In Vietnamese churches, public memorial services are being held for the pontiff. On behalf of the communist authorities, a government official burnt incense in his memory at the headquarters of the Bishops' Conference. No cardinal from this lively and courageous Church will be at the conclave, but everyone remembers Francis’s suggestion that his successor will certainly go to Vietnam.
The pontiff was among the few voices in the world to constantly remember this Southeast Asian country torn apart by a war that has now lasted for more than four years. In 2017, at a time of great political and economic openness, Francis visited Myanmar, bringing hope to believers of all religions. A memorial Mass was held for him in Yangon cathedral yesterday.
From Jakarta, moderate Islamic movements and political leaders express their sadness for the death of the pontiff, a man of great stature for the faithful of other religions as well. Signing the document on Fraternity with Grand Imam of al-Azhar was a high point. For the bishops of Indonesia, which he visited last September, the pope’s values of love, solidarity, and partiality for the marginalised are “timeless”.
From Calcutta, the superior of Mother Teresa's sisters remembers Pope Francis. ‘He made the Church refocus its attention on the marginalised’. Bergoglio wanted the Missionaries of Charity to open a new home in Bajo Flores, a slum in his hometown in Argentina. His last meeting with them was the day before he was admitted to the Gemelli Hospital: ‘He told us: thank you for your vocation.’
The Archbishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi expresses the deep sorrow of Catholics and non-Catholics in the country. The ‘courage’ to bring people who are often ‘discarded’ to the ‘front line’. From interreligious harmony to ecological issues, gestures that are ‘testimony to his deep commitment to unity’. Looking ahead to the next conclave, so that ‘the Holy Spirit may guide the cardinals’.
Giorgio Licini, a PIME missionary, accompanied the pontiff on last year's trip to a distant frontier mission. “Francis’s lesson was to look inside ourselves before pointing the finger at atheists, the media or technological civilisation,” because “A pilgrim does not have a programme, but a goal.”
Answering a journalist's question, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson praised “constructive contacts and engaged in useful exchanges” between China and the Holy See. But, in the name of sinicisation, the reference is to state-to-state relations, not the local Catholic community. The presence of Chinese bishops at Francis’s funeral is an open question.
The archbishop emeritus of Bombay talks about the pontiff who picked him to be the face of Asia in the Council of Cardinals. He participated in all the meetings, inviting the cardinals “to discuss, to differ and to argue.” He was a person of “deep faith” who “preached the Gospel undiluted.” “He would say 'why be afraid of death?' 'The Lord needs me here, the Lord wants me here and the moment the Lord does not want me he will take me away’.”
Proclaiming the Gospel was his top priority: he reminded us that mission is about joy, that its territories are not defined by geography or people's religious affiliation. Through his life and teaching, he taught us that Jesus' missionaries do not ask themselves how to get others to follow them, but how they can reach others.
In a reflection sent to AsiaNews, the Vicar of Arabia describes the pontiff as a ‘concrete presence’ for Christians in the region. The 2019 apostolic journey, the birth of the House of Abraham and the signing of the document on fraternity. A universal fraternity that welcomes differences as a gift and a treasure, the encyclical Laudato sì and regret at the failure to participate in COP28.
Patriarch Kirill recalls the historic meeting in Cuba in 2016 and Francis' desire to “heal the wounds of conflict”. Putin's tribute: “A consistent defender of the great values of humanism and justice”. Orthodox writer Andrei Lorgus: ‘His death on Easter has a special meaning for the whole Christian world’.
One of the great signs of the pontificate that ended this morning with the death of Pope Francis is his care for the peripheries of the world. The archbishop of Hyderabad, the first Dalit called to join the College of Cardinals in 2022, pays tribute to the late pontiff who “looked each person in the eye, not as a number, but as a soul beloved by God.”
The Xinde Catholic website has widely reported Francis’s death. So far, no word has come from President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government, nor the Patriotic Association. The Diocese of Hong Kong remembers the pontiff’s trip to Mongolia and his attention for relations between the Vatican and China.
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