St. Peter's Square - Cardinal Pietro Parolin celebrated the second Mass of the Novendiali [the nine days of official mourning for the death of a pope]
Pope Francis' heavenly embrace for the employees and faithful of Vatican City
"On Divine Mercy Sunday, we remember our beloved Pope Francis with affection. Indeed, such memories are particularly vivid among the employees and faithful of Vatican City, many of whom are present here, and whom I would like to thank for the service they perform every day. To you, to all of us, to the whole world, Pope Francis extends his embrace from Heaven". Thus Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State for the Francis papacy, presided over the Eucharistic concelebration in suffrage of the Pope. The rite took place on Sunday morning, April 27, the Second of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday. About 200,000 people were present, including the employees of Vatican City and tens of thousands of adolescents who had come to Rome from all over the world with their parishes, schools and families for this day of the Jubilee dedicated to them.
Just one day had passed since Pope Francis’ funeral and subsequent procession through the streets of historic Rome, bringing the Pope’s coffin to its final resting place in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.
Tens of thousands of people - from the influential to the excluded, the poor, the marginalized - took turns paying homage to Pope Francis laying in state in St. Peter’s. Today, he rests in the tomb located in the side nave of the “Liberian Basilica”, between the Pauline Chapel - which houses the icon of the Salus Populi Romani - and the Sforza Chapel, near the side altar dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi.
In his homily, Cardinal Parolin emphasized a fundamental aspect of the pontificate of Pope Francis, his characteristic and constant call for mercy. It is manifested in his Episcopal motto: Miserando atque eligendo [lowly but chosen]. It is a tribute to divine mercy, taken from the Liturgy of the Hours for the feast of Saint Matthew. The words are from a homily of Saint Bede the Venerable, who, commenting on the Gospel episode of the calling of Matthew, wrote: Vidit ergo lesus publicanum et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi Sequere me [Jesus therefore sees the tax collector, and since he sees by having mercy and by choosing, he says to him, ‘follow me’].
In fact, Cardinal Parolin noted that Pope Francis was “a shining witness of a Church that bends down with tenderness towards those who are wounded and heals with the balm of mercy. He reminded us that there can be no peace without the recognition of the other, without attention to those who are weaker and, above all, there can never be peace if we do not learn to forgive one another, showing one another the same mercy that God shows us.”
Present, among others, were Sr. Raffaella Petrini, Giuseppe Puglisi-Alibrandi, respectively President and Secretary General of the Governorate, together with Directors, Deputy Directors and Office Heads of the Governorate. Among the concelebrants, Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President Emeritus of the Governorate, and Archbishop Emilio Nappa, Secretary General.
