difficult apostolic journey was a balm in the open wounds of the Iraqi people, which had suffered so much for the inhuman actions of Isis. It was also an important trip for interreligious dialogue, another significant dimension of his pastoral work. With his 2024 apostolic trip to four countries in Asia-Oceania, the Pope reached “the most peripheral periphery of the world.”

Pope Francis always placed the gospel of mercy in the center, repeatedly emphasizing that God never tires of forgiving us. Always forgive, whatever the situation of the person who asks for forgiveness and returns to the right path.

He called the extraordinary jubilee of mercy to highlight that mercy is “the heart of the gospel.”

The mercy and joy of the Gospel are two keywords for Pope Francis.

In contrast to what he called “the culture of waste,” he spoke of the culture of the encounter and solidarity. The theme of fraternity crossed its entire pontificate with vibrant tones. In his encyclical letter Fratelli Tutti, he wanted to relive a worldwide aspiration to fraternity, because we are all children of the same father who is in heaven. He often reminded us of us all belonging to the same human family.

In 2019, during his journey to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis signed a document about human fraternity for world peace and life together, remembering the common paternity of God. Going to men and women around the world, in their encyclical letter Laudato if, ‘he caught attention to our duties and shared the responsibility of our common home, stating: “No one is saved alone.”

Faced with the furious wars of recent years, with their inhuman and innumerable deaths and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly lifted his voice, imploring peace and asking for honest reason and negotiation to find possible solutions. The war, he said, results in the death of people and the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools. War always leaves the world worse than it was before: it is always a painful and tragic defeat for all.

“Build Bridges, no walls” was an exhortation that repeated many times, and his service of faith as the successor of the apostle Peter was always linked to the service of humanity in all its dimensions. Spiritually united with all Christianity, we are here in great quantities to pray for Pope Francis, so that God can welcome him to the immensity of his love.

Pope Francis used to conclude his speeches and meetings saying: “Do not forget to pray for me.”

Dear Pope Francis, now we ask him to pray for us. That bless the church, bless Rome and bless the whole world of heaven as you did last Sunday from the balcony of this basilica in a final hug with all the people of God, but also embraces humanity that seeks the truth with a sincere heart and has the torch of hope tall.

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