In these moments of sorrow, together with the whole Church, we address our prayers to the Lord for the soul of our beloved Pope Francis. God will have rewarded his generous dedication to the service of the People of God and the whole world.

The Pope had great faith in the mercy of God and one of the main orientations of his pontificate has been precisely to announce it to the men and women of today. By his example, he urged us to accept and experience God's mercy, who never tires of forgiving us; and, on the other hand, to be merciful to others, as he tirelessly was himself, with so many gestures of tenderness that are a central part of his witnessing magisterium.

St. Josemaría used to tell us: “Welcome the Pope’s words with a religious, humble, internal and effective acceptance. And pass them on!” (The Forge, 133). May the example of Pope Francis lead us to echo this witness, to continue walking as apostles of mercy in a world pierced by the wounds of indifference and violence.

Let us turn to Our Lady, Mater Spei - as Francis liked to call her - in whom “everything in her life was shaped by the presence of mercy made flesh” (Misericordiae Vultus), so that we too may one day be able to contemplate God face to face.