‘Humility, inclusion and love for the stranger’: Europe ​h​onours Pope Francis

Just last week, Rome correspondent Angela Guiffrida reported on a restorer at St Peter’s Basilica who was surprised when a man in a wheelchair whom she at first took for “a simple pilgrim” thanked her for her work.

On Easter Sunday, Pope Francis – having survived a 38-day hospitalisation for severe pneumonia during which he almost died – blessed the thousands of people who had gathered in St Peter’s Square. At 7.35am the next morning, he died, aged 88.

Francis, as Archie Bland put it in Tuesday’s First Edition newsletter, was “one of the most consequential popes of recent times: an unpredictable leader unafraid of upsetting traditionalists – but also far from the simplistic progressive figure sometimes portrayed in secular accounts.”

Pope Francis consistently “pushed the limits throughout his 12-year papacy”, Angela wrote, speaking to shocked pilgrims in Rome who praised him as “someone who was very humble and close to the people”. World leaders recalled his defence of the poor and marginalised, commitment to peace, personal warmth and wit, while celebrities such as director Martin Scorsese hailed a man who “radiated goodness” and “never stopped learning”.

Some of the most moving tributes were from congregants of the Holy Family Catholic church in war-devastated Gaza City, a community which, as Bethan McKernan and Malak Tantesh reported, the pontiff called every night, “at 8pm Gaza time sharp”.

The Vatican announced on Monday evening that Francis had died from a stroke followed by heart failure, and that he had requested – in a final humble gesture – to be buried at a neighbourhood church in Rome rather than beneath St Peter’s.

Commentators were generous. Catherine Pepinster, a former editor of Catholic magazine the Tablet, said he would be remembered as one of the church’s great communicators, focused on justice, ecology and humanity, even if “healing its divisions was beyond him”. The Guardian’s Julian Coman said Francis was an outsider whose reforming mission and modernising moves – and decision to live in a clerical guest house and travel in a blue Ford Focus – prompted the website Gawker to dub him “our new cool Pope”.

Ultimately, however, citing Francis’s attitude to abortion and female priests, Coman said it would be “a mistake to view his papacy as a liberal one” – but it did “exert a major progressive influence”, especially in relation to the climate crisis and migration.

Environmental campaigners, indeed, hailed Francis as “an unflinching global champion of climate action”. This Guardian editorial concluded he upset both liberals and traditionalists, but “his achievements … should be seen as considerable” overall. “In an era when the postwar legacy of universal human rights is under threat, and Christianity is weaponised in the west as a form of identity politics, Francis stood up for a gospel message of humility, inclusion and love for the stranger,” it concluded.

Jan-Werner Müller liked Francis’s outspoken criticism of the Trump administration’s approach to migration in general and, in particular, of vice-president JD Vance, one of his last visitors. Natalie Tocci lamented the loss of the pope of the global south.

Looking ahead, the Guardian’s former religious affairs correspondent, Harriet Sherwood, has all you need to know about the conclave, the Vatican’s secret process for choosing a new pope, and profiles some of the potential candidates.

Overseeing the proceedings will be “a bloke called Kevin from Dublin”, AKA Cardinal Kevin Farrell, whose portrait is sketched here by Rory Carroll, while here Harriet and Angela dissect the “ferocious battle for the future of the church” that is coming.

Leaders who have so far confirmed their attendance at Saturday’s funeral include France’s Emmanuel Macron, the UK’s Keir Starmer, Germany’s Olaf Scholz and Javier Milei, president of Francis’s native Argentina, as well as Donald Trump.

The gathering of hundreds of heads of state and government may also provide an opportunity for a little informal diplomacy – notably for European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who has still not actually met Trump since his re-election. Perhaps Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who had an apparently successful face-to-face with the US president in Washington just last week and who hopes to act as a bridge between the EU and the US amid tariff tensions, could facilitate matters.

Somewhat complicating any transatlantic chats on the sidelines of Francis’s funeral, however, could be the commission’s decision this morning to fine Apple €500m (£429m) and Meta €200m for breaking rules on fair competition and user choice.

The fines, the first under the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), are likely to spark another major row with the Trump administration, which has savaged European efforts to regulate the internet, calling them an unfair attack on successful US businesses.

They are unlikely to please Trump, who is threatening 20% additional tariffs on the EU. And Commission vice-president Henna Virkkunen has pledged the EU will not compromise on its tech rules to get a US trade deal. So that all looks promising …

Until next week.

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