Highly appreciated by Benedict XVI, the archbishop of Sri Lanka’s capital has held several posts in the Vatican, including that of secretary of the Dicastery for the liturgy. In recent years, he has accompanied the travails of his country, tirelessly asking for justice for the victims of the Easter 2019 massacres.
The 65-year-old bishop of Kalookan is one of three Filipino cardinals in the conclave. As a priest, bishop, and then cardinal he always showed a missionary attention for the downtrodden. He was the strongest voice against former President Duterte's "war on drugs" and promoted rehabilitation programmes for drug addicts. He warns against looking at the conclave as a horse race, highlighting the sacredness of the election of a pontiff.
Sources told AsiaNews that local priests were summoned yesterday to ratify the choice of Fr Wu Jianlin, vicar general. Another election was held in the Diocese of Xinxiang, in Henan, whose underground bishop has been arrested several times. During the sede vacante period, Beijing is reiterating the autonomy of the Church in China to test Francis’s successor over the agreement.
The 74-year-old bishop of Penang was born into an ethnic Indian family. He trained at the historic College of Martyrs whose legacy he feels. He leads a vibrant and multicultural Church with indigenous and migrant communities from different backgrounds. At the synod, he pointed to the horizon of a Church that truly “walks with the people”.
The apostolic nuncio in Damascus - who turns 80 next January - is among the cardinals called to choose Bergoglio's successor. Despite the war and violence, he has never left his diplomatic mission or the Christian community. The ‘poverty bomb’, the tragedy of sanctions and the issue of the disappeared, which also affects the Syrian Church.
Elevated by Pope Francis in 2022, the first East Timorese cardinal is a Salesian from a small Catholic country where young people make up 70 per cent of the population, marked by a long struggle for independence from Indonesia. Appointed bishop of Dili in 2016, he inaugurated the John Paul II Catholic University and promotes an “open” and united Church. He remembers the joy of welcoming the pontiff before an immense crowd on Francis’s trip last September.
A Franciscan of Belgian origin, he received the cardinal's red hat on 7 December during the last consistory. The Iranian Church is a ‘peripheral’ reality, a small flock that is ‘transparent’ in its faith. Criticism of those who harbour a ‘preconceived’ view of a nation rich in ‘contrasts’. The desire to train ‘local pastors’.
The College of Cardinals Francis created reflects the world more than the Catholic Church, or rather, it reflects her missionary vocation. Numbers count far less than bearing evangelical witness, which Christians are expected to live in the community of nations. For this reason, starting tomorrow we will present the Who’s Who of the cardinals from Asia called to enter the Sistine Chapel to elect the new pontiff.
Cardinal Re led the service in the parvis of St Peter’s. “Dear Pope Francis, we now ask you to pray for us,” he said. The conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy inside the basilica was the highlight of the political side of the event. The presence of heads of state and government from Asia and the Middle East was significant. The bishops of mainland China sent a message of condolence, which the Xinhua news agency mentioned without citing the text.
The meeting in 2017 in Bangladesh with a delegation of one million exiles from Myanmar was one of the most touching moments in the pontiff's trip. He often remembered that embrace in the following years. “Pope Francis was a beacon of hope for the marginalised, a voice for the voiceless, and a man whose humility touched hearts across all boundaries,” Peter Saiful told AsiaNews. Fr Josim, a tribal convert to Christianity whom the pontiff ordained a priest in Dhaka, was told: “Your hands are holy. Use these hands for holy work.”
The pontiff's death has a special echo in the special autonomous region where Catholicism is deeply rooted. His call to be “a poor Church for the poor” prompted local Catholics to develop services for migrant workers and the elderly. The agreement with Beijing on episcopal appointments was “a step toward greater progress in evangelisation”.
With all his soul, the pope wished to rescue the face of Russia's "mad holiness", that of its monks and pilgrims, its great artists and musicians, its writers capable of opening horizons of true universal union. That is why he often quoted Dostoevsky. Now, in his death, he promises us that in this inextricable inner struggle between good and evil, the face of Christ is always revealed in the human soul.
For days, Catholics and non-Catholics alike have been paying tribute to Pope Francis. A ‘national day of mourning’ has been declared to coincide with the funeral. Cardinal Ranjith recalls the support given to the victims of the Easter massacre. For President Dissanayake, he was an example of ‘compassion, justice and interreligious harmony’ for all the people.
In a letter, women of different faiths and nationalities (including many from Asia) express “respect and gratitude” for the pontiff who recognised their "vital role”. In the meeting in the Vatican in January 2023, he urged them to rediscover the “feminine aspects" in every religion. His memory is a blessing and a call to continue to build a world in which everyone is listened to, valued, and empowered.
A source talked to AsiaNews about how Chinese Catholics are coping with Francis’s death. Remarks and pictures abound on local social media. “Amid the sorrow and mourning, the joy of announcing love prevailed,” as “a spontaneous explosion, not very cautious, but conscious that death and fear are not the last word.” An elderly lady and the Pope shared an “impossible dream”: she wanted to visit the Vatican, while he wanted to visit China.
Civil and religious leaders have paid homage to the memory of the Argentinean pontiff. Under his leadership, the Church completed the efforts begun by predecessors to bring Islam and Christianity closer together in the face of escalating fundamentalism. From the banking crisis to the explosion at the port of Beirut, the pope's closeness in the face of the great tragedies in the country's recent history.
The Chaldean Patriarch spoke to AsiaNews about the late pope on the eve of his departure for Rome to attend the pontiff's funeral and the conclave. Francis was a "prophetic" voice that spoke not only to Christians, but to all Iraqis. His historic trip in March 2021 and the message of peace and brotherhood are his legacy. He “was able to read and grasp the signs of the times better than anyone else.”
Some of the pilgrims and onlookers in Rome paying homage to Bergoglio's coffin are from Asia, from Mumbai and Seoul to Hanoi and Shanghai. Believers and non-believers spoke to AsiaNews about their presence in the Vatican to witness this historic moment. “We are Hindus but [. . .] it was important to be here.” “He will be remembered by Koreans for a long time.” Unable to see him in Singapore, others are now in Rome as pilgrims.
The 12 years of Francis’s pontificate were marked by 13 trips in Asia, from the first visit to South Korea to the long journey last September to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore. During this time, his message of peace and hope strengthened the ties between the Church and various Asian cultures.
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’.
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”.
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.
For Grand Imam al-Tayeb, who signed the Abu Dhabi Document on Human Fraternity with Francis in 2019, “The world has lost a humanitarian icon”. Shia Ayatollah Al-Sistani, whom he met in Iraq in 2021, praises the pontiff for upholding “the values of harmony among people”. From his exile in India, the Dalai Lama highlights Francis’s “simple but meaningful life". The president of the World Jewish Congress and a Bahá'í leader remember the Holy Father.
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’.”
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.
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.
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’.
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.
For Indian Prime Minister Modi, the pontiff “was a beacon of compassion, humility and spiritual courage.” The President of Israel Isaac Herzog hopes “his prayers for peace in the Middle East and for the safe return of the hostages will soon be answered.” Iran also offered its condolences. “Until the end,” he “showed the world a beautiful example,” South Korean bishops write. A Mass of suffrage will be held on Wednesday morning at the Holy Sepulchre.
