2 | MISERERE NOBIS.
2
MISERERE NOBIS
In the tender light of a Vatican morning, when tulips, climbing snow, and indigoletta flowers were in bloom, heaven itself had drawn Pope Franciscus's last breath. It was 7:35 a.m. in the Casa Santa Marta, when the Pope slipped out from this corporeal world to immortality.
As how he planned his internment, he seemed to have never forgotten what he once said: we are dust of the earth.
Miserando atque EligendoIn the name of the Most Holy Trinity. Amen.As I sense the approaching twilight of my earthly life, and with firm hope in eternal life, I wish to set out my final wishes solely regarding the place of my burial.Throughout my life, and during my ministry as a priest and bishop, I have always entrusted myself to the Mother of Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary. For this reason, I ask that my mortal remains rest - awaiting the day of the Resurrection - in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major.I wish my final earthly journey to end precisely in this ancient Marian sanctuary, where I would always stop to pray at the beginning and end of every Apostolic Journey, confidently entrusting my intentions to the Immaculate Mother, and giving thanks for her gentle and maternal care.I ask that my tomb be prepared in the burial niche in the side aisle between the Pauline Chapel (Chapel of the Salus Populi Romani) and the Sforza Chapel of the Basilica, as shown in the attached plan.The tomb should be in the ground; simple, without particular ornamentation, bearing only the inscription: Franciscus.The cost of preparing the burial will be covered by a sum provided by a benefactor, which I have arranged to be transferred to the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major. I have given the necessary instructions regarding this to Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, Extraordinary Commissioner of the Liberian Basilica.May the Lord grant a fitting reward to all those who have loved me and who continue to pray for me. The suffering that has marked the final part of my life, I offer to the Lord, for peace in the world and for fraternity among peoples.Santa Maria, 29 June 2022FRANCIS
He knew it's inevitable. Thus, despite his weakening knees, lack of strength, frail health, and probably difficulty of breathing, he decided to rise for the Easter Sunday, blessed the faithfuls who gathered in the Saint Peter Square, and delivered his Urbi et Orbi. "Buena pascua!"
Christ is risen, alleluia!
Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!
Today at last, the singing of the Alleluia is heard once more in the Church, passing from mouth to mouth, from heart to heart, and this makes the people of God throughout the world shed tears of joy.From the empty tomb in Jerusalem, we hear unexpected good news: Jesus, who was crucified, “is not here, he has risen” (Luke 24:5). Jesus is not in the tomb, he is alive!Love has triumphed over hatred, light over darkness and truth over falsehood. Forgiveness has triumphed over revenge. Evil has not disappeared from history; it will remain until the end, but it no longer has the upper hand; it no longer has power over those who accept the grace of this day.
Sisters and brothers, especially those of you experiencing pain and sorrow, your silent cry has been heard and your tears have been counted; not one of them has been lost! In the passion and death of Jesus, God has taken upon himself all the evil in this world and in his infinite mercy has defeated it. He has uprooted the diabolical pride that poisons the human heart and wreaks violence and corruption on every side. The Lamb of God is victorious! That is why, today, we can joyfully cry out: “Christ, my hope, has risen!” (Easter Sequence).
The resurrection of Jesus is indeed the basis of our hope. For in the light of this event, hope is no longer an illusion. Thanks to Christ — crucified and risen from the dead — hope does not disappoint! Spes non confundit! (Romans 5:5). That hope is not an evasion, but a challenge; it does not delude, but empowers us.
All those who put their hope in God place their feeble hands in his strong and mighty hand; they let themselves be raised up and set out on a journey. Together with the Risen Jesus, they become pilgrims of hope, witnesses of the victory of love and of the disarmed power of Life.
Christ is risen! These words capture the whole meaning of our existence, for we were not made for death but for life. Easter is the celebration of life! God created us for life and wants the human family to rise again! In his eyes, every life is precious! The life of a child in the mother’s womb, as well as the lives of the elderly and the sick, who in more and more countries are looked upon as people to be discarded.
What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of our world! How much violence we see, often even within families, directed at women and children! How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!
On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!
I would like us to renew our hope that peace is possible! From the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the Resurrection, where this year Easter is being celebrated by Catholics and Orthodox on the same day, may the light of peace radiate throughout the Holy Land and the entire world. I express my closeness to the sufferings of Christians in Palestine and Israel, and to all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people. The growing climate of antisemitism throughout the world is worrisome. Yet at the same time, I think of the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation. I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace!
Let us pray for the Christian communities in Lebanon and in Syria, presently experiencing a delicate transition in its history. They aspire to stability and to participation in the life of their respective nations. I urge the whole Church to keep the Christians of the beloved Middle East in its thoughts and prayers.
I also think in particular of the people of Yemen, who are experiencing one of the world’s most serious and prolonged humanitarian crises because of war, and I invite all to find solutions through a constructive dialogue.
May the risen Christ grant Ukraine, devastated by war, his Easter gift of peace, and encourage all parties involved to pursue efforts aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace.
On this festive day, let us remember the South Caucasus and pray that a final peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan will soon be signed and implemented, and lead to long-awaited reconciliation in the region.
May the light of Easter inspire efforts to promote harmony in the western Balkans and sustain political leaders in their efforts to allay tensions and crises, and, together with their partner countries in the region, to reject dangerous and destabilizing actions.
May the Risen Christ, our hope, grant peace and consolation to the African peoples who are victims of violence and conflict, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Sudan and South Sudan. May he sustain those suffering from the tensions in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region, as well as those Christians who in many places are not able freely to profess their faith.
There can be no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and respect for the views of others.
Nor is peace possible without true disarmament! The requirement that every people provide for its own defence must not turn into a race to rearmament. The light of Easter impels us to break down the barriers that create division and are fraught with grave political and economic consequences. It impels us to care for one another, to increase our mutual solidarity, and to work for the integral development of each human person.
During this time, let us not fail to assist the people of Myanmar, plagued by long years of armed conflict, who, with courage and patience, are dealing with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Sagaing, which caused the death of thousands and great suffering for the many survivors, including orphans and the elderly. We pray for the victims and their loved ones, and we heartily thank all the generous volunteers carrying out the relief operations. The announcement of a ceasefire by various actors in the country is a sign of hope for the whole of Myanmar.
I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the “weapons” of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death!
May the principle of humanity never fail to be the hallmark of our daily actions. In the face of the cruelty of conflicts that involve defenceless civilians and attack schools, hospitals and humanitarian workers, we cannot allow ourselves to forget that it is not targets that are struck, but persons, each possessed of a soul and human dignity.
In this Jubilee year, may Easter also be a fitting occasion for the liberation of prisoners of war and political prisoners!
Dear brothers and sisters,
In the Lord’s Paschal Mystery, death and life contended in a stupendous struggle, but the Lord now lives forever (cf. Easter Sequence). He fills us with the certainty that we too are called to share in the life that knows no end, when the clash of arms and the rumble of death will be heard no more. Let us entrust ourselves to him, for he alone can make all things new (Revelation 21:5)!
Happy Easter to everyone!
The following day at 9:45 AM, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, with three others, appeared in television and announced the Pope is dead.
“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow, I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God.”
He died not in the black hush of night, nor in the harried light of noon, but in that hour when the heavens begin to stir, and angels brush the veil between the worlds. At 7:35, with Rome rising to prayer, he left the dust of the earth behind and passed into the light.
Medical certifications later read that the stroke cast him into a deep coma, from which not even the prayers of a billion faithfuls could awaken him. The quiet, irreversible collapse of a heart, that had once carried the weight of the world’s mundane character, refused to beat again.
"Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, the Director of the Directorate of Health and Hygiene of the Vatican City State, has ascertained that the Pope died due to a stroke, followed by a coma and irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse. According to the official medical report, the Pope had a prior history of acute respiratory failure caused by multimicrobial bilateral pneumonia, multiple bronchiectases, high blood pressure, and Type II diabetes. His death was confirmed through electrocardiographic thanatography."
He was 88. The age is symbolic of new beginnings, as Christ rose from the dead on the "eighth day" (the day after the Sabbath). 88th, the complete renewal or transcendent resurrection. A karmic balance, a creative fullness, universal harmony, or spiritual expression of beauty.
But yes, the silence was so vast. It seemed the world was stunned, and it paused in prayer. Then the bell — immense and sorrowful— swung, and reverberated over St. Peter’s Square like a cry torn from the lungs of an ancient god. No. That's an understatement. It groaned slowly and rose in a crescendo bewailing the pain of Saint Peter itself, spewing out the agony into implacable echoing of lamentation. Its resonance moved through the colonnades, vibrating in the marrow of the pilgrims in the April light. The sound rolled out across the marble columns like a black tide, somber and unrelenting.
Each toll of the bell fell upon the city like the hammer of judgment, of Rome, old as the Caesars and sacred as the tombs of martyrs. Its sad vibration was deliberate, as if time itself were counting backward, recalling not only the most prominent proof of mortality, but all those who had come before him—Pius and Leo, Clement, Gregory, Sixtus, Alexander, Benedict, Paul and Innocent—each name a memory neath this dome.
 |
| Pope Francis and his wooden casket. (Photo from Vatican Media) |
Some wept openly, others had hearts bleed. All felt the same pull—a weight in the soul, a mourning for the man and for everything he stood and prayed hard for; the man who was consumming his remaining energy to end wars, violences, and to give comforting blessings to distraught souls.
Within that solemn rhythm of centuries—the mourning of Peter himself, the first stone upon which the Church was built, now shuddering for another successor. Cardinals and curates alike felt it deep in their blood, for the bell carried not only sorrow but responsibility, and the eternal weight of succession.
No, it seems that it's not tolling for the dead. It was not for one man the bell tolled, but for all who wear the white or black cassock and who walked on the cruciform path between kings and paupers, between heaven and the unreasonable madness of men. The bell, like some ancient prophet, sounded of what must come.
High above, the flag atop the Apostolic Palace sagged on its pole, lifeless, the wind gone still, except for the doves and birds which symbolized themselves as the peaceful contradictions of mourning and liberation to immortality. And beyond the Vatican walls, the city held its breath as if it too understood something had fallen silent.
---ϕ---
Grief descended slowly, as twilight overtakes darkness—imperceptibly at first, until one realizes the sun is gone and the world has grown cold.
Grief moved like a great, unseen tide through the stone veins of the Vatican. It passed beneath the obelisks and statues, through cloisters and halls. It is demonstrated by the long queue of people outside and within the Vatican who wanted to see the remains of the Pope inside a wooden casket with zinc lining, in a last glance. It spilled with the purest eloquence in the silent tears of an Argentinian nun—one who had long served the forgotten and the poor in Italy's margins.
 |
| Pope Francis. (Photo: Vatican Media) |
Until the result of the next conclave, no hand, as that of his Easter hand, will be lifted in fragility again. No voice will sound as that voice by the window of the Vatican's library that resonates with a paper on his hand. No arms will hug to comfort affliction, kiss the feet of prisoners, and spoke of mercy as if it were fire. No more quiet written prayer from a modest suite at Casa Santa Marta appealing to the universal conscience for the war-torn, for peace.
That propelled nations' statesmen and stateswomen to come. Nuanced in mourning.
From across the world, they stood in solemn array adjacent to the towering colonnades of St. Peter’s. Bearing semblance of reverence. No longer envoys of nations, they came as persons bowed by mortality, humbled by the passing of one whose superpower lay not in armies, but in spirit. Heads of state, monarchs, and ministers—divided in language and law—were, in that hour, assembled by grief, by memory of something older and greater than their own time.
This grief is, probably, the compelling force for US President Donald Trump to talk informally with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky fifteen minutes before the pope's funeral mass commenced.
Zelensky later wrote: “We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. A very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.”
This Russia-Ukraine war has already reached 1,159 days of violence, driving around 3.7 million internally displaced people and 6.9 million people that have crossed to neighboring countries.
---ϕ---
Pope Francis was driven slowly through the open arms of St. Peter’s Square towards Santa Maria Maggiore where he was entombed in simplicity.
Before his death, his vehicle moved both as a chariot of triumph and, reckoned, a vessel of farewell as well. The vehicle often stopped, not for spectacle, but for sacred interruption—mothers lifted their children, small and unknowing, and the Pontiff, with a hand worn by age and sacrifice, bestowed upon each the sign of the cross. It was an ancient gesture, older than empires.
It's belatedly understood now as a blessing before departure.
 |
Pope Francis wooden casket carried by his men. (Photo: Vatican Media) |
They called him the People’s Pope. And indeed, he had walked among them—on trains, in soup kitchens, in prisons, in silence. He had chosen to live not behind the marble and gilded gates of the Apostolic Palace, but in a modest suite at Casa Santa Marta, among priests, secretaries, and pilgrims. There was no grandeur in his room—only a wooden cross, a simple bed, and the ever-present shadow of Christ Crucified.
Yet he bore the loneliness of reform. His call for mercy maybe met with murmurs of dissent. Yet, he faced the resistance and conservatism from within—the hardened hearts of tradition and fear of change. Still he pressed on, limping at times, bent by illness, but unwavering in soul. He spoke gently, but with the fierce authority of one who had held the hand of the poor and kissed the feet of the imprisoned. He was loved, yes—but also judged. He dared to remind the Church of its first vocation: not to rule, but to serve.
His suffering, long concealed, later showed. The burdens of age came upon him: surgery for his colon in 2021, a hernia in 2023, chronic bronchitis, pain so intense it consigned him to a wheelchair. His longest hospitalization—more than a month—brought whispers of resignation. But he silenced them with a smile that carried both exhaustion and defiance: “A pope’s resignation must not become the custom.”
And then, the inevitable happened. Yes, it stunned for a while. But it happened.
As the smokes of incense lifted, the novendiales began—nine days of mourning, prayers, and reflections.
Cardinals, garbed in scarlet—the color of blood, the symbol of sacrifice—arrived from their respective continents and archipelago to discern how the Church will move on, fill the continuum with a new Pope worthy of Saint Peter's keys.
The chants and hymns are heard worldwide. Through these sacred incantations, the faithful, and the Church itself, enter into an enduring dialogue with the divine.
And, the prayer continued.
Pro animabus defunctorum amicorum, cognatorum et benefactorum nostrorum,Dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro iis ex familia nostra, qui in sinu tuo obdormierunt,
Domine Iesu, dona eis lucem et pacem.
Pro iis qui praecesserunt nos ad locum praeparandum,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro sacerdotibus, qui fuerunt directores nostri spirituales,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro viris ac feminis, qui nos in schola docuerunt,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro iis qui fuerunt domini nostri (vel operarii nostri),
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro iis qui nobis in labore cotidiano sociati fuerunt,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro qualibet anima quam unquam offendimus,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro inimicis nostris iam defunctis,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro animabus illis pro quibus nemo orat,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro iis quos amici et cognati sui obliti sunt,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro iis qui nunc gravissime patiuntur,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro iis qui plurima merita acquisiverunt,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro animabus quae proximæ sunt liberationi e Purgatorio,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro iis qui in terris maxime erga Deum Spiritum Sanctum, erga Iesum in Sanctissimo Sacramento, erga Sanctissimam Matrem Dei devoti fuerunt,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro omnibus pontificibus et praelatis defunctis,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro omnibus sacerdotibus, seminariis, religiosis defunctis,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro omnibus fratribus nostris in Fide ubique,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro omnibus fratribus separatis, qui te ardenter dilexerunt, et ad domum tuam venissent, si veritatem cognovissent,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro animabus illis, quae precibus nostris egent aut in vita preces nostras petierunt,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Pro iis, qui tibi propinquiores sunt quam nos, et quorum precibus egemus,
dona eis lucem et pacem, Domine.
Ut felices tecum sint in aeternum, qui in terris veri catholicae Fidei exemplares fuerunt,
dona eis requiem aeternam, Domine.
Ut admittantur ad praesentiam tuam revelatam, qui, quantum scimus, nunquam peccatum mortale commiserunt,
dona eis requiem aeternam, Domine.
Ut in gloria collocentur, qui semper in recogitatione et oratione vixerunt,
dona eis requiem aeternam, Domine.
Ut caelesti gaudio tui conspectus fruantur, qui vitam mortificationis, abnegationis et poenitentiae egerunt,
dona eis requiem aeternam, Domine.
Ut caritate tua repleantur, qui etiam indulgentiarum tuarum gratiis sese privaverunt et actum heroicum pro animabus defunctorum fecerunt,
dona eis requiem aeternam, Domine.
Ut ad Beatificam Visionem elevantur, qui numquam gratiae sanctificanti obstaculum opposuerunt, sed semper in mystica unione tecum profecerunt,
dona eis requiem aeternam, Domine.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.
