Among the Australians present at Pope Francis’ funeral was Bishop Joe Caddy of the Diocese of Cairns, who reflects on ‘the beautiful almost-parable of the last week of his life’.
The bishop was scheduled to join a group of students who were already in Rome to celebrate the Jubilee of Young People when news of the Pope’s passing broke.
‘I was scheduled to go over to join them on Thursday, with a view to doing the Jubilee celebrations [in the lead up] to Sunday,’ he explains. ‘And then all of that went out the window as our Holy Father passed away.’
As it happens, the students had been at St Peter’s Square when the Holy Father made his surprise appearance on Easter Sunday.
‘They had actually seen Francis in the square on Easter Sunday, so that was all just remarkable for them,’ says Bishop Joe. Once the Holy Father’s funeral was announced, plans for their pilgrimage shifted and they made their way back to Rome.
‘They got into the funeral and it was a very profound experience for them,’ says Bishop Joe. ‘They went in nice and early and got a good spot along with another 200,000 people.’
‘I thought it was a really beautiful funeral,’ reflects Bishop Joe. ‘It was done with great dignity, and I thought the homily was really good.’
Bishop Joe says that following the funeral Mass, he and his fellow travellers naturally began reflecting on the life of the late Pope.
He was always the master of the symbolic gesture, and he took that right to his grave
There was a general consensus that Pope Francis had set several things in place that would inevitably become marks of his papacy, such as the Church becoming more synodal in the way it lives its life and mission.
‘Synodality is just our way of doing business now,’ he says. ‘It’s just how we’re going to be working as a Church.
‘The other thing was his remarkable stance with the poor, and just the beautiful almost-parable of the last week of his life,’ Fr Joe says, recalling how Pope Francis visited a prison on Holy Thursday and then gave a brief reflection and blessing to the crowds gathered at St Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday.
‘It was as though he was given a reprieve to be able to do that and then he could go home. That was one of the things that struck me. He was always the master of the symbolic gesture, and he took that right to his grave.’
Bishop Joe remembers meeting Pope Francis last year as part of his bishops’ course and asking the Holy Father a question about his recent travels. He had just returned from his historic trip to the Asia–Pacific, visiting Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste to spread a message of peace.
Bishop Joe asked the pontiff about one of the photographs captured during his visit to Indonesia—the most populous Muslim country in the world. In it, Istiqlal Mosque’s Grand Imam, Nasaruddin Umar, was standing and leant over to kiss Pope Francis on the top of his head.
‘And I just said [to Pope Francis] that that was such a powerful image, because it wasn’t you kissing [the imam], because you kiss everybody! And he just laughed. So for me that’s become one of those special images,’ says Bishop Joe, who feels it speaks volumes about the late pontiff’s peacemaking ways.
‘It was an opportunity for [Francis] to just reflect back to us that look: before we’re Muslims, before we’re Christians, we’re just humans. And we’re on this pilgrim journey together.’
Banner image: courtesy Bishop Joe Caddy.
