Condolences on the Death of Pope Francis from The Most Rev John McDowell, the Church of Ireland’s Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh

The Most Rev John McDowell, the Church of Ireland’s Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, has issued the following statement on the announcement of the death of Pope Francis:

I wish to extend my sympathy on behalf of the Church of Ireland to Archbishop Eamon Martin and to the Roman Catholic people of Ireland on the death of His Holiness Pope Francis. 

Pope Francis was invested not only with his share in the official magisterium of the Church he served so joyfully, but also with a natural, self–authenticating authority which was the fruit of a deep devotion to God and an equally deep commitment to the service of all of the people of God.

Pope Francis’ respect for every person, wherever they may have found themselves on life’s pilgrimage, was a powerful witness to the plenitude of God’s grace, given as a gift to the world in His Son. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” and it was the whole world which expressed the magnitude of God’s love. 

Pope Francis’ brotherly affection for Christian people of all traditions, and for the whole of humanity, was worked out in practical action, particularly around the great defining issue for this era – the care of God’s creation.

In at least two of Pope Francis’ Encyclicals – Laudato si’ and Fratelli tutti – he confronted the whole of humankind, believers and non–believers alike, with the scale of the challenges we face but also with an outline of the solidarity and the resources needed to tackle these challenges. It is difficult not to draw parallels with that other unlikely iconoclast Pope John XXIII in his involved goodness that had little time for an aloof and cool virtue which had no redemptive power in it. Laudato si’ in particular stands out as an historic and prophetic oracle.

Pope Francis was manifestly a modest man of immovable faith who felt no need to cling frantically onto old certainties which no longer served God or His People. Drawing from the deep well of Scriptural resources acquired during a lifetime in the Ignatian tradition, 

Pope Francis was prepared to step out into a very unclear future in the company of Jesus Christ, which is “far better than a known way”.

His loss will be felt very keenly throughout the Catholic world and my prayers in the coming weeks will be for all who are bereaved and diminished by the passing of a great man and a humble disciple of our common Lord, especially my brothers and sisters in Christ on the island of Ireland.