Author: Eric Deabill

(OSV News) – Personal encouragement to consider whether Jesus Christ is calling them to priesthood, along with regular Eucharistic adoration, continue to be key factors for young men seeking to become priests, according to a new report.

“Encourage a young man to consider the priesthood or to attend Eucharistic adoration; he could be your future pastor,” said Bishop Earl A. Boyea of Lansing, Michigan.

The bishop, who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, shared his thoughts in an April 24 statement announcing the release of the 2025 “Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood.”

Since 2006, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, or CARA, has overseen the report that is provided to the USCCB.

The report comes in advance of the 62nd annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations, celebrated this year on May 11, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, known as Good Shepherd Sunday in the Latin Church. The Gospel passage (Jn 10:27-30) for the Mass highlights Jesus’ role as the Good Shepherd.

In what would be his final message for the day of prayer, Pope Francis – writing from Rome’s Gemelli hospital March 19 amid his final illness – urged that “every effort be made to foster vocations in the various spheres of human life and activity, and to help individuals to be spiritually open to the Lord’s voice.”

He also exhorted the faithful to “have the courage to pause, to listen to what your heart tells you, and to ask God about his dreams for you.”

The late pope’s emphasis on the need for prayer and communal support for men and women discerning their vocations dovetailed with the data in CARA’s report. It found that 78% of the survey participants had participated in regular Eucharistic adoration before entering the seminary, with 89% encouraged to consider priesthood by someone in their life: either by a parish priest (60%), friend (52%) or fellow parishioner (42%).

Jesuit Father Thomas P. Gaunt, CARA’s executive director, told OSV News “there’s been more emphasis on Eucharistic adoration in the last couple of decades,” adding, “It’s just become a more common devotional prayer practice.”

He also said that “folks have just become more cognizant” of the CARA report’s “point about encouragement” as a factor in developing priestly vocations.

This year’s online survey, conducted from Jan. 10-March 10, was completed by 309 out of the 405 men being ordained priests this year who were invited to participate, a response rate of 76%. The ordinands represent 115 U.S. dioceses and eparchies and 36 distinct religious institutes.

Among the responding dioceses, 36 reported they did not have any men set to be ordained in 2025.

Most of the respondents (80%) are preparing for ordination to a diocese or eparchy, with 20% seeking ordination in religious institutes.

A majority said they had first considered priesthood at age 16. The average age for ordination, 34, is consistent with the age range of 33-37 reported since 1999.

Most (69%) of the 2025 ordination class is white or Anglo, with 12% Hispanic or Latino, another 12% Asian or Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian, and 6% Black, African American or African.

Just over a quarter of responding ordinands (26%) are foreign-born — coming to live in the U.S. on average 15 years ago at 21 years old — with Mexico (5%), Vietnam (4%), and the Philippines (3%) the most common countries of origin among them.

An overwhelming majority (92%) had been baptized Catholic as an infant; those who reported becoming Catholic later in life typically did so at an average age of 22.

Close to nine in 10 (85%) respondents said they grew up with both parents as Catholics, and most (95%) were raised by their biological parents during the most formative part of childhood.

About one third (31%) reported having a relative who is a priest or religious.

More than half of the respondents (63%) had completed an undergraduate (41%) or graduate (22%) degree prior to entering the seminary, with philosophy, engineering and business topping the areas of study.

At least 73% of responding ordinands attended a Catholic school before entering the seminary. Among the responding ordinands, 46% had attended a Catholic elementary school, 36% attended a Catholic high school and 36% attended a Catholic college.

Most (66%) ordinands had worked full time prior to entering the seminary, with 6% serving in the nation’s armed forces.

While most respondents reported receiving personal encouragement regarding their vocations, 43% noted they faced discouragement from pursuing priesthood, usually by a friend, parent or other family member.

Along with Eucharistic adoration, praying the rosary (72%), participating in a prayer or Bible study group (48%) and Lectio Divina (41%) were significant practices cited by respondents. More than half (51%) had been in a parish youth group prior to their seminary entrance.

“We pray for the continued fidelity of the newly ordained to the voice of God and for the faithful to whom they will minister,” said Bishop Boyea. “As witnesses of hope, we thank them for their courage to commit their lives to what Pope Francis said is a call that embraces their entire existence.”

ROME (OSV News) – In a mix of joy, excitement and sadness, families, associations and individuals from all over the world celebrated the Jubilee of People with Disabilities with Mass April 28 in Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Joy reverberated inside the basilica. Sadness was felt too, because instead of meeting the pope in person, the people with disabilities who flocked to Rome had to say goodbye to the pontiff who reached out to those often excluded from society.

Giusi, from Sicily, mother of Sofia and Andrea Joel, a boy with autism, and wife of Maurizio, told OSV News they booked the trip months ago and that it was a “very special moment intertwined with the papal funeral.”

There was “a lot of emotion, a lot of joy, a lot of sadness, too, because we lost our pontiff, but we have hope and faith for the new one to lead the faithful,” said Giusi, who only gave her first name.

“Celebrating the Jubilee, we’re just grateful for the life of our son, because of course there are a million challenges for our family, but we find strength to come forward,” she said. “We’re really happy with this pilgrimage – we’re tired but it’s beautiful.”

Grace Arnold, who is 19, came with her mom, Patricia, from Kansas City. “I’m really excited about this pilgrimage,” she said. “I wanted to know more about the church. To be here with mom, to be bonding with her, it’s amazing,” she said.

Grace, who has Down syndrome, said that going through the Holy Door at St. Paul Outside the Walls was “very cool” and while it was a “little sad initially” for her to hear that Pope Francis died, she is “really excited now that we can be praying for the new one.”

“I wanted for my daughter to have a sense of the global church, and to understand that she’s not alone,” Grace’s mother, Patricia, told OSV News.

“The Christian community first prays,” said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, organizer of the Jubilee 2025 events and pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization under Pope Francis.

Prayer “is our salvation,” he told the packed basilica.

The first prayer, Archbishop Fisichella said, is to “ask the Lord for the courage not to remain silent, the courage to always proclaim that Christ is risen.”

Speaking to many people with disabilities who came with their caregivers, Archbishop Fisichella said: “Let us remember that we always have a community to refer to, our little church.”

For Irene Verzeletti from Brescia, near Milan in northern Italy, this sense of community is really important. She is part of the apostolate of blind people, and she said the association keeps reminding society that “blind people — we can work, we can do things, we can graduate, we can study, we can do all that people that see can do.” The 48-year-old is an accountant at the University of Brescia.

The Jubilee for her is important, because “we are here to pray together,” and remember that “the person we have around can be a real friend. And not only people who take care of us. Everyone can exchange their gifts like it is written in the Gospel, I can give you my talent, and you can give me yours,” Verzeletti said.

American Catholic journalist JD Flynn, who was with his wife, said several months ago they “felt sort of a call to come to the Jubilee for People with Disabilities.” Thanks to the generosity of sponsors, they brought four other families “from all over the U.S.” to Rome and, who – like the Flynn’s – have children with Down syndrome.

“It’s been a gift to come together and pray together. I think it was a gift to be at this Mass,” Flynn said.

“People with disabilities don’t always experience that. Sometimes they experience the church as their home. But as often as not, they experience marginalization in the church or isolation in the church, not necessarily by malice, but just a failure to appreciate the kinds of accommodations that they need,” Flynn, father of three, told OSV News.

“Pope Francis said a few years ago: ‘The church is your home.’ It was a call for all of us Catholics, to exercise the Lord’s preferential love for the poor — by exercising the Lord’s preferential love for people with disabilities,” he said. “And it’s been beautiful to see that play out in the life of the church over the past couple of years. It’s been beautiful to see that play out in the life of our own family in the past couple years.”

He added: “It can be hard to be a family of someone with disabilities, and it can be a gift to have the church say: ‘We love you and we want to share with you in your joys and sufferings as God says so.'”

Tomasz Sitarz from Lodz, Poland, came for the Jubilee with his son, Peter, who is hard of hearing.

“My hope is that society understands the needs of the disabled people. Sometimes we don’t need certain help, we need true support in our children’s needs, because the world is putting obstacles under their feet, and we want the world simply to support us.”

His fellow Pole Ewa Majewska, who lives in Hamburg, Germany, gave up her holidays to volunteer for the Jubilee.

Asked about her experience, she immediately teared up and said: “I can’t even tell you how many graces I felt here, and the Jubilee of People with Disabilities is just a highlight of the week, in which I saw the pope for the first time in my life on Easter Sunday and then I said goodbye to him just a day later.”

Verzeletti was especially excited to go through the Holy Door with her 3-year-old guide dog, Berto.

“This door is like magic, because when you pass through this door, you can express your desires, your wishes, you can wish and pray.”

She said she didn’t pray for or wish to see again. “I was born blind, I don’t know anything else,” she said.

“My greatest wish is to find love, a great person to love.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church and all of humanity want guidance and support in a world filled with toil, doubts and contradictions, said Cardinal Baldassare Reina, papal vicar of Rome.

With the death of Pope Francis, leader of the universal church, men and women today are “orphans of a word that guides amid siren songs that flatter the instincts of self-redemption, that breaks loneliness, gathers the marginalized, that does not give in to bullying, and has the courage not to bend the Gospel to the tragic compromises of fear, to complicity with worldly mindsets, to alliances that are blind and deaf to the signs of the Holy Spirit,” he said in his homily.

Cardinal Reina celebrated Mass April 28 for the third day of the “novendiali” — nine days of mourning for the late pope marked by Masses. Thousands of people had gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica, including more than 180 cardinals, who are in Rome for a series of private meetings before the conclave begins May 7 to elect a new pope.

Presiding over the Mass, Cardinal Reina said that he was there to “express the prayer and sorrow” of the Diocese of Rome, which has the historic responsibility of being home to the leader of the universal church.

Right now, the diocese and the world’s Catholics are without their shepherd, he said, and humanity itself seems like “sheep without a shepherd” given how the world is burning “and few have the courage to proclaim the Gospel by translating it into a vision of a possible and concrete future.”

Jesus showed the way with his life and teachings, which is then shared by his disciples, the cardinal said. The way requires deep conversion combined with actions capable of giving life to words with “a caress, an outstretched hand, unarmed speech, without judgment, liberating, not afraid of contact with what is impure.”

This service is “necessary to awaken faith, to arouse hope that the evil present in the world will not have the last word, that life is stronger than death.” he said.

Jesus understands “the burden on each of us in continuing his mission, especially as we find ourselves looking” for the next pope, he said.

“The scope is immense, and temptations creep in, veiling the only thing that matters: to desire, to seek, to work in expectation of ‘a new heaven and a new earth,'” Cardinal Reina said.

As the cardinals meet to discuss and choose Pope Francis’ successor, it cannot be a time of “political balancing acts, tactics, caution, a time that panders to the instinct to go backward, or worse, to rivalries and alliances of power,” he said. “A radical disposition is needed to enter God’s dream entrusted to our poor hands.”

The people of God and its pastors are proclaiming a “newness” through Jesus Christ, which means there cannot be “that mental and spiritual laziness that binds us to the forms of God’s experience and church practices from the past,” he said.

“I am thinking of the multiple processes of reform in the life of the church initiated by Pope Francis,” which also go beyond the Catholic world, Cardinal Reina said.

The world saw Pope Francis as “a universal shepherd,” he said, and “the barque of Peter” needs to sail on wide open seas that go beyond all boundaries and create “surprises.”

The duty of the College of Cardinals “should be to discern and order what has begun, in light of what our mission requires of us, in the direction of a new heaven and a new earth,” he said.

They must make the church beautiful for Christ not for “worldly conveniences, guided by ideological pretensions that tear apart the unity of Christ’s garments,” he said.

Their duty, he said, is to seek a shepherd who: “can handle the fear of loss in the face of the demands of the Gospel”; who “has the gaze of Jesus” and can show God’s humanity “in a world that has inhuman traits”; and who “confirms that we must walk together” as people of God made to proclaim the Gospel.

Jesus feels compassion for his people and does not want them to be “a flock without a shepherd,” he said, and this now is their prayer.

It is a prayer of “the whole church and of all women and men, who ask to be guided and sustained in the toil of life, amid doubts and contradictions, orphans of a word that guides,” he said.

In his homily, Cardinal Reina emphasized that being a servant of God requires giving one’s life. “The good shepherd sows with his own death, forgiving his enemies, preferring their salvation, the salvation of all, to his own.”

Like the grain of wheat that falls into the ground, they, too, must sow with their lives, he said.

“It is a time of famine,” he said. And “the farmer weeps because he knows that this last act is asking him to put his life at risk.”

“But God does not abandon his people, he does not leave his shepherds alone,” he said. “Our faith holds the promise of a joyful harvest, but it will have to pass through the death of the seed that is our life.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The conclave that begins May 7 is expected to be the largest in history, with a wide geographical mix of cardinal-electors.

There are 135 cardinals under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in a papal election. By contrast, 115 cardinals took part in the conclaves in 2005 and 2013.

The cardinals represent 72 different countries if one counts the nations where they are serving and not just where they were born. Take the example of three Italians: Cardinals Pierbattista Pizzaballa is the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem; Giorgio Marengo is the apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and Mario Zenari is the apostolic nuncio to Syria.

The cardinals’ average age on April 28 was 70 years and 5 months. That is slightly younger than the average age of electors who participated in the last conclave in 2013, which was 71.8.

According “Universi Dominici Gregis,” the document giving rules for the election of a new pope, cardinals who celebrate their 80th birthday before the day the Apostolic See becomes vacant – that is, with a papal death or resignation – do not take part in the election.

The oldest among current voters is Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra, the retired archbishop of Madrid, who turns 80 May 16.

The youngest member of the conclave is 45-year-old Ukrainian-born Cardinal Mykola Bychok of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne, Australia. He is one of 17 Gen X cardinals, those born between 1965 and 1980.

Only five of the cardinals eligible to enter the conclave were created cardinals by St. John Paul II and 22 were created by Pope Benedict XVI.

That means 27 of them took part in the conclave that elected Pope Francis, and five of those also participated in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict.

But that also means voting in a conclave will be a brand new experience for 108 of the electors.

While the geographical breakdown of conclave voters has become more diverse since 1978, Europeans are still the largest block. Fifty-two of the electors, or 37%, come from Europe.

However, Asia is more represented now than ever before with 24 electors or almost 18% of the total. There are 23 cardinal-electors representing Latin America, about 17% of the total, followed by Africa with 18 electors. North America now trails behind Africa and Asia with 14 electors, representing about 10%, and Oceania has four voting-age cardinals, about 2.9% of the total.

In the country-by-country breakdown, Italy has 16 voting-age cardinals, followed by the United States with 10, representing 7% of the voting total.

Brazil has seven voting-age cardinals; Spain and France have five each, and Poland, Portugal, India, Argentina and Canada have four each. England, Germany and the Philippines have three cardinal-electors each. Fifty-nine countries are represented with one or two cardinal-electors.

In terms of influence, the Vatican as an institution will be heavily represented, with 27 members of the Roman Curia voting in the conclave – 19.7% of the total.

Since a two-thirds majority of the cardinal-electors who participate is needed to elect a pope, if all 135 men were to attend, there would need to be at least 90 votes for one candidate to emerge as the winner.

Among the voting-age cardinals, there are 33 members of religious orders, including: five Salesians, four Jesuits, four Franciscans and three Conventual Franciscans.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Mercy – the cornerstone of Pope Francis’ teaching and ministry – must guide the Catholic Church through its period of mourning and the uncertainty that lies ahead, the Vatican’s second-ranking official said.

Celebrating Mass April 27 for the second day of the “novendiali” – nine days of mourning for the late pope marked by Masses – Cardinal Pietro Parolin, former Vatican secretary of state, told some 200,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Divine Mercy Sunday that Pope Francis had made the message of God’s limitless mercy the heart of his pontificate.

“Our affection for him must not remain a mere emotion of the moment,” Cardinal Parolin said. “We must welcome his legacy and make it part of our lives, opening ourselves to God’s mercy and also being merciful to one another.”

Although the Mass was officially one of mourning, jubilant crowds of young people who traveled to Rome for the Jubilee of Teenagers April 25-27 filed into the square early Sunday morning while cheering, singing songs and breaking out in chant.

“With the death of the pope all of our plans changed, but the kids are excited to be here for this important moment, it’s incredible for them,” said Jesús Serrano, who was accompanying a group of 185 young people from the Archdiocese of Madrid.

Like so many teenagers in St. Peter’s Square, the group from Spain thought they were traveling to Rome to attend the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis — an Italian teen who was set to be declared the church’s first millennial saint by Pope Francis.

Instead, they participated in the late pope’s funeral Mass April 26 and returned to the Vatican the following day for his second memorial Mass. The brightly colored t-shirts, hats, flags and banners from each of the groups created a lively tapestry on the sun-soaked square.

Seated on stage in St. Peter’s Square on either side of Cardinal Parolin were the cardinals gathered in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral and Vatican employees dressed in mourning attire.

In his homily, the cardinal recognized the bittersweet atmosphere in the square, telling the young people that their presence was a visible sign of Easter joy even amid the church’s grief, adding that Pope Francis “would have liked to meet you, to look into your eyes, and to pass among you to greet you.”

The cardinal encouraged the teenagers to hold fast to the hope that comes from Christ, even as they confront the challenges of the modern world, including rapid technological change and the rise of artificial intelligence.

“Never forget to nourish your lives with the true hope that has the face of Jesus Christ,” he said. “With him, you will never be alone or abandoned, not even in the worst of times.”

Highlighting the day’s liturgical celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, Cardinal Parolin said it was fitting to remember Pope Francis, who had made mercy a hallmark of his pontificate.

“Pope Francis reminded us that ‘mercy’ is the very name of God, and, therefore, no one can put a limit on his merciful love with which he wants to raise us up and make us new people,” he said.

The church, Cardinal Parolin noted, must continue to be a place where mercy heals wounds, fosters reconciliation and overcomes hatred and division. “Only mercy heals and creates a new world, putting out the fires of distrust, hatred and violence,” he said. “This is the teaching of Pope Francis.”

As the tomb of Pope Francis in the Basilica of St. Mary Major was opened to the public for the first time the morning of April 27, Cardinal Parolin recalled the late pope’s deep devotion to Mary, having chosen to be buried in the Marian basilica outside the Vatican, and entrusted the church to her care.

Standing alongside the icon of Mary that Pope Francis often visited in that basilica during his pontificate, the cardinal prayed that she would “protect us, intercede for us, watch over the church and support the journey of humanity in peace and fraternity.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The 135 cardinals eligible to elect the next pope will enter the Sistine Chapel to begin the conclave May 7, the Vatican announced.

The cardinals will first celebrate the “Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff” in St. Peter’s Basilica that morning before processing into the Sistine Chapel that evening.

The Vatican Museums announced that the Sistine Chapel would be closed to visitors beginning April 28 to allow preparations for the conclave to begin. The preparations include the installation of a stove to burn the cardinals’ ballots and a chimney on the roof to signal the election results to the world.

The date for the conclave was set during the fifth general congregation meeting of cardinals April 28, Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, told reporters at a briefing later that day. The general congregation meeting was the first after a two-day pause to allow cardinals to participate in the funeral rites for Pope Francis.

More than 180 cardinals attended the April 28 meeting, including over 100 cardinal electors. During the session, about 20 cardinals offered reflections on the state of the church, its mission in the world, the challenges it faces and the qualities needed in the next pope, Bruni said.

Topics addressed included evangelization, interfaith relations and the ongoing need to address clerical sexual abuse, he added.

The cardinals also discussed whether Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who relinquished the rights associated with being a cardinal after he was forced to resign in 2020, would be permitted to participate in the conclave. Bruni said no decision had yet been made, and Cardinal Becciu has been attending the general congregation meetings.

Looking ahead to the next session, Bruni said the general congregation meeting April 29 would open with a reflection by Benedictine Father Donato Ogliari, abbot of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome and a member of the Dicastery for Bishops.

As cardinals entered the Vatican for the morning’s session, Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm was asked by reporters if he expected a long conclave. “I think it will be,” he said, “because up to now we don’t know each other.”

Meanwhile, Cardinal Walter Kasper, former president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity who is past the age limit to vote in the conclave, told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he hopes the cardinal-electors “come to a consensus on the next pope very soon, in the footsteps of Francis.”

ROME (CNS) – The casket bearing the body of Pope Francis made its final journey through the streets of Rome accompanied by applause and shouts of gratitude from thousands of mourners.

After the funeral Mass April 26, pallbearers carried Pope Francis’ coffin through St. Peter’s Basilica, stopping briefly at the steps leading to St. Peter’s tomb before placing it on a retrofitted popemobile parked outside.

Hundreds awaited outside and applauded as the vehicle, accompanied by four police officers on motorbikes, left the grounds of Vatican City for the last time.

According to the Vatican and Italian police, some 150,000 people watched the pope’s casket pass by.

Along the wide boulevard in front of Torre Argentina, where Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., tourists and bystanders packed the streets, some teetering on top of the stone walls around the ancient site. Residents were leaning out of their upper-story apartment windows, everyone camera-ready. When the motorcade passed, people clapped and cheered, some shouting “Grazie, Papa Francesco” (“Thank you, Pope Francis) and “Viva il papa.” (“Long live the pope”).

The cortegé bearing the first Jesuit pope passed by the Gesu Church, the mother church of the Society of Jesus in Rome’s historic center, where the body of the order’s founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, is buried.

Among the tens of thousands of people hoping to catch a glimpse of the papal casket outside Rome’s famed Colosseum was a group of 50 young people from the Diocese of Verona who were in Rome for the Jubilee of Adolescents.

For 23-year-old Samuele Simoni, the death of Pope Francis, which happened while the group made their way to Rome for the Jubilee pilgrimage, was “unimaginable.”

Speaking to Catholic News Service, Simoni said bidding the pope farewell along the route to his tomb was a way for the group to witness “the strength of the church in such an important time of mourning.”

Pope Francis was “an important and influential figure” in the lives of young people, and to join others in bidding farewell to the pontiff was “definitely a time in which they could also fully experience a bit of the Jubilee,” he said.

“People often think of the Jubilee as seeing the pope in a different way. Yet, it is certainly an emotional moment of prayer that is both strong and beautiful,” Simoni told CNS. “For them, it will truly remain an indelible memory in their hearts.”

When the casket arrived at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major, pallbearers carried it in a solemn procession down the central nave.

Among the cardinals present for the burial were: Cardinals Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals; Roger M. Mahony, retired archbishop of Los Angeles, and ranking member of the order of cardinal priests; Dominique Mamberti, former prefect of the Apostolic Signature and ranking member of the order of cardinal deacons; Stanislaw Rylko, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major; Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of the basilica; Pietro Parolin, secretary of state under Pope Francis; Baldassare Reina, papal vicar of Rome; and Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner.

Before reaching the pope’s final resting place, the pallbearers stopped in front of the chapel where Pope Francis often laid flowers and prayed before the icon of Mary. This time, two boys and two girls carried baskets of white flowers and set them before the altar under the Marian icon.

The pallbearers then made their way to Pope Francis’ tomb, where Cardinal Farrell presided over the burial rite. Earlier in the week, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists that the actual burial would not be broadcast live.

In a statement released April 24, the Vatican press office said “a group of the poor and needy will be present on the steps” leading to the papal basilica to welcome his casket.

Corriere della Sera also reported that five prisoners from Rome’s Rebibbia prison were given special permission to be present at the basilica and attend the pope’s burial.

The pope had a special affection for prisoners, celebrating Holy Thursday Mass almost every year at a prison or jail. On April 17, just four days before his death, Pope Francis visited Rome’s Regina Coeli jail.

According to Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, Auxiliary Bishop Benoni Ambarus of Rome, who was charged with prison pastoral care for the diocese, revealed the late pope had recently made a personal donation of 200,000 euros ($228,100) to a pasta factory run by the prisoners of Rome’s Casal del Marmo prison.

Saying the prisoners felt orphaned after the pope’s death, Bishop Ambarus said he was “working so that (the pope’s) favorite children can be at the funeral. We will see what we can do.”

The Basilica of St. Mary Major was dear to Pope Francis throughout his pontificate as he would often go to pray before the icon “Salus Populi Romani” (“Health – or salvation – of the Roman people”), especially before and after his papal trips.

At a briefing with journalists outside the basilica April 26, Cardinal Makrickas said the pope, who was initially reluctant to be buried outside of St. Peter’s Basilica, told him in May 2022 that the “Virgin Mary told me, ‘Prepare the tomb.'”

The Vatican previewed an image of the tomb, which was created with marble from the northern Italian region of Liguria, the land of the late pope’s grandparents, and inscribed with the Latin version of his name: Franciscus. It also featured a large reproduction of his pectoral cross.

In his final testament, which was published by the Vatican shortly after his death April 21, the pope expressed his wish to be buried at the basilica dedicated to Mary to whom he had entrusted his “priestly and episcopal life and ministry.”

The pope further explained his reasons in his autobiography, “Hope,” which was published in January. In it, he said he would not be buried in St. Peter’s Basilica because “the Vatican is the home of my last service, not my eternal home.”

“I will go in the room where they now keep the candelabra close to the Regina della Pace (Queen of Peace) from whom I have always sought help, and whose embrace I have felt more than a hundred times during the course of my papacy,” he wrote.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – When Pope Francis was elected as the first Latin American pontiff, he said his brother cardinals went out of their way to pick someone from the “ends of the earth.”

He spent the rest of his pontificate going back out to those peripheries, traveling to more than 65 nations, preferring those that were poor, scarred by war, marginalized and forgotten. Then the peripheries came to him on the day of his funeral in St. Peter’s Square.

More than 160 nations sent delegations April 26, headed by kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, government officials and ambassadors.

Several nations were geographically far-flung like the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

Many were nations on the fringes of the world’s attention, but where the pope never visited like Albania, Iceland, El Salvador, Angola, Gabon, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Togo, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Qatar, Oman and Vietnam.

All the countries the pope visited in his 12-year pontificate were represented except Kazakhstan and South Korea, according to the list of confirmed delegations the Vatican press office released late April 25.

The nations on the peripheries the pope visited that came to Rome to return the honor included: Timor-Leste, Cuba, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Congo, South Sudan, Kenya, Mozambique, Morocco, Mongolia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Palestine and many others.

But of course, political elites and nations at the center of power were present, too: U.S. President Donald J. Trump and his wife Melania, French President Emmanuel Macron, Argentine President Javier Milei, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Britain’s Prince William and Mary Simon, the governor-general of Canada.

Delegations also were present from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Sudan. However, Taiwan, not mainland China, was represented by Chen Chien-jen who served as vice president and premier of Taiwan. Only a dozen countries, including Vatican City State, officially recognize Taiwan as an independent sovereign state while China maintains its claim over the island.

Vatican protocol for a papal funeral places cardinals, bishops and ecumenical delegates to the left of the casket and heads of state to the right.

Of the nearly 40 ecumenical delegates, there were Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople; Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, head of external church relations for the Moscow Patriarchate; Catholicos Karekin II, the patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church; as well as representatives of the Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and Evangelical communities.

Protocol also determines the seating arrangements within the VIP section for political leaders. The large delegations from Italy and Argentina, the pope’s home country, were in the front row, followed by royalty, then international leaders in order of political hierarchy and in alphabetical order of their country’s name in French.

That meant U.S. President Trump was nowhere near Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Representing “États-Unis,” Trump was invited to sit near Estonia, Finland and France.

However, world leaders had a chance to pray at the pope’s closed casket in the basilica before the funeral started. Zelenskyy and Trump sat down briefly for a “very productive” talk, according to the White House. Zelenskyy said on Telegram it was a “good meeting. One-on-one, we managed to discuss a lot. We hope for a result from all the things that were said.”

The “very symbolic meeting,” he said, “has the potential to become historic if we achieve joint results. Thank you, President Donald Trump!” A photo of Zelenskyy, Trump, Macron and Starmer meeting and speaking together in the basilica was also published on social media.

Nonetheless, the complex seating arrangements for the funeral meant many traditional enemies and nations at war were not seated near each other.

For example, Zelenskyy, who is a head of state, was seated ahead of Russia’s representative, Olga Lyubimova, who is the minister of culture.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa was also seated far from Israel’s ambassador to the Vatican, Yaron Sideman, who attended even though official representatives of Israel are normally prohibited from participating in formal activities on the Jewish Sabbath.

“In this case, an exception was granted because of its importance,” Sideman told Ansa, the Italian wire service, April 24. “Israel attaches great importance to expressing its condolences and joining the Catholic world in mourning the passing of the pontiff.”

Even though alphabetically close, Armenia and Azerbaijan, who are locked in an ethnic and territorial conflict over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, were seated far apart since Armenia sent its president and Azerbaijan sent the speaker of its national assembly.

Because he is not an active head of state, former U.S. President Joe Biden, a Catholic, was seated in a separate VIP section and not near Trump, who has repeatedly vilified him publicly.

In another section, numerous representatives of other religions were present such as Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Muslims and Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome.

The presence of so many world leaders at Pope Francis’ funeral and their praise and accolades after his death April 21 sparked accusations of hypocrisy, especially in Italy, where the government has taken a hard line against immigration.

Achille Occhetto, an Italian politician, said, “Now that Francis is dead, all the floggers of migrants, champions against welcoming, in short, all shades of bullies and authoritarians in the world, pretend to bow to him.”

Cardinal Domenico Battaglia of Naples told the Italian daily, La Repubblica, April 26, “There is a risk of beatifying him in words, only to forget him in deeds.”

Pope Francis “spoke plainly” without mincing words as all prophets do, he said. The cardinal compared the situation to King Herod and John the Baptist. Herod “welcomed him, listened to him and then did the opposite of what John preached.”

The pope’s funeral provided a rare opportunity for enemies and friends to come together as one and be reminded of his invitation to “build bridges and not walls.” But he also warned that the world needed action and not words.

Editor’s note: This is the English translation of the prepared text of the homily, delivered in Italian by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, for the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican April 26, 2025. It is provided by the Holy See Press Office and lightly edited for style.

 

In this majestic St. Peter’s Square, where Pope Francis celebrated the Eucharist so many times and presided over great gatherings over the past 12 years, we are gathered with sad hearts in prayer around his mortal remains. Yet, we are sustained by the certainty of faith, which assures us that human existence does not end in the tomb, but in the Father’s house, in a life of happiness that will know no end.

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

The outpouring of affection that we have witnessed in recent days following his passing from this earth into eternity tells us how much the profound pontificate of Pope Francis touched minds and hearts.

The final image we have of him, which will remain etched in our memory, is that of last Sunday, Easter Sunday, when Pope Francis, despite his serious health problems, wanted to give us his blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. He then came down to this square to greet the large crowd gathered for the Easter Mass while riding in the open-top Popemobile.

With our prayers, we now entrust the soul of our beloved pontiff to God, that he may grant him eternal happiness in the bright and glorious gaze of his immense love.

We are enlightened and guided by the passage of the Gospel, in which the very voice of Christ resounded, asking the first of the apostles: “Peter, do you love me more than these?” Peter’s answer was prompt and sincere: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you!” Jesus then entrusted him with the great mission: “Feed my sheep.” This will be the constant task of Peter and his successors, a service of love in the footsteps of Christ, our Master and Lord, who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45).

Despite his frailty 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 his life for them. And he did so with strength and serenity, close to his flock, the church of God, mindful of the words of Jesus quoted by the Apostle Paul: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

When Cardinal Bergoglio was elected by the conclave on 13 March 2013 to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, he already had many years of experience in religious life in the Society of Jesus and, above all, was enriched by 21 years of pastoral ministry in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, first as auxiliary, then as coadjutor and, above all, as archbishop.

The decision to take the name Francis immediately appeared to indicate the pastoral plan and style on which he wanted to base his pontificate, seeking inspiration from the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi.

He maintained his temperament and form of pastoral leadership, and through his resolute personality, immediately made his mark on the governance of the church. He established direct contact with individuals and peoples, eager to be close to everyone, with a marked attention to those in difficulty, giving himself without measure, especially to the marginalized, the least among us. He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone. He was also a pope attentive to the signs of the times and what the Holy Spirit was awakening in the church.

With his characteristic vocabulary and 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 so by offering a response guided by the light of faith and encouraging us to live as Christians amid the challenges and contradictions in recent years, which he loved to describe as an “epochal change.”

He had great spontaneity and an informal way of addressing everyone, even those far from the church.

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

His charisma of welcome and listening, combined with a manner of behavior in keeping with today’s sensitivities, touched hearts and sought to reawaken moral and spiritual sensibilities.

Evangelization was the guiding 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 those who entrust themselves to God with confidence and hope.

The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open. He often used the image of the church as a “field hospital” after a battle in which many were wounded; a church determined to take care of the problems of people and the great anxieties that tear the contemporary world apart; a church capable of bending down to every person, regardless of their beliefs or condition, and healing their wounds.

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

It is significant that Pope Francis’ first journey was to Lampedusa, an island that symbolizes the tragedy of emigration, with thousands of people drowning at sea. In the same vein was his trip to Lesbos, together with the ecumenical patriarch and the archbishop of Athens, as well as the celebration of a Mass on the border between Mexico and the United States during his journey to Mexico.

Of his 47 arduous apostolic journeys, the one to Iraq in 2021, defying every risk, will remain particularly memorable. That difficult apostolic journey was a balm on the open wounds of the Iraqi people, who had suffered so much from 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 journey to four countries in Asia-Oceania, the Pope reached “the most peripheral periphery of the world.”

Pope Francis always placed the Gospel of mercy at the center, repeatedly emphasizing that God never tires of forgiving us. He always forgives, whatever the situation might be of the person who asks for forgiveness and returns to the right path.

He called for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in order to highlight that mercy is “the heart of the Gospel.”

Mercy and the joy of the Gospel are two key words for Pope Francis.

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

In 2019, during his trip to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis signed “A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” recalling the common fatherhood of God.

Addressing men and women throughout the world, in his encyclical letter “Laudato Si'” he drew attention to our duties and shared responsibility for our common home, stating, “No one is saved alone.”

Faced with the raging wars of recent years, with their inhuman horrors and countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice imploring peace and calling for reason and honest negotiation to find possible solutions. 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 everyone.

“Build bridges, not walls” was an exhortation he repeated many times, and his service of faith as successor of the Apostle Peter always was linked to the service of humanity in all its dimensions. Spiritually united with all of Christianity, we are here in large numbers to pray for Pope Francis, that God may welcome him into the immensity of his love.

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

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