Archbishop José H. Gomez joined Catholics in Los Angeles and around the world Monday in mourning Pope Francis, who died at age 88.
Gomez will honor Pope Francis in the 12:10 p.m. Mass Monday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The Archbishop issued a statement, calling the beloved Pope and towering world figure a man of “many kindnesses and expressions of pastoral care for us here in Los Angeles.”
Gomez said, in part, “In this time of mourning, my prayer is that all of us in the Church will honor Pope Francis’ legacy by remembering that he called us to urgent tasks that are still not finished: We must continue our work of serving the poor, the migrant, and all who are forgotten on society’s ‘“peripheries.’
“We must persevere in caring for our common home, which is the earth, and in building a world that respects the sanctity and dignity of all human life and the Creator’s desire that we live in peace and fraternity as one human family.
“And we must evangelize, spreading the joy of the Gospel as missionary disciples, accompanying our brothers and sisters and helping them to find in Jesus the happiness and love that every human heart longs for.
“Above all, we must deepen our own love for Jesus and our commitment to seeking his holiness and reflecting his mercy and love in our daily lives.”
Gomez added that he will be spending the next few days reflecting with gratitude.
Pope Francis appointed seven auxiliary bishops to assist Gomez. In January, Gomez said Francis offered prayers and words of consolation as we faced the destruction caused by the wildfires in the Palisades and Altadena.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, said in an announcement that Pope Francis died at 7:35 Vatican time. Many in Los Angeles woke up to news of Pope Francis’ death just hours he last appeared in public on Sunday with an Easter morning blessing and popemobile tour through a crowd of cheering thousands in St. Peter’s Square.
Francis was diagnosed with chronic lung disease and had part of a lung removed when he was younger. He was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 for a respiratory episode that developed into double pneumonia. He spent 38 days in the hospital.
He served as pope for 12 years and set a different tone for the papacy, focusing on humility for a Catholic Church facing scandals and accusations of indifference. The Argentine-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope on March 13, 2013, and succeeded Pope Benedict XVI, whose surprise resignation led to
Francis’ election.
Francis reached out to the LGBTQ+ community and cracked down on traditionalists, which created tension with conservatives in the Catholic Church.
He was pope during the coronavirus pandemic and asked his followers to use it as an opportunity to review the economic and political framework that he said was turning the wealthy against the impoverished.
“We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented,” Francis told an empty St. Peter’s Square in March 2020. Part of his message included stressing the need for “all of us to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other.”
Source: NBC Los Angeles