AFTER her work in her home in upper Carmen here last Monday, 60-year-old Maria Rosal rode on public transportation to the San Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral and joined hundreds of parishioners who gathered and prayed in the requiem Mass celebrating the life of Pope Francis.
As parishioners jampacked the cathedral, Rosal took out her handkerchief and wiped clean the glass frame of the big portrait of Pope Francis placed near the altar.
“God gifted Pope Francis so he can serve us for a long time. He left us a life of caring for the poor and migrants. That is already a miracle for me,” Rosal said adding that Pope Francis “must be a good man for God to gift him a long life.”
Pope Francis, 88 years old and the first Jesuit to become a pope, died on April 21 and was buried in Vatican City last Saturday.
Churches from all over northwestern Mindanao rang their bells last Saturday to honor and celebrate his life's legacy of caring for the poor, the downtrodden, migrants, and the environment.
As Rosal and the hundreds of parishioners listened, Archbishop Emeritus summed up the life of Pope Francis during the Homily.
“Truly a shepherd of all seasons,” Ledesma said.
Ledesma, also a Jesuit, said Pope Francis wanted the Catholic Church to be a church of the poor and asked all the priests to live in humble existence and do more to protect the environment.
He said Pope Francis respected the beliefs of other religions and during his last visit to the Philippines in 2015, met with other religious leaders in an interfaith dialogue.
Ledesma said it was this charisma of Pope Francis that drove Filipinos to the church that has become “a mother to all.”
The Iglesia Filipina Independiente also came to the Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral to convey their condolence to the Roman Catholic church.
“As one in the shared heritage of apostolic faith, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente give thanks for Pope Francis’ legacy of revolutionary love and radical sympathy,” the Obispado Maximo, the head of the IFI said.
IFI Bishop Felixberto Calang who delivered the message said by demonstrating what it means to lead by serving without condition, Pope Francis has become “ a pope of the people at the margins.”
Archbishop Cosme Damian Almedilla of the Diocese of Butuan directed all churches to ring their bells in gratitude to the late pope.
