Pope Francis mourned as ‘Australian in his informality’
Alex Mitchell, Melissa Meehan and Luke Costin |
Pope Francis’s Australian-like informality and love of the people are being remembered as million of Catholics mourn the pontiff’s passing.
The 88-year-old’s death on Monday after a recent serious health battle was marked by tolling church bells and preparations for scores of memorial masses for the Catholic leader.
Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher, who met Francis about 20 times, described the Pope as very easy to talk to and almost like “an Australian in terms of his informality”.
“He was a man of deep compassion … I count it a great privilege that I got to talk to him so many times,” he told ABC TV.
“He shared a real passion for the marginalised, for refugees, for people who felt alienated from society, for people who were poor, financially and emotionally.”
Many mourners attended early masses at local cathedrals following the Pope’s passing.
Outside Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral, Stephen said Francis had continued Pope John Paul II’s legacy as a man of the people.
“That’s what Pope Francis brought to this world: really giving everyone hope and not just making the church something that’s symbolic,” he told AAP.
“He went to the prisons to wash the feet of the captives, it’s like he was representing Jesus in the truest form.”
Mark Andrews stopped by the cathedral before work on Tuesday and said Francis’s legacy spread outside Catholicism.
“People across faiths saw his value and his kindness … he was a good man in every sense,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is Catholic, said the major party leaders had agreed to dial back election campaigning on Tuesday as a sign of respect.
He attended mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne on a rainy Tuesday morning.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president and Perth Archbishop Tim Costelloe reflected on images taken just hours before the Pope’s death, when Francis made a public appearance at St Peter’s Square.
“Even though he was so sick, and so weak, he was determined to be with his people,” he told ABC radio.
“Being with his people, being present to his people, was probably the great gift that he brought to the church and to the world.”
National flags on government buildings will fly at half-mast on Tuesday as a mark of respect.
The Pope’s death could also prove a turning point in Australia’s relationship with the Vatican after Francis overlooked local archbishops when selecting the nation’s sole cardinal in December.
Cardinal Mykola Bychok said he was filled with sadness for the loss of a “pope of peace” and a man of simple piety.
“I am grateful for the late Holy Father’s frequent appeals for a just peace in Ukraine and for the efforts of the Holy See that he oversaw – known and secret – that in some way helped bring relief to the imprisoned and suffering,” the Ukrainian-born, Melbourne-based cardinal said.
Cardinal Bychok was on his way to the Middle East on a pilgrimage but will divert to Rome to take part in the funeral rites before joining other cardinal electors to choose the 267th and next pope.
The change in leadership could also offer a chance for Australiam church leaders to “reset” dealings with the Vatican, Deakin and Oxford universities’ Catholic historian Miles Pattenden said.
After Cardinal George Pell’s 2023 death, Francis overlooked local archbishops when selecting the nation’s next cardinal in December.
“It was an extraordinary snub that Francis made Mykola Bychok, the Ukrainian Australian bishop, cardinal and not the archbishop of Sydney,” Dr Pattenden said.
“There’s no way to read that except as a rebuke to Sydney.”
AAP
