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Vatican City, May 5, 2025 / 13:56 pm (CNA).

Before his death, Pope Francis donated one of his popemobiles to be converted into a mobile clinic to assist the children of Gaza, one of the communities most affected by the war and humanitarian crisis in that region.

As Peter Brune, secretary-general of Caritas Sweden and one of the project's driving forces, explained to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, it is the popemobile the pontiff used during his visit to Bethlehem in May 2014 during his historic trip to the Holy Land. "Since then, the vehicle has been on display in a public square in the Palestinian city," he said.

"The popemobile has been refurbished and upgraded to fulfill a new and hopeful mission: to provide medical assistance to injured and malnourished children who currently have no access to any type of health care," Brune explained.

The initiative was personally entrusted by the pope to Caritas Jerusalem in the final months of his life to respond to the extremely serious humanitarian emergency in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced children live without access to food, clean water, or basic medical care amid the Hamas conflict with Israel.

With the new name of "Vehicle of Hope," the former popemobile is being equipped with basic medical equipment: rapid diagnostic kits, suture materials, syringes, vaccines, oxygen, refrigerated medications, and other vital supplies.

The clinic will be operated by drivers and trained medical staff from Caritas Jerusalem, an organization with extensive experience in the region.

"This is a concrete, lifesaving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has virtually collapsed," Brune emphasized.

The mobile pediatric clinic can be deployed in the Palestinian territory as soon as humanitarian access is restored, with the mission of "providing basic care in the most isolated areas and reminding the world that children's rights and dignity must always be protected," Brune explained.

"It is not just a medical tool but a symbol that the world has not forgotten the children of Gaza," Brune added.

For his part, in a statement, Caritas Jerusalem Secretary-General Anton Asfar said the vehicle donated by Pope Francis represents "the love, care, and closeness that His Holiness showed toward the most vulnerable throughout the crisis."

The last time Pope Francis rode in a popemobile was on Sunday, April 20, just one day before his death. Despite his delicate health, he chose to move about St. Peter's Square one last time to greet the faithful after giving his "urbi et orbi" blessing. During that emotional tour, he asked to stop the vehicle several times to bless a child with cancer and several babies.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 5, 2025 / 14:57 pm (CNA).

Catholic leaders and some members of the Church hierarchy in the United States have criticized President Donald Trump for sharing an AI-generated image of himself dressed as a pope.

Trump, who frequently shares memes of himself on social media, posted the image to Truth Social on Friday after joking that he would like to be chosen as the next pope. The White House subsequently posted the photo on its official X account.

The social media posts came just days after the president said he would "like to be pope" when a reporter asked him who he hopes is selected for the papacy in the upcoming papal conclave. As part of his response to that same question, he went on to say he actually had "no preference" while also touting Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York as a "very good" candidate.

Trump's latest joke about the matter received pushback from some Catholic leaders, including Dolan, Bishop Robert Barron, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, and the entire New York Catholic Conference. As of the time of publication, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) had not issued a statement nor responded to a request for comment from CNA.

Dolan, the archbishop of New York City and an appointee to Trump's recently created Religious Liberty Commission, told a reporter in Rome that he hopes the president "had nothing to do with that" and said "it wasn't good."

Speaking in Italian, Dolan called the stunt "brutta figura," essentially meaning that it was in bad form.

Barron, the bishop of Winona–Rochester, Minnesota, who was also appointed to the Religious Liberty Commission, told EWTN News that he thinks it was "a bad joke" and a "sophomoric attempt at humor." 

"I don't think at all it represents some disdain for the Catholic Church or some attack on the Catholic Church," he said. "President Trump has signaled in all sorts of ways his support for and affection for the Catholic Church. I think it was a bad joke that obviously landed very poorly and was seen as offensive by a lot of Catholics and I wish he hadn't done it."

Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the conclave is "a very serious time" for the Catholic Church and expressed displeasure that "we've lost great respect for moments like this."

Some Catholic leaders who criticized the president took stronger offense to the image.

The New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the state's bishops, posted on X that "there is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President."

"We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter," the post added. "Do not mock us."

Paprocki, who is the bishop of Springfield, Illinois, said on X that the photo "mocks God, the Catholic Church, and the papacy."

"This is deeply offensive to Catholics especially during this sacred time that we are still mourning the death of Pope Francis and praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the election of our new pope," Paprocki wrote. "He owes an apology."

Other Catholic figures did not take such offense, however.

Vice President JD Vance, who is a convert to Catholicism, responded to criticisms of the image from commentator and writer Bill Kristol, who is not Catholic.

"As a general rule," wrote Vance, "I'm fine with people telling jokes and not fine with people starting stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen," referring to Kristol's role in support of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In a news release, Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, called the image "dumb, but not bigoted."

"What Trump did was silly, but it was hardly an expression of bigotry," Donohue said. "We deal with real cases of anti-Catholicism at the Catholic League, not junior-league pranks."

CatholicVote's vice president Joshua Mercer — whose organization ran advertisements for Trump in the last election — said in a statement that the image is "obviously intended to be humorous."

"There is no need to imagine that he believes he could be pope, or that he intended to mock the papacy," Mercer said. "Memes depicting famous people as the new pope have been playfully circulating on social media everywhere for the past week."

Brian Burch, the president of CatholicVote and Trump's nominee as the ambassador to the Holy See, declined to comment. 

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Vatican City, May 4, 2025 / 19:58 pm (CNA).

On the ninth and final day of Novendiales, the nine days of mourning for Pope Francis, French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti reflected on the papal mission to love and serve Christ and his Church.

The mission of a pope "is love itself, which becomes service to the Church and to all humanity," the cardinal said in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Mass for the ninth and last of the Novendiales was celebrated for the third Sunday of Easter.

In his homily, Mamberti, who was the prefect of the supreme tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's final court of appeal, since 2014, spoke about the day's Gospel passage, in which Jesus asks St. Peter three times if he loves him, calling on him to "feed my lambs" and "tend my sheep."

"Love is the key word of this Gospel passage," Mamberti said. "The first to recognize Jesus is 'the disciple whom Jesus loved,' John."

In the dialogue between Jesus and Peter, Jesus uses "the verb to love, a strong word, while Peter, mindful of the betrayal responds with the less demanding expression, 'to care,' and the third time Jesus himself uses the expression to care, adjusting to the apostle's weakness," the cardinal said.

Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, Mamberti noted that although Peter knew that Jesus was satisfied with his "'poor love, the only one of which he [was] capable. ... It is precisely this divine adjustment that gives hope to the disciple.'"

From that point on, Peter followed the Lord with a keen awareness of his own fragility but was not discouraged, Mamberti said, knowing that the Lord was beside him.

Mamberti then quoted St. John Paul II, who said regarding the Gospel passage that "every day the same dialogue between Jesus and Peter takes place within my heart. He, though aware of my human frailty, encourages me to respond with confidence like Peter: 'Lord,you know everything; you know that I love you' (Jn 21:17)."

"We have all admired how much Pope Francis, animated by the Lord's love and carried by his grace, has been faithful to his mission to the utmost consumption of his strength," Mamberti continued.

Alluding to the first reading of the day from the Acts of the Apostles, Mamberti said Pope Francis "has reminded the powerful that we must obey God rather than men and proclaimed to all humanity the joy of the Gospel, the merciful Father, Christ the savior. He did this in his magisterium, in his travels, in his gestures, in his lifestyle."

The cardinal recalled how he was close to Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, April 20, as the Holy Father gave his final "urbi et orbi" blessing before the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square, one day before he passed away.

Mamberti said he witnessed Pope Francis' "suffering but above all his courage and determination to serve the people of God to the end."

Noting that adoration is "an essential dimension of the Church's mission and the lives of the faithful," Mamberti observed that "this capacity that gives adoration was not difficult to recognize in Pope Francis."

"His intense pastoral life, his countless meetings, were grounded in the long moments of prayer that the Ignatian discipline had imprinted in him," he said.

Everything Francis did, Mamberti said, "he did under the gaze of Mary," recalling the 126 times the late pope visited the "Salus Populi Romani" icon in the Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray.

"And now that he rests at the beloved image," Mamberti said, "we entrust him with gratitude and confidence to the intercession of the mother of the Lord and our mother."

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CNA Newsroom, May 4, 2025 / 20:07 pm (CNA).

The conclave to elect Pope Francis' successor will begin on May 7, as the Church enters the final preparatory phase for choosing its 267th pope.

Follow here for live updates of the latest news and information on the papal transition:

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Vatican City, May 4, 2025 / 20:28 pm (CNA).

Editor's Note: On May 4, 2025, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, the former prefect of the prefect of the supreme tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, delivered the following homily during the ninth day of Novendiales Masses for Pope Francis. The text below is a CNA working translation of the Italian original published by the Vatican.

Venerable cardinal fathers, dear brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood, dear brothers and sisters:

The Liturgy of the Word of this last Novendial in suffrage of Pope Francis is that of the third Sunday of Easter, and the passage from John's Gospel just proclaimed represents the encounter of the resurrected Jesus with some apostles and disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, which ends with the mission entrusted to Peter by the Lord and Jesus' command, "Follow me!"

The episode is reminiscent of that of the first miraculous fishing, recounted by Luke, when Jesus had called Simon, James, and John, announcing to Simon that he would become a fisher of men. Since that time, Peter had followed him, sometimes in misunderstanding and even in betrayal, but in today's encounter, the last before Christ's return to the Father, Peter receives from him the task of shepherding his flock.

Love is the key word of this Gospel passage. The first to recognize Jesus is "the disciple whom Jesus loved," John, who exclaims: "It is the Lord!" and Peter immediately throws himself into the sea to join the Master. After they had shared the food, which will have kindled in the hearts of the Apostles the memory of the Last Supper, the dialogue between Jesus and Peter begins, the threefold question of the Lord and Peter's threefold response.

The first two times, Jesus adopts the verb to love, a strong word, while Peter, mindful of the betrayal, responds with the less demanding expression "to care," and the third time Jesus stresses the expression to care, adjusting to the Apostle's weakness. Pope Benedict XVI noted in commenting on this dialogue: "Simon understands that Jesus is satisfied with his poor love, the only one of which he is capable. ... It is precisely this divine adjustment that gives hope to the disciple, who has recognized the suffering of infidelity. ... From that day on, Peter "followed" the Master with a precise awareness of his own fragility; but this awareness did not discourage him. For he knew that he could count on the presence of the Risen One beside him ... and so he shows us the way as well" (General audience, May 24, 2006).

In his homily at the Mass for the 25th anniversary of his pontificate, St. John Paul II confirmed: "Today, dear brothers and sisters, I am pleased to share with you an experience that has been going on now for a quarter of a century. Every day the same dialogue between Jesus and Peter takes place within my heart. In the spirit, I stare at the benevolent gaze of the risen Christ. He, though aware of my human frailty, encourages me to respond with confidence like Peter: 'Lord,you know everything; you know that I love you' (Jn 21:17). And then he invites me to assume the responsibilities that he himself has entrusted to me" (Homily, Oct. 16, 2003).

This mission is love itself, which becomes service to the Church and to all humanity. Peter and the Apostles assumed it immediately, by the power of the Spirit they had received at Pentecost, as we heard in the first reading: "We must obey God rather than men. The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God raised him to his right hand, as head and Savior."

We have all admired how much Pope Francis, animated by the Lord's love and carried by his grace, has been faithful to his mission to the utmost consumption of his strength. He has reminded the powerful that we must obey God rather than men and proclaimed to all humanity the joy of the Gospel, the merciful Father, Christ the savior. He did this in his magisterium, in his travels, in his gestures, in his lifestyle. I was close to him on Easter Day, at the loggia of blessings in this basilica, witnessing his suffering but above all his courage and determination to serve the people of God to the end.

In the second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, we heard the praise that the whole universe gives to the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb: "Praise, honor, glory and power, throughout the ages. And the four living creatures said, 'Amen.' And the elders prostrated themselves in worship."

Adoration is an essential dimension of the Church's mission and the lives of the faithful. Pope Francis often recalled this, as for example in his homily for the Feast of the Epiphany last year: "The Magi had their hearts prostrated in adoration. ... They came to Bethlehem and, when they saw the Child, 'they prostrated themselves and adored him' (Mt 2:11). ... A king who came to serve us, aGod who became man. Before this mystery, we are called to bow our hearts and knees to worship: to worship the God who comes in littleness, who inhabits the normality of our homes, who dies out of love. ... Brothers and sisters, we have lost the habit of worship, we have lost this capacity that gives us adoration. Let us rediscover the taste of the prayer of adoration. ... There is a lack of adoration among us today" (Homily, Jan. 6, 2024).

This capacity that gives adoration was not difficult to recognize in Pope Francis. His intense pastoral life, his countless meetings, were grounded in the long moments of prayer that the Ignatian discipline had imprinted in him. Many times he reminded us that contemplation is "a dynamism of love" that "elevates us to God not to detach us from the earth, but to make us inhabit it in profundity" (Audience to the Delegates of the Discalced Carmelites, April 18, 2024). And everything he did, he did under the gaze of Mary. There will remain in our memory and in our hearts his 126 stops before the "Salus Populi Romani." And now that he rests at the beloved image, we entrust him with gratitude and confidence to the intercession of the mother of the Lord and our mother.

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Vatican City, May 4, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

On May 7, an expected 133 cardinal electors will enter the Sistine Chapel to elect the new Roman pontiff, the successor to Pope Francis, who shied away from giving red hats to the traditional archdioceses but opted to give the honor to far-flung places, many of which had never had a cardinal before.

Of the 133 cardinals with the right to vote in this conclave, 108 were created by Pope Francis and therefore will be participating in the election of a pontiff for the first time.

Compared with the 2013 conclave that chose Pope Francis, none of the major sees typically headed by a cardinal will be represented this time around, including the archdioceses of Sydney, Vienna, Genoa, Paris, Milan, Palermo, Armagh, and Krakow.

Pope Francis' choice of cardinals from nontraditional countries and sees has dramatically shifted what used to be large and powerful representations within the college, such as the cardinals from Italy.

Now, only 52 Europeans will enter the Sistine Chapel, less than half of the entire electoral body. Of these 52, just 17 are Italians, including curial cardinals — those who work inside the Vatican — and those who live in Rome. 

The Italian presence is significantly reduced compared with the 2013 conclave, which had 28 cardinals of Italian origin.

By contrast, the continent of Africa has grown by seven cardinal electors since the last conclave for a total of 18 red hats, and Asia's representation has increased to 20 from 10 in 2013. 

Countries represented by a cardinal elector for the first time include Haiti, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia, Tonga, Cape Verde, East Timor, Sweden, Iran, Luxembourg, Singapore, South Sudan, Ghana, Rwanda, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, and Serbia. 

Another change to the College of Cardinals made by Pope Francis was the decision to surpass the limit of 120 voting cardinals set by Paul VI and confirmed by John Paul II. This limit was exceeded in June 2017, when Francis designated five new cardinals, bringing the total to 121. The total number of cardinal electors currently stands at 135.

In the apostolic constitution governing a "sede vacante," Universi Dominici Gregis, it says that a cardinal who has been "created and published before the College of Cardinals thereby has the right to elect the pope" if he has not reached the age of 80.

Under Pope Francis, there was also an increase in cardinal electors representing the Eastern Catholic Churches "sui iuris": Cardinal Mykola Bycok (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church); Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad (Syro-Malabar Church); Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal (Syro-Malankar Church); Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel (Ethiopian Metropolitan Church "sui iuris"); and Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako (Chaldean Church).

Other geographical areas instead have not seen large changes in the number of voting cardinals.

The United States will have 10 voting cardinals (one less than in the 2005 and 2013 conclaves). Canada will have four and Mexico will have two representatives inside the Sistine Chapel.

From Europe, there will be five cardinal electors from France, four from Spain, four from Portugal and Poland, three from Germany and the United Kingdom, two from Switzerland, and one each from Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Holland, Serbia, and Sweden.

Central America will bring to the Sistine Chapel one cardinal each from Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Haiti. South America will see the presence of seven cardinals from Brazil, four from Argentina (there were two in 2013 and one in 2005), and one each from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

The 18 African cardinals include two from the Ivory Coast and one each from Algeria (although Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco is French by birth), Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco (Cardinal Cristóbal Lopez Romero is Spanish by birth), Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, and Tanzania.

There are 20 cardinals who will participate in the conclave from Asia: four from India, three from the Philippines, two from Japan, and one each from China, East Timor, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia (Cardinal Giorgio Marengo is Italian by birth), Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

The Middle East will be represented by three cardinals, one each from the Holy Land (Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa is Italian by birth), Iran (Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu is Belgian by birth), and Iraq.

From Oceania, four cardinals will be eligible to vote: one each from Australia (Bycok is Ukrainian by birth), New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga.

Marco Mancini of ACI Stampa, CNA's Italian-language news partner, contributed to this report.

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CNA Newsroom, May 3, 2025 / 18:21 pm (CNA).

The conclave to elect Pope Francis' successor will begin on May 7, as the Church enters the final preparatory phase for choosing its 267th pope.

Follow here for live updates of the latest news and information on the papal transition:

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CNA Newsroom, May 3, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis desired that consecrated Catholic men and women possess "a heart and a spirit pure and free enough" to love and serve the least among us, Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime said at the eighth Novendiales Mass on Saturday.

The prelate, the former prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, celebrated, and delivered the homily at, the second-to-last Mass held in mourning for the Holy Father, who passed away on April 21.

Praying for the dead, the cardinal said during the homily at St. Peter's Basilica, is "the greatest work of charity."

"When we help our neighbors materially, we share ephemeral goods, but when we pray for them we do so with eternal goods," Artime said.

"To pray for the dead means, therefore, to love those who have died," he continued, "and that is what we are doing now for Pope Francis, gathered as the People of God, together with the pastors and especially this evening with a very significant presence of consecrated men and women."

Francis "felt very well liked by the People of God," Artime said, "and [he] knew that those belonging to the different expressions of consecrated life also loved him; they prayed for his ministry, for the person of the Pope, for the Church, for the world."

The whole Church, he said, is "called to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus, who died and rose again." But consecrated men and women are signaled out for particular service, he said.

"[We] have received this vocation, this call to discipleship that asks us to witness to the primacy of God with our whole lives," he said. "This mission is especially important when - as in many parts of the world today - we experience God's absence or forget his centrality too easily."

The presence of the Risen Christ, the cardinal said, "transforms everything."

"Darkness is overcome by light; useless work becomes fruitful and promising again; the sense of weariness and abandonment gives way to a new momentum and the certainty that He is with us," he said.

Artime recalled the words of Pope Francis during the Year of Consecrated Life, when the Holy Father said he expected consecrated Catholics "to wake up the world, because the note that characterizes consecrated life is prophecy." Francis at the time asked for the consecrated "to be witnesses of the Lord like Peter and the Apostles," Artime said.

"He was asking us to have a heart and a spirit pure and free enough to recognize the women and men of today, our brothers and sisters, especially the poorest, the last, the discarded," the cardinal said.

"Because in them is the Lord, and so that with our passion for God, for the Kingdom and for humanity, we will be able, like Peter, to respond to the Lord, 'Lord, you know everything! You know that I love you.'"

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Vatican City, May 3, 2025 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Editor's Note: On May 3, 2025, Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, the former prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, delivered the following homily during the 8th day of Novendiales Masses for Pope Francis. The text below is a CNA working translation of the Italian original published by the Vatican.

Dearest Sisters and Brothers,

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori teaches that praying for the dead is the greatest work of charity. When we help our neighbors materially, we share ephemeral goods, but when we pray for them we do so with eternal goods. In a similar way lived the Holy Curé of Ars, universal patron of priests.

To pray for the dead means, therefore, to love those who have died, and that is what we are doing now for Pope Francis, gathered as the People of God, together with the pastors and especially this evening with a very significant presence of consecrated men and women.

The Holy Father Francis felt very well liked by the People of God and knew that those belonging to the different expressions of consecrated life also loved him; they prayed for his ministry, for the person of the Pope, for the Church, for the world.

On this third Sunday of Easter everything invites rejoicing, exultation. The reason is given by the Risen Lord and the presence of the Holy Spirit. St. Athanasius affirms that the risen Jesus Christ makes man's life a continuous feast. And that is why the Apostles - and Peter first among them - are not afraid of imprisonment, nor of threats, nor of being persecuted again. And in fact they boldly and frankly declare, "Of these things we are witnesses as also is the Holy Spirit whom God has sent to those who obey him."

"I wonder," said Pope Francis, in one of his catecheses on this same passage, "where the first disciples find the strength for this witness of theirs. Not only that, but from where did the joy and courage of proclamation come to them in spite of obstacles and violence?"

It is clear that only the presence, with them, of the Risen Lord and the action of the Holy Spirit can explain this fact. Their faith was based on such a strong and personal experience of Christ, dead and risen, that they were not afraid of anything or anyone. "Today, as yesterday, the men and women of the present generation are in great need of encountering the Lord and his liberating message of salvation," said St. John Paul II, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Consecrated Life on Feb. 2, 2000, addressing religious men and women around the world, adding: "I have been able to realize the value of your prophetic presence for the entire Christian people, and I gladly acknowledge, even on this occasion, the example of generous evangelical dedication offered by countless of your brothers and sisters who often work in uncomfortable situations. They unreservedly expend themselves in the name of Christ in the service of the poor, the marginalized and the least."

Brothers and sisters, it is true that all of us, this whole assembly as baptized, are called to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus, who died and rose again. But it is equally true that we, consecrated men and women, have received this vocation, this call to discipleship that asks us to witness to the primacy of God with our whole lives. This mission is especially important when - as in many parts of the world today - we experience God's absence or forget his centrality too easily. Then we can assume and make our own the program of St. Benedict Abbot, summarized in the maxim: "Put nothing before the love of Christ."

It was the Holy Father Benedict XVI who challenged us in this way: within the People of God, consecrated persons are like sentinels who discern and announce the new life already present in our history.

We are called, by reason of our baptism and by religious profession, to witness that only God gives fullness to human existence and that, consequently, our lives must be an eloquent sign of the presence of the Kingdom of God for the world today.

We are, therefore, called to be in the world a credible and luminous sign of the Gospel and its paradoxes. Without conforming to the mentality of this century, but transforming ourselves and continuously renewing our commitment.

In the Gospel we heard that the Risen Lord was waiting for his disciples at the seashore. The account says that when everything seemed finished, failed, the Lord made himself present, went to meet his own, who—filled with joy—were able to exclaim through the mouth of the disciple whom Jesus loved, "It is the Lord." 

In this expression we grasp the enthusiasm of Easter faith, full of joy and amazement, which contrasts sharply with the bewilderment, discouragement, and sense of helplessness hitherto present in the disciples' souls.

It is only the presence of the Risen Jesus that transforms everything: darkness is overcome by light; useless work becomes fruitful and promising again; the sense of weariness and abandonment gives way to a new momentum and the certainty that He is with us.

What happened for the Lord's first and privileged witnesses can and must become a program of life for all of us.

Pope Francis said in the Year of Consecrated Life: "I expect you to wake up the world, because the note that characterizes consecrated life is prophecy." And he asked us to be witnesses of the Lord like Peter and the Apostles, even in the face of the misunderstanding of the Sanhedrin of yesteryear or the godless areopagos of today. He asked us to be like the watchman who keeps watch during the night and knows when the dawn comes. 

He was asking us to have a heart and a spirit pure and free enough to recognize the women and men of today, our brothers and sisters, especially the poorest, the last, the discarded, because in them is the Lord and so that with our passion for God, for the Kingdom and for humanity, we will be able like Peter, to respond to the Lord, "Lord, you know everything! You know that I love you."

Mary, Mother of the Church, grant us all the grace to be missionary disciples today, witnesses of Her Son in this Church of His that—under the guidance of the Holy Spirit—lives in hope, because the Risen Lord is with us until the end of time. Amen.

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CNA Newsroom, May 3, 2025 / 10:09 am (CNA).

The conclave to elect Pope Francis' successor will begin on May 7, as the Church enters the final preparatory phase for choosing its 267th pope.

Follow here for live updates of the latest news and information on the papal transition:

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