Cardinal Mentions Pope’s Desire To Hyd Archdiocese
Hyderabad:Catholic churches and institutions across Hyderabad held special requiem Masses on Monday evening, while Cardinal Poola Anthony — currently travelling from Kurnool to the city — formally declared an official mourning period for all archdiocesan offices and schools.
Speaking over phone to this newspaper, the Cardinal called Pope Francis “a prophet of mercy and an apostle to the margins,” adding: “His pontificate was a living gospel — reaching the peripheries, championing the poor and reminding the Church it must be a field hospital, not a fortress.”
Cardinal Anthony noted that Francis personally elevated Hyderabad to the College of Cardinals in 2022 and had “dreamed of a Church that is poor and for the poor.”
The Catholic community is in mourning following the death of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit and first Latin-American pontiff, who passed away at 7.35 am, Vatican time on Monday, according to the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI).
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy expressed “profound shock and sorrow,” praising the pontiff’s advocacy for social justice, climate action and interfaith harmony. Union minister G. Kishan Reddy said the Pope’s teachings on “peace, love and compassion will forever be remembered.”
Fr Victor Emmanuel, procurator of the Archdiocese, said Pope Francis’s choice of name reflected “his Assisi like simplicity and deep longing for peace,” while Fr Dr Swarna Bernard — who met the Pope in 2014 — called his death “a great loss for the downtrodden and for world moral leadership.”
Under Pope Francis, the Vatican recently appointed Paul Prakash Saginala as bishop of Kadapa, one of many Telugu-speaking bishops elevated during his papacy.
Further memorial services are planned across Telangana this week, with church bells to toll daily at noon until the Pope’s state funeral in Rome.
