Statement of Bishop Robert Rabbat on the sleeping unto the Lord of His Holiness Pope Francis, Monday 21 April 2025

Christ is Risen! المسيح قام !

Χριστός ἀνέστη!

With profound sorrow, yet unwavering Christian hope, we receive the news of the sleeping unto the Lord of His Holiness, Pope Francis.

At this solemn moment in our Liturgical calendar, Easter Holy Monday, our hearts are united with the faithful throughout Australia, New Zealand, All Oceania and the world, as we give thanks for the life and witness of a holy, humble, courageous, and merciful man.

Pope Francis served not as a distant figure of power, but as a shepherd who walked among his flock as His master and ours, our Lord Jesus Christ, did, especially those most easily forgotten. He reminded the Church, again and again, that Christ is encountered not in the palaces of the powerful, but on the peripheries, among the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the displaced, the unborn, and the broken hearted. His voice carried the accents of Divine Mercy, and his actions, often disarmingly simple, bore the weight of the Gospel’s call to love what is true and serve whom the world overlooks.

In this Jubilee Year of Hope, Pope Francis passes from this life as a pilgrim who has completed his earthly journey. He now enters the fullness of that Living Hope which he preached to a fractured world. Even in his weakened state, his appearance in St Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday became a living sign that truth endures beyond the tomb and that death cannot silence hope.

Let us now pray for our departed Holy Father, that he may hear in the depths of eternity the same words he strove to echo on earth,

Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your Lord. (Matthew 25:21)

May the memory of His Holiness Pope Francis be eternal.

✠ Robert Rabbat, DD

Eparch

Melkite Catholic Eparchy of Australia, New Zealand and All Oceania.