Prayers were offered at Masses throughout the Diocese of Kerry this morning for Pope Francis who died just hours after administering a special Easter blessing to pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square in Rome.
The first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, who was 88, had recently been diagnosed with double pneumonia and he passed away at 7.35am this Monday.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced on the Vatican’s TV channel: “Dear brothers and sisters, it is with profound sadness I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis”.
On Sunday the pontiff also had a brief private audience with US Vice President JD Vance.
Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope on 13th March 2013.
Pope Francis visited Ireland in 2018 as part of the World Meeting of Families and he prayed at the shrine in Knock as well as celebrating Mass in the Phoenix Park.
He also held a meeting with victims of clerical abuse and visited a homeless centre run by the Capuchin Fathers.
Pope Francis met with the Bishop of Kerry, Ray Browne, in Rome and, in 2014, during an official Killarney tour to Rome to retrace the footsteps of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, he also met with Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce President Johnny McGuire who was accompanying Irish language scholar and Canon Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, a priest of the Kerry diocese, at the time.
In a brief statement on social media this Monday, the parish of Killarney said: “We share in the sorrow around the world as we mourn the passing of Pope Francis. May his gentle soul rest in eternal peace”.
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