PM hails papacy to poor as world farewells Pope Francis
Alex Mitchell and Fraser Barton |
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has issued a heartfelt statement as millions of people around the world tuned in to watch Pope Francis’s funeral.
The 88-year-old Pope, who had led the Catholic Church since 2013, died on Monday after suffering a stroke.
Mr Albanese, who with fiancee Jodie Haydon attended a vigil for the late pontiff at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney on Saturday, said Pope Francis would be remembered as someone whose compassion embraced all humanity.
“His loss has been mourned all around the world, just as his life has been celebrated,” the prime minister said in a statement.
“While today’s funeral in Vatican City will be attended by leaders of church and state alike, we will remember Pope Francis as someone who dedicated his life, work and papacy to the poor and the powerless above all.
“Even as we say our final farewells, we take comfort in knowing that the many legacies of his life’s work will always be around us.
“May this man of peace be granted everlasting peace. And may God welcome Pope Francis to eternal life.”
Governor-General Sam Mostyn, Ambassador to the Holy See Keith Pitt, cabinet minister Don Farrell and Riverina MP Michael McCormack are representing Australia in Rome.
More than 200,000 people were expected to attend the funeral outside St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday.
Australia’s only cardinal and highest-ranking Catholic official, Melbourne-based Mykola Bychok, said from Rome the event would be “a profoundly sacred moment for the church and the world”.
Cardinal Bychok, who Francis made a Cardinal late in 2024, said the period since the pontiff’s death on Easter Monday had been “a most challenging time”.
“As a newly appointed cardinal, this experience is still very new to me,” he said.
“I have only just arrived here in Rome after spending several days in the Holy Land – days that were marked by silence, prayer, and reflection in the very places where our lord walked.”
Cardinal Bychok will be part of the conclave to choose a new pontiff, expected to start early in May.
Some 160 foreign delegations will attend the funeral alongside world leaders including US President Donald Trump.
Ukrainian-born Cardinal Bychok talked of the late Pope’s support of his home nation throughout Russia’s military onslaught.
He called Francis’s support and “closeness” to Ukraine “especially moving”.
“In our darkest hours, he did not forget us. He spoke often of our suffering, he prayed for peace … he appealed to the world not to grow indifferent,” Cardinal Bychok said.
“While some may have wished for stronger political gestures, what the Pope offered was something uniquely Christian: a pastoral closeness, a fatherly concern and an unceasing call for peace.”
About 250,000 people from around the world had lined up to say farewell since Francis’s body was brought to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday to lie in state, the Vatican said.
St Patrick’s Cathedral in Parramatta, Sydney, and St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Adelaide will hold special masses to honour Pope Francis.
AAP
