Sadness and disbelief in the Roman Catholic Church in our province. Pope Franciscus died on Monday morning. He turned 88. With the diocese of Den Bosch they can hardly believe it. “It is a sad day, I am very shocked,” says Bisschop de Korte of the diocese in Den Bosch.
The pope died Monday morning, Easter Monday, at half past seven. He was recovering from a double pneumonia.
Bishop Gerard de Korte of the diocese in Den Bosch was told the news not much later. “I was very shocked. The pope was vulnerable and weak, but yesterday, during Easter Day, he gave his blessing, Urbi et Orbi,. Now he has died very suddenly.”
“Everyone had to feel welcome in the church.”
The pope led the Catholic Church in the last twelve years. “His death does something to me personally.” He has always had a lot of admiration for Pope Francis. “He thought the church should be there for everyone. Everyone had to feel welcome. He also wanted to be in contact with modern people. His hospitality signed him.”
De Korte is special that he now dies at Easter. “It is the resurrection of Christ. Now he is at home with Christ. That gives me comfort and encouragement.”
De Korte met the pope three times, last in 2022. “It was very impressive. The conversation took an hour and a half. It was all very fraternally.”
“It looks like a script of a play.”
Theologian and professor at Tilburg University Paul van Geest has been overwhelmed by the death of Pope Francis. “It seems like the script of a play that he dies the day after the Urbi et Orbi is die.” From Rome ‘people react very emotionally’ to the death, sees Van Geest, ‘much more than with the previous pope’.
That is according to the theologian because Francis ‘spoke much more to the heart, he was a real people person’. That noticed both people who looked at him from a square and whom he ‘even spoke for a few minutes’. Van Geest met Francis several times and is a member of the Papal Theological Academy, an advisory body of the Pope. “He was merciful, involved, could get angry and was impatient,” he recalls, but “everyone felt” that he “spoke to the heart.”
“Next Pope can come from Asia or Africa.”
Pope Francis had “the genuine endeavor to make the church more credible,” says the professor. “And you do that by having your affairs in order: being transparent about the finances. The abuse issues seriously undermined credibility, and with a zerotolerance policy he wanted to prevent the tolerance.”
If after the first shock and media attention ‘a bit quieter’, Van Geest also expects to ‘react emotionally to this’. On Tuesday he would already go to Rome, but even if his appointments no longer continue, he thinks he is flying back and forth for a day ‘to taste the atmosphere there. ”
Vatican City loves mourning for several days after the death of the 88-year-old Pope Francis. However, speculating about the new pope can already start again. According to De Korte we do not have to count on a Dutch pope. “It can be someone from Asia or Africa to show that we are a world church. But maybe it will also be someone from Italy. It all remains speculation.”
The white smoke, it will often be about that in the coming days. But before the time comes, it will first be stroked and saying goodbye to Pope Francis. De Korte: “I am now going to the cathedral to pray for him.”
The diocese of Breda has not yet been able to respond to the death of the pope.