At Jerusalem’s holiest church, Catholics mourn Pope Francis with solemn mass
Hundreds gather at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for prayers for the late pontiff led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, seen as a possible successor
Father Emilio Lonzi, 60, a priest in the city of Pescara, Italy, had been in Israel for a few days to attend a seminar when the news of the death of Pope Francis broke on Monday, the day after Easter.
On Wednesday, Lonzi and his fellow priests were among the several hundred people who gathered at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to attend a mass honoring the late pontiff.
“Standing here today is an extraordinary experience,” he told The Times of Israel after the ceremony. “This is the heart of our Christian world. To pray for the pope before the empty tomb of Jesus is deeply moving.”
Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, died on Monday after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest, ending an often turbulent reign in which he sought to overhaul an ancient and divided institution. Francis, who became pope in 2013, pursued liberal reforms that were often divisive in the Vatican and beyond.
The Holy Sepulchre is situated in the Old City’s Christian Quarter in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed. The Armenian, Catholic, and Greek churches share custody, and the Coptic and Syrian churches have rights.
On an unusually hot morning, as the Christian Quarter in the Old City stood almost empty and many shops closed, the church square teemed with life. Dozens of priests, nuns, friars, as well as many local Christian laypeople and some foreign pilgrims, flocked to the church to attend the mass.
Among those who had gathered to honor Pope Francis was 55-year-old Palestinian Azzam Elias, from Bethlehem, who was only able to attend because he had received a permit from Israeli authorities to enter Jerusalem over the Easter holiday period.
“God bless his soul. Pope Francis is an international figure. He called for peace, love, respect, and dialogue between religions. This mass is something simple for such a person,” he said.
Jerusalem-based potential successor
The ceremony took place in front of the Aedicule, the structure that protects the ancient site where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus was buried and then resurrected.
As the organ played solemn music, a procession of priests magnificently dressed in white and gold made their way to the altar, surmounted by a large portrait of Francis.
The procession eventually sat down on the pews surrounding an imposing chair lined with red velvet, prepared for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who, according to many analysts, is considered a potential successor to the papacy.
Pizzaballa, 60, came last, also dressed in white and gold, with a silver pastoral staff in his hand and a tall white and gold miter hiding a red skullcap.
For local Christians, prelates, and laypeople alike, Pizzaballa has been a pillar of the community for decades. The cardinal moved to Jerusalem in 1990 and in 2004, he became Custos of the Holy Land. In 2016, Francis appointed him as the head of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and in 2023, he made him a cardinal.
“I think that if he were to become the next pope, it would be a big loss for us in Jerusalem but a blessing for the church,” said Sister Michaela Klodmann, 71, a German nun stationed in the city.
Also, Diana and Mike, a couple from Jerusalem who attended the ceremony with their young son, expressed hope that Pizzaballa could become the new head of the Catholic church. (They declined to give their last name.)
“We are praying for him with all our hearts,” Diana told The Times of Israel.
“He is a good man and a good priest, very capable,” Mike echoed.
The family also felt a special connection to Francis.
“He was really close to the people; he listened to them in a special way,” Diana said. “When he visited here, he blessed our daughter, who was 11 months old. For us, it meant a lot, and it still does.”
Pizzaballa celebrated mass in Latin, as is the custom in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, according to the Status Quo – the intricate set of norms that regulate activities in the basilica agreed upon by the different Christian communities managing it.
As the centuries-old choreography of ancient rites unfolded, incense swirled through the air, music and silence intertwined, and voices rose in unity. At different points, some fell to their knees, drawn in by the prayers.
Some passages of the Gospels and the homily were recited in English.
“‘And please remember to pray for me.’ This was the phrase Pope Francis often used to conclude his meetings with individuals and groups,” said Friar Francesco Patton, who recited the homily as the Custos of the Holy Land, or the head of the Franciscan friars throughout the Middle East. “It seemed unusual to us that the pope would ask us to pray for him, but for him, it was natural to seek the support of God’s people through prayer.”
In his speech, Patton quoted Francis’s final public address on Sunday, when, celebrating Easter, the pope expressed closeness “to all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people,” and he called for the release of the hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza.
“All of us who live in the Holy Land feel a profound debt of gratitude toward Pope Francis,” Patton said. “He cared for us until the very end. He carried us in his heart until his final day. He cried out, imploring peace for us until his final breath.”
Prayer for unity
Marwan Dides, a Palestinian Franciscan brother in Jerusalem, said the presence of other Christian denominations at the Mass held at one of Christianity’s holiest sites was important.
“We always pray for unity between Christians, and we still have hope,” he said.
For Sister Klodmann, praying for Francis in the holy city was especially meaningful.
“Francis was close to my heart,” she told The Times of Israel. “I am very grateful to be here with all my brothers and sisters.”
The mass was organized not just to honor the pope’s memory but specifically to pray for his soul.
“We believe that life does not end with death,” Klodmann said. “As we pray for one another when we are still here, we also pray for those not on earth with us anymore. It’s just a different stage, where we express hope that Francis’s soul can enter the eternal dimension in peace while we also convey gratitude for his life.”
After the mass was over, dozens of people covered the short distance that separates the Holy Sepulchre from the Latin Patriarchate, where the public could pay their condolences by leaving a message in a guestbook.
Among the visitors was also Labor MK Gilad Kariv.
“I’m here to express my condolences on behalf of the vast majority of Israeli citizens to both Christian believers who live in Israel and to the hundreds of millions of Catholic Christians around the world,” he told The Times of Israel.
Kariv harshly criticized the government for not doing the same.
“I’m ashamed by the fact that the Israeli government and the Knesset did not release an official message of condolences,” he said.
Francis, who had advocated for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, visited Israel and the West Bank in 2014. He went to the Western Wall, the most sacred prayer site in Judaism, and also prayed at a section of a security barrier built by Israel in the West Bank that separates Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Kariv highlighted how, in his opinion, most Israelis appreciated the friendship of the late pope with the Jewish people, his commitment to bringing back all the hostages, and to establishing “a sustainable peace in the Promised Land.”
Asked about the controversial statements criticizing Israel that Francis made after the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, Kariv says that it is legitimate to have different opinions.
“I know personally that Pope Francis was a close friend of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and he was more than allowed to express concern over Gaza,” the MK said. “We know how to embrace differences in opinions.”
The Times of Israel Community.