The parish priest at Rye’s Catholic church has been paying tribute to Pope Francis who died on Easter Monday, April 21. His funeral will take place on Saturday.
Father Max McKeown described the Pope as someone who made a big difference to people’s lives. “He was an amazing man and he left the church in a far better place than when he was elected in 2013.”
Speaking at the church of St Anthony of Padua on Watchbell Street in Rye, he said he admired Pope Francis’ dedication to help others. “He was a good Pope, dedicated to humility, obedience to God and to those living in poverty. He was always thinking of the poor with great pastoral concern and he was a environmentalist. He could see how changing ecology affected the less well-off.”
The priest is a Franciscan friar and says he was moved by the Pope’s decision to take the name Francis. “He was a Jesuit but in choosing the name he honoured St Francis. That was very special and showed his commitment to the poor.”
He says the connection also helped in other ways. “St Francis’s message was ‘go and rebuild my church’ which is what the Pope tried to do. His papacy highlighted the world church and increased the following outside of Europe”
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There is now a Book of Remembrance in place at St. Anthony’s – an opportunity for people to express their feelings of loss at his death; to record their impressions of his papacy and to share their comments on the impact he made upon the Catholic Church during his 12 years as the successor of St. Peter.