IN MEMORIAM | POPE FRANCIS | 1936 – 2025
“An authentic faith – which is never comfortable or completely personal – always
involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth
somehow better than we found it.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 183)Pope Francis’s words from his Apostolic Exhortation – The Joy of the Gospel –
reverberate in a new way as we remember his time as our Supreme Pontiff. Pope
Francis’s faith, deeply rooted in a relationship with Jesus Christ, was not something he
retained for himself, but shared with all in the hope of leaving behind a better world.His love overflowed into our Archdiocese as he reached out in the wake of the Boston
Marathon bombing in 2013. He prayed that “all Bostonians will be united in a resolve not
to be overcome by evil, but to combat evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), working together
to build an ever more just, free and secure society for generations yet to come.”As families and communities from our Archdiocese traveled to Philadelphia for the
World Meeting of Families in 2015, Pope Francis reminded us that these large changes
in the world begin with small acts of love at home: “Love is shown by little things, by
attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home. Faith grows when it is lived
and shaped by love.”When youth and young adults from our Archdiocese traveled to World Youth Days in
Rio de Janeiro, Krakow, Panama, and Lisbon, Pope Francis empowered them with cries
of “No tenga mieda! No tenga mieda!” “Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid!” At World
Youth Day 2019 in Panama, he commissioned them, “Dear young people, you are not
the future but the now of God and he invites you and calls you in your communities and
cities to go out…”As we now continue the Jubilee Year of Hope, which Pope Francis opened in 2024, may
we answer his invitation to be pilgrims of hope and truly impact the world, knowing that
“Christ, risen and glorified, is the wellspring of our hope, and he will not deprive us of
the help we need to carry out the mission which he has entrusted to us.” (Evangelii
Gaudium, 275)Eternal rest grant unto Francis, O Lord.
And let the perpetual light shine upon him.
And may his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.#PopeFrancis #BostonCatholic