Pope Francis, who died in the Vatican at the age of 88 on Easter Monday at 7.35 a.m. on Easter Monday, was commemorated with a solemn “little request” in Vienna’s St. St. Stephen Cathedral. The emeritus archbishop, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, led the service together with the Apostolic administrator Josef Grünwidl and Domkustos Michael Landau. Pope Francis “died in the light of Easter secret,” said Schönborn in his initial words.
“It is touching that for the second time in the past 20 years a Pope will die into this Easter secret. Many still remember the death of Pope John Paul II,” said Schönborn. Franziskus and John Paul II died in the Osteroktav. That alone is a strong message, according to the cardinal: “What is the foundation of our faith? The cross, suffering, death. – Yes, all of this is not denied. But it’s not the last. It’s not the last word. This is the resurrection.”
Prisoners, refugees, arms
Francis was still in a Roman prison on Maundy Thursday. He was already too weak for the traditional foot washing of prisoners. But: “With this sign he wanted to make it clear again what he is about. Those who have become guilty are also people, are our brothers and sisters. ‘Todos, Todos!” – ‘All, all, he said again and again. All people are loved by God, everyone is his children, “said Schönborn.
In his sermon, the cardinal paid tribute to the spiritual depth and the social commitment of the deceased. As a “migrant child from Italy in Argentina”, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was shaped by a deep trust that all people are children of God – regardless of origin or religion. From this, his willingness to dialogue with other faiths and his consistent occurrence for universal fraternity had grown. Franziskus had “no shy” before the dialogue, Schönborn praised the basic attitude of the late Pope, from which the famous explanation of Abu Dhabi, which the Pope, together with the highest spiritual director of Sunni Islam, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, also arose.
Schönborn also emphasized the Pope’s first trip to Lampedusa, where Francis intended for the refugees who “try to reach Italian soil”. The commitment to refugees was a central expression for him: “Without this hospitality we cannot meet Jesus,” the cardinal quoted the Pope. Again and again Francis was also accused of being naive; But in reality he had reminded relentlessly that the view of the arms and marginalized people belonged to the nature of the church, Schönborn stated.
“He only reminded us that we are human children,” said Schönborn. And even if these are not yet answers to integration and administration, “but the heart for Pope Francis was the view of the poor, the peripheries that have been born and are crowded”. The latter often emphasized Francis in his pontificate.
Go out to the edges
Even before his election to the Pope, Bergoglio emphasized during the general assembly of the cardinals that Christ knocks on the door – but from the inside: the church must go out to the people, especially to those at the edges of society, says Schönborn. “Jesus meets us in the strangers, who we cannot let go,” Schönborn summarized the concern of the Pope. “May Pope Francis and now help from home to walk with Jesus with a burning heart.”
Volks song accompanied the service in St. St. Cathedral. At the communion, the community sang the sun singing of Franz von Assisi and the song “Wonderfully recovered by good powers”, which is based on a text of the evangelical theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer murdered by the Nazis. The fair was transferred live to ORF III, “Radio Klassik Stephansdom” and the YouTube channel of the Archdiocese of Vienna.
(Kathpress theme focus on the death of Pope Francis at: www.kathpress.at/apst-franziskus-ist-tot)
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