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A Personal Memory of Pope Francis
Father Edmund
27 April 2025
In the June of 2014, in my first parish Our Lady and St Christopher in Romiley, the parish and our schools had been focused on Bishop Mark’s initiative of a Year of Reconciliation. As part of this, we had invited the parents of Jimmy Mizen, a Catholic teenager who was killed the day after his sixteenth birthday, and who, following this heartbreaking loss, tell Jimmy’s story and the need for forgiveness and healing. Jimmy’s Mum, Margaret spoke so powerfully to the parishioners and the children at both schools. Following the visit and as a special way to mark the Year of Reconciliation, I travelled then to Rome to take the children’s work and present it to the Holy Father. This photograph (above) shows the moment I greeted the pope with the traditional kissing of his hand, and then had the briefest of moments to pass to him the children’s collection of prayers and reflections. Before he moved on, I asked the pope if I could give him a new zucchetto in exchange for the one he was wearing. This little tradition was, I believe, started by Pope Pius XII; if you purchase a white zucchetto and bring it to the pope, he will swap yours for his, leaving you with one the pope has worn. I asked Pope Francis and he agreed, so we swapped. I have given the zucchetto to the son of a dear friend of mine, in the hope that maybe he might be a priest one day. It was only a very brief moment with Pope Francis, but in this time following his death and the sharing of memories that always happens as we know in our own families, I share this with you. May he rest in peace.
The news of the death of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, came in the early hours of Easter Monday. Surely, we knew how frail he was, yet he determined to impart his Apostolic Blessing for Easter Sunday and to be close to the pilgrims present in Rome, particularly during this Holy Year. The Lord called the pope to Himself even as the beauty, joy, and light of Easter celebrations began. Our prayer can be that the pope is now at rest with the Lord and that he will see God face to face.
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Thank you to all those who anticipated the Holy Father’s funeral yesterday (Saturday) by attending Holy Mass on Friday evening ahead of the funeral in Rome and were able to unite ourselves in prayer at the Altar.
Not with standing our duty to pray for Pope Francis, now our prayer must turn to the Sacred College of Cardinals, who have the solemn duty to choose - under the guidance of the Holy Spirit - not a successor to Pope Francis, but rather a Successor to St Peter. As the preparations for the Conclave begin, please pray every day for the man already known in God’s Providence to be the 267th Successor to the Apostle Peter and the next Bishop of Rome, our Holy Father. May our Lady, Mother of the Church and Ss Peter and Paul pray for us.