HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMN PONTIFICAL REQUIEM MASS FOR POPE FRANCIS
ST MARY’S BASILICA, SYDNEY, 1 MAY 2025
“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the wise and learned, and revealing them to mere children” (Mt 11:25-26). Jesus’ words of thanksgiving tonight upend conventional wisdom: God’s revelation, He makes clear, is not first and foremost for the clever or powerful, but rather for the childlike in their neediness, simplicity and trust. Put another way, to get to God we must approach Him as a child their loving father—as Jesus so often taught.[1] What gifts does God offer his trusting children?
When Pope Francis first stepped out onto the balcony of St Peter’s at his election in 2013, he humbly asked the faithful gathered in the square to pray for him. He would often end his encounters with “Don’t forget to pray for me.” Tonight we respond yet again. For Francis was aware that to steer the Barque of Peter and his own soul too, he would need to rely not only on his own efforts, but above all on the grace of God generously poured out through the prayers of the Church.
He chose as his motto Miserando atque eligendo—“having and choosing Mercy”—for Mercy with a capital-M was his favourite name for God and what he thought God’s best gift after life itself.[2] It’s what Francis knew he needed, and we all need. Broken and disfigured by sin, only God’s healing balm makes us whole again. Back in his youth, Francis had had a deeply moving experience of that in Confession. And he was convinced that, like the prodigal son, we must all return to the Father again and again, throwing ourselves upon His mercy.
Thus Francis called the Church to be “a field hospital” for wounded bodies, hearts and souls,[3] a place of “mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven”,[4] a body ensouled by Mercy as her animating pastoral sensibility.[5] Having experienced God’s mercy, we share it with others: forgiving others their trespasses and having our trespasses forgiven are intimately connected, receiving mercy and being merciful.[6]
From this first gift of God’s mercy, flows a second: Joy. In his programmatic Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, the Holy Father wrote that “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ, joy is constantly born anew.”[7] This does not mean Christians will always be “happy clappy”, with at least a feigned smile on their faces whatever is going on, or be anaesthetised to their own or other people’s troubles. Sympathy and compassion are, after all, “suffering with” the other, not pretending suffering away. Only when we share the hurt will we respond with efforts to heal. So the joy of the Gospel is certainly not insensitivity or pretence.
Nor is it a fleeting emotion or fuzzy feeling. Spiritual joy is something deeper and more persistent, perhaps most evident in the face of suffering, as stars are most evident amidst darkness. Joy is, again, a name of God, and a sharing in God’s life.[8] It flows from the same inexhaustible well of Easter love as does Mercy. And like mercy it is not something to be privatised but rather generously shared with others. Ours must be an infectious joy, persuasive and compelling, preached with demeanour and actions as much as words. Hence Pope Francis’ counsel that Gospel people should not look as though they have just returned from a funeral or are stuck in Lent even when it’s Easter.[9]
It was this life-giving joy that animates Peter in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Gradually realising the true extent of God’s mercy—that the salvation He offers knows no bounds or partiality—Peter joyfully preaches the Good News to the pagan Cornelius and his household. He proclaims for the first time the Christian doctrine that God’s love transcends nation, race and status and is greater than anything that separates us. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, divine mercy and joy extend throughout time and space, calling forth all people (Acts 10:34-43).
“Todos, todos, todos—everyone, everyone, everyone” Pope Francis said at the World Youth Day in Lisbon: the divine mercy and joy we call ‘salvation’ are for all. That means viewing all humanity as “Fratelli Tutti”—all our brothers and sisters—as he wrote in his 2020 encyclical of that name. It means repudiating the ‘globalisation of indifference’ towards refugees and the poor, the ‘ideological colonisation’ of the developing world by the secularising West, and the ‘throwaway culture’ that discards those deemed useless, including the unborn and elderly. It assumes instead the tender concern and active care of the Good Samaritan.
And so, we arrive at a third of God’s gifts and Pope Francis’ names for God: Hope. In tonight’s epistle, the very first New Testament writing, St Paul cautions the Thessalonians about grieving like those who lack hope (1Thes 4:13-18). With Easter ever fresh in their minds, Christians must never lose faith that “God will raise with Jesus all who have fallen asleep in him”. At the last trumpet the dead will be raised, the just to glory, and so we should not despair. Christian hope, Pope Francis recalled when convoking this Jubilee Year of Hope, does not disappoint.[10] Borne out of the experience of God’s mercy and joy, we have confidence that, as Paul said, “neither death nor life, not angels or rulers, nothing present or to come, no height or depth, nor anything else in all creation, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:35-39).
Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, only hours after giving his Easter Sunday “Urbi et Orbi” blessing to the city and the world. In this last message to us he said, “From the empty tomb in Jerusalem, we hear unexpected Good News: ‘Jesus, who was crucified, is not here, he has risen.’ Jesus is not in the tomb, he is alive! Love has triumphed over hatred, light over darkness, truth over falsehood, forgiveness over revenge. Evil no longer has the upper hand; it no longer has power over those who accept the grace of this day.”[11]
It is still too soon to assess the legacy of Pope Francis: his gestures of humility, his provocations of new thinking and practice, his emphasis on those at the peripheries, his re-imagining ‘synodality’ as listening, co-responsibility and discernment. Some of his moves occasioned both excitement and alarm. They both united people and divided. Some of this will last, some be forgotten. But even as his own strength ebbed away, Francis’ joy remained undiminished. Through his witness, we saw that to approach God as a child means to retain hope to the end. And with the simplicity of a child and the wisdom of a pastor, he pointed once more to the source of all mercy—the Easter tomb. There we hear the promise that in the Father’s house, there is room for all who come with hearts open to receive what can never be deserved, only given.
Eternal rest grant unto Pope Francis O Lord and may perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace and rise in glory!
[1] Mt 5:5; 7:7-11; 18:1-4; 20:25-28; 23:5-12; Mk 10:13-16; Lk 9:46-48; 11:9-13; 14:11; 18:14; 22:24-27; Jn 13:4-17; cf. Phil 2:3-11; 1Pet 5:5-7.
[2] Mic 6:8; 7:18; Ps 23:6; 25:6-7; 51:1; 86:25; 103:8; Lam 3:22-23; Mt 9:13; Lk 6:36-37; Eph 2:4-5; Tit 3:5; Heb 4:16; 1Pet 1:3; 1Jn 1:9.
[3] Pope Francis, ‘Interview with Antonio Spadaro SJ,’ America and La Civita Cattolica 30 September 2013.
[4] Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium: Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World (2013), 14.
[5] Pope Francis, Misericordiae Vultus: Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, 11 April 2015, 10.
[6] Mt 5:7; 6:12; cf. Mt 18:21-22; Lk 6:36-37; Eph 4:32; Col 3:12-13; Jas 2:13.
[7] Evangelii Gaudium 1.
[8] Isa 9:3; 12:6; 35:10; 40:9; 49:13; Zech 9:9; Neh 8:10; Esth 8:17; Ps 27:6; 30:5; 47:1; Prov 10:28; 15:23; Eccles 9:7; Sir 14:11,14; Lk 1:28,41,47; 15:7; 10:21; Jn 3:29; 15:11; 16:22-24; 20:20; Acts 2:46; 8:8,39; 13:52; 16:34; Rom 12:12; 14:17; 15:13; Gal 5:22; Phil 4:4; Philem 1:7; Heb 12:2; 2Jn 1:12; 1Pet 1:8-9; Jas 1:2
[9] Evangelii Gaudium 5.
[10] Pope Francis, Spes non Confundit: Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of Hope, 9 May 2024, 2.
[11] Pope Francis, Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi Address, 20 April 2025.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SOLEMN PONTIFICAL REQUIEM MASS FOR POPE FRANCIS – ST MARY’S BASILICA, SYDNEY, 1 MAY 2025
Welcome to St Mary’s Basilica for our Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass for Pope Francis, in baptism Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Born in Argentina in 1936 to Italian migrants, he joined the Jesuits in 1958 and was ordained a priest in 1969. Pope St John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop in 1992, Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and Cardinal in 2001. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013, he was elected the 265th successor of St Peter, taking the name Francis. He was the first religious order pope for centuries, and the first ever from the Southern hemisphere, the Americas or the Jesuit order. His twelve-year pontificate was marked by an unwavering emphasis on God’s mercy, a profound love for the poor and the earth, promotion of universal fraternity and peace, and a deep personal humility.
Last Saturday the world watched as Pope Francis was commended to Almighty God and his mortal remains laid to rest in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Since then we have been observing the Novemdiales—nine days of mourning during which Masses are offered around the world for him. And so tonight with gratitude for his faithful service as Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Successor of the Prince of Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Sovereign of Vatican City State, and Servant of the Servants of God, we offer this Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul.
I salute His Excellency, Most Rev. Charles Balvo, Apostolic Nuncio to Australia, who represents the vacant See of Rome at this time. Concelebrating with me this evening are the Auxiliary Bishops of Sydney and several of the Australian bishops presently meeting at the Mary MacKillop Shrine.
I acknowledge the vicar general, vicars, deans, rectors and priests of Sydney, along with deacons, seminarians and other ministers; leaders or representatives of religious congregations and movements; knights and dames of ecclesiastical orders; and members of the curia, agencies and ministries of the Archdiocese.
I recognise leaders and representatives of various Christian churches including Bishop Christodoulos of the Greek Orthodox and Bishop Daniel of the Coptic Orthodox Church; as well as representatives of the Armenian Apostolic, Hillsong and Uniting Churches; and from other faith traditions, including the Grand Mufti of Australia Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, and Gawaine Powell Davies of the Buddhist Council.
From civil society I salute: Her Excellency the Hon. Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales, and Mr Wilson; from the Commonwealth Government Minister Don Farrell and Senator Deborah O’Neill; the President of the Legislative Council of NSW, Hon. Ben Franklin MLC; Ministers Steve Kamper, Yasmin Catley and Jihad Dibb, and other members of the NSW Government; Hon. Mark Speakman MP and other members of the state Opposition; the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clr Clover Moore AO; and other members of the national, state or local governments, courts, services, consular corps, education and professions.
I also acknowledge: former Governor General, General the Hon. Sir Peter Cosgrove AK CVO MC; former Prime Ministers Hon. John Howard OM AC SSI, Hon. Tony Abbott AC and Hon. Scott Morrison; former NSW Premier Hon. Barrie Unsworth; former Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, Mr John McCarthy KC; and other past civic leaders.
A very warm welcome to everyone present here this evening, as we commend our dear departed “Francisco” to the God he served so well.
