Franciscus
17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025
Requiem aeternam, dona ei, Domine
Et lux perpetua luceat ei.

On Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 89 and 13 years of his pontificate, Pope Francis, Pastor Bonus Ecclesiae Catholicae, died in his residence at Santa Marta’s House in the Vatican.

The death of Pope Francis was announced by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, chamberlain of the Apostolic Chamber, who was accompanied by the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Deputy for General Affairs in the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, and the Director of the Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, Mons. Diego Ravelli: “Dearest brothers and sisters, it is with deep sadness that I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. This morning at 7:35 a.m., the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. He dedicated his entire life to serving the Lord and His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially for the benefit of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we entrust the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God.”

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis was known for his deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which he confirmed in his will, which he made by hand on June 29, 2022. In it, he expressed his wish that his “last earthly journey” would end in the Pontifical Basilica of Santa Maria Majora in Rome, where Pope Francis stopped for prayer before and after each apostolic journey, entrusting his intentions to the Immaculate and thanking her for her tender maternal care. In keeping with his modesty, Pope Francis asked that his tomb be “in the ground, without special decoration, with a simple inscription: Franciscus.” In the final words of his will, the Pope stated that he offered his suffering in the last period of his life to the Lord for peace in the world and brotherhood among nations. It is also a powerful message to the Church and to humanity: a call to simplicity, to surrender to Mary and to hope in the Resurrection.

The day before, on Easter, the Pope made his last public appearance in St. Peter’s Square and gave his traditional blessing “Urbi et Orbi“. It seems that his last meeting with believers was an expression of his desire to say goodbye to the believers he loved so much. Perhaps he even sensed that the end of his earthly journey was near.

On May 25, 2024, Pope Francis also received in audience the President of the Croatian Catholic Church, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Rok Čivljak on the occasion of the conference “SOMOS community care” – Association for Community Care. In a personal conversation with Pope Francis, Prof. Čivljak presented the work of the CCLD, especially referring to the pilgrimage of the members of the CCLD to Poland on the Feast of Divine Mercy and the conference on professional and ethical challenges in medicine during wars, organized by the CCLD in cooperation with the European Federation of Catholic Medical Societies. On that occasion, the Holy Father blessed the members of the Croatian Catholic Church by blessing the rosary that Croatian pilgrims brought from the pilgrimage from Poland.

The president of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce recently referred to the pontificate of Pope Francis in the Croatian Radio show Encounter in Dialogue, in which he especially referred to the Pope’s messages to health workers. According to Prof. Čivljak, this Pope was truly brave, because it took a lot of courage to face some of the challenges of our time that he encountered during his pontificate, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of women in the Church, the issue of abuse in the ranks of the Catholic Church and other “hot” issues. Pope Francis did not run away from problems, but faced them, no matter how painful it was, and tried to understand them and find solutions (although there are no perfect solutions that would satisfy everyone).

This was also the case with the issue of COVID – its origin (whether the virus/pandemic originated naturally or imposed), vaccines (to get vaccinated or not, which shook the trust of some believers in the Catholic Church). But the summary of his attitude towards the pandemic was precisely his prayer in March 2020 in an empty St. Peter’s Square, where he prayed for all the sick, but also for health workers. By doing so, he showed that something can (and should) always be done, no matter how impossible it may seem, and the situation unlikely. The president of the Croatian Catholic Medical Association expressed great gratitude and affection for the Holy Father during the pandemic, partly because he always emphasized the sacrifice of health workers who cared for people infected with the coronavirus even at the cost of their own lives.

Then the Pope said: “In this Lent, your urgent call resounds: “Repent”, “return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). You invite us to understand this time of trial as a time of choice. It is not the time of your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what is important and what is transient, to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is time to redirect the course of our lives to You, Lord, but also to others.

In this context – caring for others and seeking help for the most vulnerable, even the dying – lies his commitment to vaccination against COVID, as much as many still do not like it today. Pope Francis opted FOR, not AGAINST, vaccines because he saw it as hope and a saving path in the fight against the pandemic.

This year’s message for the World Day of the Sick: “Hope… does not put us to shame (Rom 5:5) and strengthens us in times of trouble”, Pope Francis emphasized that “illness is also an opportunity for an encounter that changes us, an opportunity to discover a solid rock to which we can cling in the midst of the storms of life: an experience that, even at the cost of great sacrifice, makes us stronger and stronger because we are more aware that we are not alone. That is why it is said that suffering always carries with it the mystery of salvation, because it allows us to experience the closeness and reality of God’s consoling presence.”

In last year’s message for the World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis told us “that treatment is not just a ‘health service’, but a so-called ‘therapeutic alliance’ between the doctor, the patient and his family members.” In the same message, he says that “often old age and illness are lived in loneliness, and sometimes in abandonment.” Perhaps precisely because he sends us a message that we should not be alone, the Holy Father (and his ministries) have been informing us every day in recent months about his health condition and thus bringing us closer to his pain and suffering, so that we may realize that we should not experience our pain and suffering alone. Of course, we must also respect the right to privacy of each patient, but we should not refrain from sharing part of our intimacy, even the disease, with others.

“In a way, it is as if, through the examples of aging and illness, the last three Roman Pontiffs had the opportunity to get to know their different personalities and approaches to aging and illness: while St. John Paul II appeared in public until the very end and participated in solemn and public liturgical rites and when he could not walk or even speak, Benedict XVI retired from office, But he seemed like a lively and cheerful and happy old man even on those rare public occasions when we saw him as Pope Emeritus. As for Pope Francis, I remember my meeting with him last year during an audience with doctors from all over the world, when he came to the Clementine Hall, where the audience was held, in a wheelchair, but he came from the door of the hall to his place where he was sitting walking, that is, squirming because of his illness, not hesitating and not being ashamed of his handicap. With this, the Pope told us that we should not be ashamed of being old… Sick… imperfect”, concludes Prof. Čivljak.

Pope Francis has often referred to the Church as a “field hospital.” The thesis of the Church as a field hospital, that is, a hospital that operates on the ground itself, on the battlefield, was developed by the future Pope Francis even before his election as Pope, as Cardinal Bergoglio, when he said: “Revelation tells us that Jesus stands at the door and knocks. The first thing we see is Jesus standing outside, at the door, knocking.” However, Bergoglio turns this image into an inverted perspective: he proposes that today’s Church should “let in Jesus who knocks on the door of the Church from within and asks us to let him out.” For when the Church jealously keeps Jesus to herself and does not let him out, she becomes “self-referential and quickly becomes ill.” To avoid this, in the opinion of Cardinal Bergoglio, the Church must come out of herself, reach the periphery to serve the needy on the ground. The Pope considers this to be the right direction of evangelization. Such a vision of the Church clarifies and justifies his approach to marginal groups of the population: the homeless, prisoners, the gay population, etc.

Calling the Church a “field hospital,” Pope Francis urged us to give priority to “the most vulnerable wounded.” And to approach them where they are – in the field – and not to wait for them to approach us (come to church, because some will never come, and for some it will be too late). Medicines are not useful if they are inaccessible to those in need. Therefore, those who possess the “cure” must approach the needy, the wounded, the sick. Pope Francis teaches priests to leave the safety of the sacristy and go out to meet those in need. “Priests should not be afraid to get their shoes dirty,” Pope Francis said. In addition, “they must be prepared to make mistakes by meeting and approaching the ‘wounded’, because through this they also find new solutions, not cures.” Therefore, Pope Francis immediately accepted the vaccine (and even the lockdown) as one of the solutions in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, because at that moment we did not have any more potent other options to suppress the pandemic.

The last synod convened by Pope Francis is the one on synodality. And here he invited everyone to participate – clergy, laity, various religious groups, and even health workers. Throughout the history of the Church, synods have been of great importance for the development of the Church and the harmonization of certain attitudes and norms, and priests, primarily bishops, have participated in it.

The Synod on Synodality, launched by Pope Francis in October 2021, is a novelty in that it also includes the laity at the international level, who are called to contribute to shaping the future Church “so that we may grow in our ‘common journey’ in which the laity, priests, men and women religious, the bishops, led by the Roman Pontiff”. We are glad that doctors and other health professionals, including members of our HKLD, participated in the last Synod, although I could say not enough. However, there is room for further growth, because the Synod’s conclusion states that “bishops are encouraged to organize spiritual and formative meetings at the diocesan level for members of lay associations and societies at least once a year, so that everyone can get to know each other and grow in a common vocation and mission.” Therefore, it is expected that the Croatian Catholic Society and other lay societies will have a greater and more significant role in the future, at the local, national and international level, in shaping attitudes and answers to questions that are opened and imposed in modern society.

Prof. Čivljak concluded his conversation about the pontificate of Pope Francis in the show Encounter in Dialogue with three words that, in his opinion, describe the pontificate of Pope Francis: synodality, humility and inclusiveness.

Obred potvrde smrti i polaganja u lijes tijela pape Franje održan je istoga dana u 20 sati u kapeli u prizemlju Doma svete Marte u Vatikanu. Također su zapečaćeni apartmani Svetog Oca na trećem katu Apostolske palače te na drugom katu Doma svete Marte, gdje je papa Franjo boravio. U utorak ujutro bit će održana prva opća kongregacija kardinala na kojoj će se donijeti odluka o datumu sprovoda.

U raj poveli te anđeli, na dolasku tvome primili te mučenici!
I odveli te u sveti grad, nebeski Jeruzalem.

Počivao u miru!

Rok Čivljak
President of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce

Telegram of condolences from the President of the Croatian Catholic Medical Association to the Apostolic Nuncio in the Republic of Croatia