Pope always asked people to pray for him, Filipino priest recalls
Pope Francis arrives to pay homage at the memorial dedicated to sailors and migrants lost at sea at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille, southern France, on September 22, 2023. Pope Francis heads on September 22, 2023 to Marseille for a two-day visit focused on the Mediterranean and migration, bringing a message of tolerance amid bitter debate over how Europe manages asylum seekers. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — Catholics from all over the world flock to pope’s official apostolic trips, with the belief that having a pontiff intercede for someone’s requests to God—whether it be for physical and spiritual healing, fortune, personal success—would be the strongest prayer one can make.
People see popes to ask for guidance, not to hand out prayers for an already holy man.
But Pope Francis, while he was here in the Philippines in 2015, asked people to pray for him—baffling many Filipinos, according to Catholic priest Francis Lucas.
READ: Pope Francis has died aged 88 – Vatican
What many people did not know, Lucas said, was that Francis, whose visit to the Philippines came less than two years after he assumed papacy, was on the verge of making many radical changes within the Roman Catholic Church.
“I remember in my interviews when the Pope left from the Philippines, one of the things he always said, and ended in his speeches is, please pray for me. And I was asked why he kept on saying that,” Lucas, president of the Catholic Media Network, said in an interview with INQ Today on Monday, after the Pope’s death.
“Because there were a lot of changes […] when the Pope visited us. But you know, we are so forgetful that the changes might just be blown by the wind,” he said.
Lucas said Francis showed extraordinary strength and courage as he was not afraid to visit Leyte—which was battered by Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013—despite another storm looming and bringing strong winds and heavy rains.
“But if we keep on praying for the Pope and what he showed us, his mettle, when he went to Tacloban—imagine a pope wearing a kapote, and taking the risk, amid another very strong and rainy storm,” Lucas said. “In fact the second plane that accompanied him almost did not make it. But he was there.”
“He was blessed by God. Why? Because simply he was stouthearted, to take time to really be with the people, with the people who are suffering from the disaster,” he added.
READ: Pope Francis consoled him in his grief, now he mourns his passing
The Filipino priest also believes God sent Francis to prepare the world, as his papacy coincided with different conflicts and economic woes—noting that Francis was present when the world most needed a voice of reason.
“Well, the way I see it, he must be a preparation for all of us, before the violent things that happened in the world. And he even said before that we have to continuously love, love one another. Because he said that’s the only solution that Christ showed us, love,” Lucas explained.
“And he always mentioned the poor, the oppressed, the injustice that is happening in the world today. And he visited, I think he had something like 47 apostolic visits all over the world. And he was so humble, he showed him humility. The first act that he did was he did not even wear the fancy shoes of a pope, out of respect that we gave the Pope, the special shoes. He just wore his own shoes,” he added.
Tributes from all around the world poured in after Pope Francis died at the Vatican City on Monday morning—just a day after his anticipated return to celebrate Easter Sunday with the Catholic faithful in St. Peter’s Basilica.
READ: Pope Francis delights Easter crowd with surprise popemobile tour
Many observers praised Francis for willing himself out of sickness, after he was hospitalized for 38 days due to recurring respiratory issues. Just a day before his death, Francis attended the Urbi et Orbi, a mass addressed to the world on Easter Sunday.
