Pope Francis remembered for his legacy of service

Leaders and the faithful of the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaiʻi are reflecting on the passing of Pope Francis, who died at 7:35 a.m. April 21 in Rome, late Easter Sunday, Hawaiʻi time. Pope Francis led the Holy Roman Church since 2013. He was 88.

“After many prayers for his recovery, Pope Francis has passed to his eternal rest,” said Bishop Larry Silva of the Diocese of Honolulu. “How blessed is Pope Francis to have died on this Easter week, after dedicating his life and his papacy to proclaiming the Lord Jesus as alive and active in our world!”

“May he be raised up to eternal life with the risen Lord he loved so much. May his apostolic ministry bear much good fruit for generations to come!” Silva said.

“There’s a tremendous sense of gratitude to God that Pope Francis served our Church so well,” said the Rev. Msgr. Terrence Watanabe, Vicar Forane for the Maui Vicariate and pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Wailuku. “Pope Francis was known for listening to the people of God and for reaching out to them in his 12 years as Pontiff through Synods on the Family in October 2014 and 2015 and on Young People in 2018. Pope Francis instituted Synods as a process of continual learning and a reflection of the Church’s mission to be renewed by the Holy Spirit and to journey toward the fulfillment of God’s plan.”

“His model of service to the people of God will be remembered as his legacy, and surely it will help guide the College of Cardinals as they follow the will of the Holy Spirit in choosing our new Pope,” Watanabe said.

Silva added that the first time he saw Pope Francis “in person” was with “about a million other people at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.”

“He was refreshingly down-to-earth in his talks, and he was clearly enjoying every minute of this huge encounter,” Silva recalled.

The bishop also remembered attending, with Vicar General Monsignor Gary Secor, a January 2020 meeting of Region XI Bishops (Hawaiʻi, California and Nevada) for a one-every-five years Ad Limina visit to Rome, “a kind of ‘check in with headquarters’ visit,” he said in an email. “One of the highlights of the visit was an audience with Pope Francis . . . As usual, we spent the first few moments meeting him individually and chatting for a few seconds, while the photographer continually snapped photos. Then the priests and others who accompanied the bishops were politely escorted out, and we bishops sat down in the library of the Apostolic Palace.”

“We expected a short talk from the Pope, maybe a couple of questions, and a blessing after 15 or 20 minutes,” Silva said. “Instead, Pope Francis welcomed us, pointed to one side of the room and said, ‘There is water if you get thirsty;’ and to the other side of the room and said, ‘There’s the restroom.’ Then he said he wanted an informal dialogue with us, and invited us to ask any question we might have, and he would respond. This lasted three hours! We bishops were shocked he gave us so much time and that he spent the time in dialogue. At the end of the three hours, we bishops were exhausted, but Pope Francis seemed fresh as a daisy!”

Gov. Josh Green ordered that the US and Hawaiʻi state flags be flown at half-staff at all state offices and agencies until the date of Pope Francis’ interment to honor his life and legacy.

“Pope Francis was a beacon of compassion, humility and service,” Green said. “His unwavering commitment to the marginalized and his call for global solidarity have left an indelible mark on the world. Hawai‘i joins the global community in mourning his passing and honoring his profound legacy.”



The governor encouraged all Hawaiʻi residents to reflect on Pope Francis’ enduring message of peace, justice and care for the vulnerable.

According to Catholic News Service, US Cardinal Kevin Farrell, chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, officially announced the Pope’s death and said Pope Francis’ life was dedicated to the Lord and his church.

Pope Francis gave new energy to millions of Catholics — and caused concern for some — as he transformed the image of the papacy into a pastoral ministry based on personal encounters and strong convictions about poverty, mission and dialogue, Farrell said.

Vicar General Msgr. Gary Secor of the Diocese of Honolulu said: “I was surprised and saddened by the death of Pope Francis which occurred late this evening/early morning in Rome.”

Noting that the pontiff had appeared in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, the day before his death, to deliver his annual “urbi et orbi” (“to the city and the world”) message, Msgr. Secor said: “It seems that he really desired until the end of his life to fulfill his important duty as the Holy Father and did that with much courage and determination.”

“I know that an essential part of his pontificate was a desire to reach out to people, as he said, ‘on the peripheries of the world,’ and that was certainly something that he did and something that he challenged us to do as a church and for that I am very grateful.”

In response to a question about the selection of a new Pope, Bishop Silva said:

“Even though Pope Francis personally appointed most of the Cardinals who will elect his successor, we know that it is the Holy Spirit who will influence them all, helping them to select the man that God wants to lead his Church as the next Successor of the Apostle Peter. He may be someone very similar to Pope Francis or very different, but we can be confident that he will be the one who is needed at this time to lead the Lord’s beloved flock. Let us pray fervently that the Cardinals will be attentive to the Holy Spirit; and let us pray for the one who will be selected as our next Holy Father!”

Right Rev. Robert Fitzpatrick, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaiʻi, on April 21 offered to Bishop Silva the “prayers of the faithful in the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaiʻi for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, and for our siblings in the Roman Catholic Church.”

A memorial Mass is being planned for Monday, April 28, with the time and location still to be determined, the Diocese of Honolulu announced.

Editor’s note: This post has been updated from an earlier version with an anecdote from Bishop Larry Silva on a meeting with Pope Francis and a group of bishops in 2020; and with his thoughts about the selection of a new Pope.