News from the Episcopal Church
Anglican delegation attends funeral of Pope Francis, reflects on papacy
By ENS Staff
Posted 22 hours ago
Pallbearers carry the coffin at the end of the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square. Vatican city, April 26th, 2025. Photo: Rocco Spaziani/AP
[Episcopal News Service] An Anglican Communion delegation – representing Anglicans worldwide and offering their prayers and condolences – were among the more than 250,000 mourners from over 160 nations who attended the April 26 funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.
The pope, who led the Roman Catholic Church and its 1.3 billion members worldwide since 2013, died the morning of April 21, Easter Monday, at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta after suffering a cerebral stroke, followed by a coma and irreversible heart failure. He was 88.
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, one of the 10 Anglican delegates, wrote on his X account, formerly known as Twitter, that it was a “privilege” to attend Francis’ funeral “as we commend his spirit into the hands of our loving & merciful God.”
“As we mourn with our Roman Catholic sisters & brothers, we give thanks for the life of this faithful servant of Jesus Christ,” said Cottrell, who also currently serves as primate of England.
Archbishop of Brazil Marinez Bassotto, regional primate for the Americas, led the delegation, which consisted of senior clergy and lay leaders, including those who lead ecumenical work between Anglicans and Catholics. Anglicans in Italy, including those who lead the two Anglican parishes in Rome – All Saints’ Anglican Church and St. Paul’s Within-the-Walls Episcopal Church – were also in attendance.
On April 25, the delegation prayed beside the late pontiff as his body lay in state at St. Peter’s.
“We were in prayer for his life because he is a symbol of the unity, the peace and the compassion of God with the people,” said Bassotto, who serves on the Anglican Communion’s five-person Primates’ Standing Committee, in a video reflection on the Anglican Communion’s Facebook page.
Bassotto is also involved with the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, which is co-chaired by former Archbishop of Melbourne Philip Freier and Europe Bishop Robert Innes. Freire and Innes were both among the Anglican Communion delegates at Francis’ funeral.
It was a “deeply moving experience to see so many people from all over the world paying their respects,” Innes said in a video reflection shared on the communion’s Facebook page. “I was struck by the degree to which one man could be the focus of so much hope and could be the bearer of so much good.”
Francis, a Jesuit born Dec. 17, 1936, as Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was known for his humility and for standing with people living outside the mainstream – those excluded from social, economic and political systems, including the poor and migrants – as well as for his steadfast commitment to the environment. When Bergoglio was elected to the papacy on March 13, 2013, he chose to be called Francis, the first pontiff to take his papal name from St. Francis of Assisi, who dedicated his life to piety, the poor and rebuilding the church.
Throughout his papacy, Francis decried the conditions migrants flee and their suffering, and he criticized the world’s lack of response and indifference. He also increased leadership roles for Catholic women in the Roman Curia and worked to normalize the acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics.
“What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of our world,” Francis wrote in his final Urbi et Orbi (“to the city and to the world”) message. Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations and head of the Pontifical Sistine Chapel Choir, read the speech out loud on Easter Sunday, April 20, as the pope sat on the balcony of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter in what would be his final public appearance. “How much violence we see, often even within families, directed at women and children! How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!”
After the funeral Mass, 40 people from marginalized communities – including people who are migrants, homeless, incarcerated, transgender and children – greeted the beloved late pope with white roses on the steps of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, where he was buried. The symbolic gesture, that the “last” of society would be the last to say goodbye to Francis before his burial, aligned with his commitment to advocate for the poor and the marginalized.
“[Pope Francis] clearly was a man that has impacted people so significantly at the marginalized for the dispossessed,” London Bishop Sarah Mullally said in a video reflection posted to the communion’s Facebook page. Mullally, who also serves as dean of the province of Canterbury, said she was “struck by the solemnity that was there and peace” when she and fellow Anglican delegates prayed for the pope as he laid in state.
The Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, secretary general of the Anglican Communion and a delegate, said in a video reflection that praying for Francis and the Catholic Church was “a significant moment showing to us, as Anglicans, that we are indeed brothers and sisters in Christ … to stand in solidarity with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters.” He also said that seeing the pope’s body lying in state was a reminder that “as human beings, death is inevitable.”
“It was a reminder of the importance of us doing what we can to serve God during our time,” Poggo said. “Pope Francis, during his time, served God faithfully to place an emphasis on the importance of the poor, the marginalized and also the importance of working together.”
Other Anglican delegates at Francis’ funeral included Archbishop Hosam Naoum, who leads the Anglican province known as the Episcopal Church in the Middle East and Jerusalem, which includes the Diocese of Jerusalem; the Rt. Rev. Anthony Ball, director of the Anglican Centre in Rome and the archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See; Maggie Swinson, chair of the Anglican Consultative Council; and Christopher Wells, the Anglican Communion Office’s director of unity, faith and order.
A papal conclave will convene on May 7 in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City to elect the next pope to succeed Francis.