Pope Leo XIV celebrated a Mass Nov. 3 at the Altar of the Throne in St. Peter’s Basilica in memory of the late Pope Francis and the cardinals and bishops who died in 2025.
In the homily, Pope Leo said that the Mass is offered “with great affection for the elected soul of Pope Francis, who passed after opening the Holy Door and imparting the Easter Blessing to Rome and the world.”
He shared that celebrating this Mass for the first time as Pontiff has a particular tone of Christian hope because 2025 is a Jubilee Year. He said that the Gospel passage about the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) “encapsulates the meaning of this Holy Year.”
#LeoneXIV celebra la Messa in suffragio dei cardinali e vescovi defunti nel corso dell'anno: "Con grande affetto la offriamo per l’anima eletta di #PapaFrancesco, che è
— Vatican News (@vaticannews_it) November 3, 2025
deceduto dopo aver aperto la Porta Santa e impartito a Roma e al mondo la Benedizione pasquale" pic.twitter.com/wSSCFMwlEP
“In it, we find a vivid representation of the pilgrimage of hope, which passes through the encounter with the Risen Christ,” Pope Leo said. “The starting point is the experience of death, and in its worst form: a violent death that kills the innocent and thus leaves us discouraged, disheartened and desperate.”
“How many people – how many ‘little ones’! – even in our times suffer the trauma of this fearful death, disfigured by sin,” he said, adding that God does not want death and sin and sent His Son to free the world from it.
Pope Leo recalled how Christ had to endure these sufferings to enter His glory, as confirmed in Luke 24:26, and to offer eternal life to humanity.
“He alone can bear upon Himself and within Himself this corrupt death without being corrupted by it,” Pope Leo emphasized. “He alone has the words of eternal life (cf. Jn 6:68) – we confess this with trepidation here near the tomb of Saint Peter – and these words have the power to rekindle faith and hope in our hearts.”
When Christ breaks the bread, gives the blessing, and offers it, the eyes of the disciples who walked the Emmaus road are suddenly opened, and they experience a new kind of hope, according to Pope Leo.
“It is no longer the hope they had before, and which they had lost,” Pope Leo said. “It is a new reality, a gift, a grace of the Risen One: it is paschal hope.”
This hope is distinctively Christian, according to the Pontiff.
“Just as the life of the Risen Jesus is no longer what it was before, but is entirely new, created by the Father with the power of the Spirit, so the hope of the Christian is not human hope,” Pope Leo said, “it is neither that of the Greeks nor that of the Jews, it is not based on the wisdom of philosophers or on the justice that comes from the law, but solely and totally on the fact that the Crucified One is risen and appeared to Simon, to the women and to the other disciples.”
He noted that Christians still mourn the death of loved ones and experience distress when someone, especially a child, is killed through violence or illness.
Christians are called to carry these crosses, he said, but “we are not as sad as those who have no hope, because even the most tragic death cannot prevent our Lord from welcoming our soul in His arms and transforming our mortal body, even the most disfigured, in the image of His glorious body.”
#Papa "Siamo addolorati, quando una persona cara ci lascia. Siamo scandalizzati quando un essere umano, specialmente un bambino, un fragile viene strappato via da una malattia o peggio dalla violenza degli uomini. Come cristiani siamo chiamati a portare il peso di queste croci" pic.twitter.com/8nKNR9V0fm
— Vatican News (@vaticannews_it) November 3, 2025
Because of this, Christians call burial places “cemeteries,” a term that stems from the Greek word for “dormitories,” meaning “places where one rests awaiting resurrection,” Pope Leo said.
Pope Francis and the departed clergy “lived, bore witness to and taught this new, paschal hope,” the Pontiff added.
Pope Leo recalled the language of the Book of Daniel, saying that the deceased prelates “‘turned many to righteousness,’” meaning they “led them on the path of the Gospel with the wisdom that comes from Christ.”
“May their souls be washed of every stain and may they shine like stars in heaven,” he concluded. “And may their spiritual encouragement reach us, still pilgrims on earth, in the silence of prayer: ‘Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my help and my God’ (Ps 42: 6, 12).”
