Beneath gray skies and the solemn toll of 88 bells – one for each year of life – a Memorial Mass was celebrated April 21 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for Pope Francis, who died earlier that morning at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta.
Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, served as the principal celebrant at the Mass in the basilica’s Crypt Church. Concelebrants included Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, archbishop of Washington; Cardinal Wilton Gregory and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishops emeritus of Washington; and Auxiliary Bishops Roy Campbell Jr. and Juan Esposito of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.
Pope Francis, who led the Catholic Church for 12 years, died on Easter Monday following a brief period of visible frailty. Many who watched the pope give his “urbi et orbi” Easter blessing the day before from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica noted the pontiff’s labored but deliberate final blessing, one that Cardinal Pierre called “not glorious, but very, very essential.”
“He could not move his hand,” Cardinal Pierre said in his homily, “but he gave us a blessing.”
Reflecting on the pontiff’s passing, Cardinal Pierre described Pope Francis as a man deeply rooted in the Gospel and singularly devoted to a vision of the Church as a “field hospital” – a place of mercy, healing, and accompaniment.
“He told us precisely things so important,” Cardinal Pierre said. “The Church as a field hospital continues.”
Cardinal Pierre recalled Pope Francis’s formative role in the 2007 Aparecida Conference, a meeting of bishops from across Latin America and the Caribbean held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil. The gathering, officially known as the Fifth Episcopal Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean, focused on renewing the Church’s evangelizing mission in response to secularization and inequality, calling Catholics to become “missionary disciples.”
Then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina – who later would become Pope Francis – chaired the committee that drafted the final document. Pierre noted how Cardinal Bergoglio encouraged his fellow bishops to speak plainly about Jesus and make the Gospel accessible to all, a pastoral clarity that would later shape Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), Pope Francis’s first apostolic exhortation, and much of his pontificate.
“He helped us,” Cardinal Pierre said. “This Bergoglio… six years later, who was elected pope.”
Throughout the homily, Cardinal Pierre underscored Pope Francis’s consistent message of hope, mercy, and being a witness to Christ’s Incarnation.
“We are not the witnesses of an ideology,” he said. “We are witnesses of the miracle of God’s presence in human reality. And this presence of God in humanity is the source of our hope.”
Following the Mass, Cardinal Pierre and Cardinal McElroy responded to questions from members of the media.
When asked what made Pope Francis a transformative figure, Cardinal Pierre pointed to the alignment between his life and his message.
“He was a follower of Jesus and was happy to be a follower of Jesus,” Cardinal Pierre said. “He was a huge communicator… the real teacher – you know, the educator.”
In response to what his passing means for the wider world, Cardinal Pierre emphasized the enduring value of a life shaped by the Gospel.
“It’s worthwhile to leave this world with the Gospel, with Jesus. That’s worthwhile,” he said. “We cannot fix all the problems of the world. We can be, like what Jesus said in the Gospel… the seed of the better world.”
Cardinal McElroy, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2022 and was installed as the new archbishop of Washington on March 11, reflected on the emotional impact of the pope’s death and its deeper theological resonance.
“When I woke up this morning and heard that the pope had died, it was stunning – and a personally great sadness to me,” he said. “But in the light of my priesthood and in the light of faith and hope, there was a great fittingness to it.”
He drew a parallel between the start and end of Pope Francis’s papacy: “At the beginning of Pope Francis’s service as the bishop of Rome, he gave that great blessing. And yesterday – on Easter Day – when he was on that same balcony… again he gave that same blessing.”
Both cardinals spoke about the upcoming conclave and the responsibilities they and their fellow cardinals will carry in electing the next pope. Cardinal Pierre described it as a “communal responsibility,” adding that “we are instruments” of the Holy Spirit. Cardinal McElroy said, “It’s all in God’s hands now,” and emphasized that the primary focus will be discerning what the Church needs at this moment in history.
Asked about the needs of the Church today, Cardinal McElroy pointed to the enduring gift of hope:
“Hope is a particularly important one,” he said. “The first words of the Church to anyone approaching are words of love and embrace, rather than judgment.”
Cardinal McElroy also affirmed that humility – so clearly embodied in Pope Francis – should remain a hallmark of leadership in the Church.
“He drove (in) the little Fiat instead of the big Popemobile,” McElroy said. “Those were all symbols – symbols that we are to walk in humility. Not just popes – but all of us.”
Both cardinals responded to questions about the thousands of new Catholics who entered the Church at Easter Vigil liturgies just two days earlier.
Cardinal McElroy offered a pastoral reflection for those newly baptized and received into the Church.
“The Church is old. It’s rooted in the event of Christ coming into the world and our salvation by the Passion, death, and Resurrection of the Lord,” he said. “That is the constant… and the foundation we have in our faith.”
He explained that every new Catholic, though entering in a new time and context, shares in the same continuity of grace.
“All the new people who come in are all looking back to that moment and saying: How, in the light of the modern world… how can [those saving events] be proclaimed more effectively in the world in which we live?”
Cardinal Pierre also spoke directly to the experience of new Catholics and the enduring vitality of the Church.
“It means that, you know, the Church is not of the past. It’s not finished. The Church is the future of humanity,” he said. “But you know, on the other hand, be humble… you will be met with a lot of challenges. Because you have to become a true witness of the Gospel.”
As the Church prepares to mourn a pope and discern his successor, both Cardinal Pierre and Cardinal McElroy encouraged the faithful to remember Pope Francis not only for his reforms or teachings, but for the way he lived the Gospel to the very end.
“He was present until the end,” Cardinal Pierre said. “And he told us – Christ is risen.”
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