Parishioners, visitors gather at cathedral to remember Pope Francis

Catholics gathered at Holy Name Cathedral and in their local parishes April 21 after learning of the death of Pope Francis early that morning.

“Thank you for gathering with us today,” said Father Joseph Tito, associate pastor of the cathedral parish, at the opening of the noon Mass that day. “When someone dies, that’s what we do. We gather. We go to the house. We bring food.”

Most Catholics never had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis in person, Tito said, but still felt close to him.

“He was family,” Tito said. “He was like our earthly grandfather.”

Workers were hanging black bunting over the cathedral doors as the noon bells rang and Mass began.

After Mass, Tito stood in the cold wind that made the bunting billow and offered words of comfort and blessings to the people who had come to Mass.

“I had to come,” said Rita DeLaPeña. “He was so holy. He was holy and he was with the world, with the people. He knew how to be with people.”

Holy Name Cathedral parishioner Bob Larson said he came into full communion with the Catholic Church two years ago, so he has never experienced the death of the pope as a Catholic until now.

“It’s sad,” he said. “Sad, but good, too, that it happened at Easter.”

Several people noted that Pope Francis had given his “urbi et orbi” (“to the city and the world”) blessing on Easter, although he had his master of liturgical ceremonies read his prepared message, and he appeared in St. Peter’s Square in the popemobile.

“We knew he wasn’t well,” said Mary Wilkinson, a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glenview who often attends Mass at Holy Name Cathedral. “But we all saw him yesterday. He was such a good, caring man, for everyone. He included everyone.”

John Neligan, visiting from County Kerry, Ireland, said he attended Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Name Cathedral, and decided to return the following day to pay his respects to the late pope.

“He was always kind, certainly not aloof,” Neligan said. “He spoke for the people, for the poor people, in ways other popes didn’t.”

In his homily, Tito reminded the congregation that pope throughout his pontificate emphasized mercy and joy.

Dying the day after Easter Sunday, in the midst of Easter joy, was “typical Francis,” Tito said. “Putting a big exclamation point on it.”

“There’s a joy to becoming the type of person Pope Francis wanted us to be,” he said.

It was also appropriate that Pope Francis passed during the Divine Mercy novena, Tito said, especially on the day set aside to pray for those who do not yet know Jesus.

“He was their pope, too,” he said. “He was always going out to the margins, out to the peripheries, going beyond the boundaries, because that’s what Jesus did.”

Later in the day, the Shrine of Our Lady in Guadalupe planned a Holy Hour to pray for the repose of Pope Francis, and to remember him, while many parishes scheduled Masses throughout the week.