Pope Francis walks with his pastoral staff as he leads the Epiphany mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
“The global Catholic community bids farewell to a leader who recognised the burning issues of our day and called attention to them,” Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said.
World leaders have expressed their condolences following the passing of Pope Francis on Monday at the age of 88, The Jerusalem Post reports.
“I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis. My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him,” US Vice-President J.D. Vance said.
“I was happy to see him yesterday (Sunday), though he was obviously very ill. But I’ll always remember him for the homily he gave in the very early days of COVID. It was really quite beautiful.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said that throughout his pontificate Pope Francis had always sided with the most vulnerable and the most fragile, and that he did this with a lot of humility.
“In this time of war and brutality, he had a sense for the other, for the most fragile,” Macron said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she “had the privilege of enjoying his friendship, his advice, his teachings, which never ceased not even during times of trial and suffering.”
The pope will be remembered as a figure who toiled for the weak in society, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz shared on X/Twitter, adding that the pontiff had touched people worldwide.
“Pope Francis was in every way a man of the people,” Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote in a post on X/Twitter.
“The global Catholic community bids farewell to a leader who recognised the burning issues of our day and called attention to them,” he added.
‘A great spiritual leader’
Swiss President Karin Maria Keller-Sutter lauded him as a “great spiritual leader, a tireless advocate for peace.”
Britain’s King Charles said he was “most deeply saddened” about the death of Pope Francis, sending his “most heartfelt condolences and profound sympathy to the Church he served with such resolve.” – TJP
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