By Deutsche Welle
Pope Leo XIV remembered this Monday with “particular affection” the figure of his predecessor, Pope Franciswho died last Easter Monday, a day that in 2025 coincided with April 21.
Before praying the Regina Coeli, the Marian prayer that replaces the Angelus during the Easter season, the Supreme Pontiff highlighted the “testimony of faith and love” of the Argentine pope.
“With particular affection, in the light of the Risen Lord, Today we remember Pope Francis, who precisely on Easter Monday last year gave his life to the Lord“, said Leo XIV from the window of the Apostolic Palace to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, in the Vatican.
Pope Francis died at the age of 88 in his Casa Santa Marta residence, just a few hours after his last public appearance on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to give the blessing. urbi et orbi (to the city and the world).
Francis had participated in a very limited way in the rites of Holy Week in 2025 after a 38-day hospitalization for bilateral pneumonia.
