North West church leaders pay tribute to Pope Francis

Religious leaders throughout the northwest of England have paid tribute to Pope Francis, who died at the age of 88.

The Vatican confirmed the death of the Pope, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, earlier on Monday.

He arrives only one day after he appeared in the Plaza de San Pedro del Vaticano to wish “Happy Easter” to thousands of worshipers.

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Liverpool Malcolm McMahon said he would remember the Pope as a “child and cozy priest and bishop.”

In a statement, the archbishop said: “I have many good memories of meeting him, more recently in January at the first general hearing of the Jubilee year.

“Francis asked everyone who never forgets to pray for him; let us assure him our prayers that would finally meet the good shepherd and the gentle judge who served so jealously.”

Pope Francis was discarded from the hospital last month after five weeks of treatment for an infection that led to double pneumonia.

The Government of the Catholic Church will now be managed by the Cardinals College, its senior officials, until the new Pope is elected.

RT Rev Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury, said that “all who with Pope Francis duration during the last 12 years will remember his urgent request ‘Please, he says for me’.

“As we accompany Pope Francis with our prayers, his church service as the successor of the apostle Peter, so in the hour, it is our first duty to pray for the soul of man who thus creates a Holy Father for all of us.”

RT Rev John Arnold, Bishop of Salford, said he could only imagine how many people were “shocked and very sad” for the news.

“Allhe has episodes of bone diseases in recent times, he has always shown such a cross ministry to fulfill and return to his ministry,” he added.

“We are grateful for the humble way in which it served the Church, leaving aside the bomb and decoration of its position, to be among us. Since the first days of their papacy, he has shown his love for people and his determination to be close to those who compose him of those who bind to those who move to those.”

Pope Francis’s papal inauguration was a hero on March 19, 2013 at St Peter’s Square, with an estimated crowd between 150,000 and 200,000 that came to witness.

One of his final acts of his 12 -year mandate as head of the Catholic Church was to appoint Bishop John Sherrington as the new archbishop of Liverpool, to happen to Archbishop McMahon, who has bone in office since May 2014.