Bishop John Homily following the death of Pope Francis

Tuesday 22nd April 2025

Homily given by Bishop John Arnold on the evening of 21st April following the death of Pope Francis

In a sense, you can’t talk too much about this being a surprise, can we? Here’s a man, aged 88, having had double pneumonia and although we’ve had some encouraging reports day by day on gradual recovery, it was no real surprise that this would prove to be his final illness.

But the shock comes, that just yesterday he was addressing tens of thousands of people in Saint Peter’s Square – looking frail, but nonetheless, that’s where he wanted to be, among the people as they celebrated the resurrection of the Lord.

So, we are in shock, but understanding that he had his final illness and this is when the Lord was chosen to call him to himself.

I would not want to be seen in any way criticising his predecessors, but I believe that Pope Francis was a pope for his time as every pope must be; taking the Gospel values, which are unchanging, and then we must adapt those Gospel values according to the needs and circumstances of the times in which we live, and Pope Francis I think did that magnificently.

He confronted the problems of our fractured world, and he said everything is connected. So, when we talk about conflicts connected with migration with modern slavery, with poverty, with the environment, so many things connect. And he wasn’t afraid to voice his criticisms, to say that “this needs to happen”.

And he was particularly strong in bringing the world to that sense of awareness of the danger of climate change. His predecessors have certainly spoken about the environment but he introduced the subject to way beyond the Church – to the world – and we must be very grateful to him for that.

And people today have been very generous in all that they’ve been reported of their admiration for Pope Francis and each and every one of us would have our different ideas about why we feel to be grateful to Pope Francis for what he was and what he did.

Was it his simplicity of life? His sense of service? Was it his particular concern for the poor and the refugees? His first trip out of the Vatican was to Lampedusa to see the refugees there and those who were caring for them.

So many reasons to give thanks to almighty God for the service of Pope Francis, and as a bishop, I so much appreciate how he helped me to reconsider, really find and think about the priorities of my role for the ministry. He could be pretty straightforward when he spoke to bishops, as he should be, and very keen that we should take seriously the responsibilities that we have.

So, I hope that each and every one of us has a reason for giving thanks to to almighty God for all that Pope Francis achieved in his 12 years as a Pope of our Church.

Let’s pray that God, having guided Pope Francis in his time, will now select and guide his successor, leading us carefully and helping us to apply the Gospel values to our changing world as we need to do in order to progress, and make sure that everybody has the dignity that secures for them safety and well-being.

Let’s pray that the Lord will receive him and reward him for his generosity and his dedication.

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