Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru expressed his deep sadness following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday. He described the late pontiff as someone who “dedicated himself to protecting the environment and promoting peaceful diplomacy with a strong voice supported by approximately 1.4 billion Catholics.” He also paid his “heartfelt respect” for his achievements and called his death “not only a great loss for the people of the Vatican and Catholics, but also for the international community.”
Another leader to pay his respects was former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Posting on X, he commended his Holiness Pope Francis for his achievements and offered his heartfelt condolences. The two men met in 2022 and discussed their common hope for a world free of nuclear weapons. Like Kishida, Hiroshi Suzuki, the Japanese Ambassador to the United Kingdom, posted a picture of himself with the late Pope. He wrote, “His Holiness Pope Francis was a great inspiration. I am saddened with profound grief at His Holiness’s passing away.”
According to the death certificate released by Vatican doctor Andrea Arcangeli, Pope Francis died of a cerebral stroke and irreversible heart failure on Monday. He was 88. A day earlier, he delivered a blessing through an aide to thousands of Easter worshippers in St Peter’s Square. Born Jose Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, he was known as the “People’s Pope.” A former janitor and nightclub bouncer, he welcomed communities that were historically shunned by the church and famously took the bus instead of riding in the chauffeur-driven Vatican car on the way to say mass at the Sistine Chapel.
Pope Francis’ Visit to Japan
In 2019, he became the first Pope to visit Japan since Pope John Paul II in 1981. Delivering speeches in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he called for the elimination of nuclear weapons. “His call for nuclear abolition was inspiring. It’s truly regrettable that someone who worked so hard for peace is now gone,” said Shigemitsu Tanaka, 84, co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo and chair of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council. Kayoko Mori, an 82-year-old Catholic atomic bomb survivor, said listening to the late pope speak made her “feel deeply that he was on our side.”
During his short stay in Japan, Pope Francis also met with victims of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and said mass to around 50,000 people at the Tokyo Dome. “When we rode around the Tokyo Dome in an open car together, I saw in him a pastor filled with love and mercy, waving to everyone with a smile of genuine joy and blessing the children,” said Cardinal Isao Kikuchi, who serves as the archbishop of Tokyo.
Kikuchi, who was appointed to the College of Cardinals last December, first met Pope Francis in May 2013. “It is a great blow to the Church to lose such a strong pastor at this time when we are on the path to the Holy Year,” he said. “I did not expect the Holy Father to go away so fast… I would like to continue to walk the path he showed us, following his example, while finding the role he expects me to play.”
Electing the Next Pope
Pope Francis’s death will be followed by a nine-day mourning period, which is known as Novemdiales. During this period, his funeral — weather permitting — will be held in St. Peter’s Square. He has asked to be laid to rest in Rome’s St. Mary Major Basilica and buried in a simple wooden casket. Between 15 and 20 days after his death, the election of a new Pope will begin.
During the ancient selection process known as the papal conclave, the voting cardinals are cut off from communication with the outside world. It’s held in strict secrecy inside the Sistine Chapel. If white smoke emerges from the chapel, a new Pope has been chosen.
