Mass for Pope Francis to take place in Church of Assumption Tullamore

A special Mass for Pope Francis will take place in the Church of the Assumption, Tullamore, on Friday April 25 at 7.30pm.

Meanwhile, the Bishop of Meath Tom Deenihan has said Pope Francis had a desire to put the poor and the marginalised at the centre of the church.

Speaking following the announcement of the passing of the Pope, in the early hours of Easter Monday morning.
Bishop Deenihan who presides over Offaly parishes wrote:''Like many others, I watched the news of Pope Francis election on TV twelve years ago and there was much commentary on the Pope that came from the ‘Ends of the world’ and what type of papacy was in store. It became immediately clear that this would be a different papacy.

Even the name Francis indicated a desire to put the poor, the marginalised, fraternity and ‘Sister Earth’ at the centre. Looking back now and reflecting on Pope Francis’ time as Pontiff, his choice of name was, in itself, a manifesto that he successfully lived up to,'' said the Bishop.

Bishop Deenihan said that many of the tributes emphasised the pope's humility, compassion and
courage. He noted that the pope had rejected many of the Papal vestments and even the Apostolic Palace itself.

''One of my earliest memories of him as Pope was of his return to the guesthouse in Rome where he stayed before the conclave to pay his bill. I think that he may have felt to some extent imprisoned in the Vatican -his trips to a music shop near the Pantheon to select some CD’s, his trips to an Optician near the Spanish Steps to get new glasses and his various trips to prisons, hospitals and parishes give a sense of a man who wished to be among the people.''

Bishop Deenihan said that Pope Francis was before all else a pastor. ''Being a Pastor informed many of the quotes that he is best remembered for, including ‘Who am I to judge’. Above all, he was a prophet of mercy. Mercy, he said, was the ‘air that we breathe’. That sense of mercy was also communicated to the Confessors in Saint Peter’s recently when he told them not to ask questions, to say they understood even if they did not and to grant absolution. The confession box was, he said, not to be a torture chamber!

In 2014 he said that God forgives not with a decree but with a caress. It was interesting that he publicly professed his own devotion to the sacrament of reconciliation frequently, even going to a confessor in Saint Peter’s after being released from hospital recently. As well as advocating mercy, he also championed the virtue of joy. Christians, he said, should not look
like people coming from a funeral!''

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''Perhaps less commented on is the simple holiness of Pope Francis. Which of us were not moved in the early days of the COVID pandemic when he appeared in an empty and wet Saint Peter’s Square holding the Monstrance in the shadow of the Icon of Mary from Saint Mary Major’s Basilica that Romans have great devotion to and the Cross from the Church of
Saint Marcello that Romans, since 1519, believe could save the city from fire and plague?
The only acknowledgement of his presence in that empty and wet Square was a police car outside that turned on its siren. He was, essentially, the world’s priest interceding for his people. That will be one of my stronger and more moving memories of him,'' Bishop Deenihan added.

The Bishop continued that there was something appropriate in the Pope's passing on Easter Monday. ''The Church celebrating the Resurrection and a drive through Saint Peter’s Square the day before to give the blessing to the church, the city and the world and him greeting the people of the world who saw him as a father, an inspiration and a man of holiness.''

''I commend the Soul of Pope Francis to the Priests and People of the Diocese of Meath and ask that prayers be included in all Masses in the Diocese during the Novendiales, the nine
day period of mourning a Pope,'' he said.