Franciscan General, Curia, Rome - 21 April 2025
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
May the Lord give you peace!
As I write to you all, my heart is filled with emotion and gratitude as the Church and the whole world mourn the death of Pope Francis, the first Pontiff to choose the name of our Seraphic Father. This choice, made on the evening of his election, revealed the direction of his pontificate from its very first moments; an ever-new return to evangelical simplicity, a Church that is close to the poor, and the primacy of mercy and of encounter with every human person.
Recent times have seen Pope Francis visited by serious “infirmity and tribulation” which have given us the opportunity to see how a Christian and a pastor meets “Sister Death.” This is a very precious testimony in a time of superficiality that tends to deny illness and death, and we are also grateful to him for his patience and for his praise of the Most High and Good Lord in all he endured.
A prophetic name that became his programme
We all remember the words with which Pope Francis explained his choice of name: “Francis, the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and cares for creation,” and throughout his Petrine ministry this threefold dimension was continuously expressed. His choice of name was not a simple homage to St Francis of Assisi, but an actual programme for his life and his pontificate — a return to the marrow of the Gospel that so characterised the path of the Poverello.
The Gospel sine glossa
At the heart of Pope Francis’ words and actions was an immediate and direct reading of the Gospel — the self-same approach that prompted Francis of Assisi to say: “This is what I want, this is what I desire, this with all my heart I long to do!” In the Holy Father, we saw that same ability to grasp the essence of the Gospel proclamation, without overly focussing on structures, without compromising with worldly ways of thinking, and with an immediacy that struck people’s hearts directly.
Ignatian spirituality, in which the Pope was formed, was admirably intertwined with a Franciscan sensitivity in his contemplative attitude towards the Word of God, in his ability to ‘see and touch’ the flesh of Christ in the poor and suffering of all kinds, in his constant search for God’s will through discernment.
A magisterium with Franciscan roots
Pope Francis’ magisterium has been nurtured by numerous Franciscan insights, which he expanded and re-actualised for our time. The two Encyclical Letters with explicitly Franciscan titles, Laudato Si’ and Fratelli tutti, are the most complete expression of this, but the entire corpus of his teachings is permeated by this sensitivity.
In Laudato Si’, the Pope took up the cosmic and relational vision of the Canticle of the Creatures, where Francis of Assisi recognises fraternity between all created things, calling them ‘sisters’ and ‘brothers’. He developed this vision into an integral ecology, which recognises the profound interconnection between the natural environment, human society, and the spiritual dimension. The repeated phrase in the encyclical, ‘everything is connected,’ echoes the ‘everything is relationship’ that was the Poverello’s stance towards creation. The apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia also continues this approach, extending Franciscan concern for creatures to the defence of indigenous cultures and their territories.
In Fratelli tutti, the Pope drew on Francis’ experience with the Sultan, proposing “social friendship” as a paradigm for our time — an ‘unarmed’ encounter with the other, and the ability to recognise brothers and sisters beyond any religious or cultural barriers. But he also took up Francis’ intuition on universal brotherhood and sisterhood, on justice as a dimension of love, and on the reconciliation that comes through minority. The ‘Good Samaritan’ of this encyclical reminds us of Francis embracing the leper, recognising in him not just a brother, but the suffering Christ.
In other letters too, such as Evangelii Gaudium and Gaudete et Exsultate, we find profoundly Franciscan themes: the joy that comes from the encounter with the Gospel; simplicity as the path to holiness; mercy as the name of God; and preference for the poor as the criterion of evangelical truth. Even the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia recalls that dimension of true, tender, and concrete love that characterised Francis in his relationship with each person.
Moreover, we cannot forget how the Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Misericordiae Vultus, brings to mind the experience of Francis who in the encounter with the leper discovers the merciful face of God. Or how the letter Admirabile signum on the meaning of the nativity scene recalls Christmas at Greccio, where Francis wanted to “see with the eyes of the body” the poverty and humility of the Incarnation.
All of this magisterium translates into a vision of the Church that reminds us of the primitive Franciscan fraternity: a Church that goes out, and is not self-focussed; is poor itself and is on the side of the poor; that seeks to restore the dignity of the rejected; that becomes a ‘field hospital’ to heal the wounds of humanityroots rather than a fortress entrenched in its own security. We might say that the vision of the Church as the pilgrim people of God in history, which matured with the Second Vatican Council, found in our late Holy Father a witness and a convinced and courageous architect.
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The life and magisterium of Pope Francis represent for us Franciscans a powerful call to rediscover what is essential to our charism, to return to the heart of the Gospel, to more authentically live our vocation to be brothers and sisters and lesser ones.
His example invites us to continual conversion; to step out of our security to reach out to others, especially the poorest; to embrace with courage the challenges of our time; to be promoters of peace in a wounded world; to cherish creation as our common home. 6 Pope Francis - A magisterium with Franciscan roots.
At this time of sorrow, but also of profound gratitude, let us take up this spiritual inheritance handed on to us, committing ourselves to live it with renewed zeal in our fraternities and ministries.
At we entrust the soul of Pope Francis to the Father’s mercy, we cannot forget another fundamental characteristic that unites the Pontiff and the Saint of Assisi — their filial love for the Virgin Mary. Like Francis, who hailed her as the ‘Virgin made Church’ and the ‘Palace, Tabernacle, and Dwelling Place’ of the Lord, Pope Francis also showed a tender devotion to her who “made our brother the Lord of majesty” (St. Bonaventure, Major Legend 3).
In his ministry, the Pope constantly recalled Mary’s centrality in salvation history, not as a supplementary figure, but as an active protagonist in the divine plan. He has made pilgrimages to many Marian shrines — from the first day of his pontificate when he went to St. Mary Major, to visits to Fatima, Loreto, Aparecida, and many other Marian shrines around the world.
His prayer at the icon of Mary ‘Salus Populi Romani’ before and after each of his apostolic journeys brings to mind the gesture of St Francis who, before his death, wanted to be taken to St Mary of the Angels. In both hearts, a total trust in the Blessed Mother beats strongly — something that characterises our most authentic saints.
Pope Francis has often stressed how the synthesis of what we are called to be as Church is found in Mary: welcoming, generative, contemplative, missionary. His exhortation to be a ‘Church that goes out’ resonates like an echo of the ‘Magnificat’, where Mary, after welcoming the Word, “got up and went in haste” to bring Jesus to Elizabeth. This missionary dynamism of Mary is also that which Francis of Assisi embodied in his itinerant life and which the Pope proposed as a model for the Church of our time.
Pope Francis’ Mariology, like that of the Poverello, is never disembodied or sentimental, but profoundly Christocentric and ecclesial. Mary is the ‘first disciple’, she who keeps the Word and walks in faith. She is the ‘Mother of the Church’ who, suffering at the foot of the Cross, continually generates new children. She is the ‘Star of Evangelisation’ who guides our steps in proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
As we entrust the entire life and apostolic work of Pope Francis to the Father’s mercy, let us ask the Lord, through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, Queen of the Order, and that of our Seraphic Father, that he raise up in his Church shepherds after his own heart, capable of guiding the people of God with the same evangelical wisdom, with the same compassion for the suffering, with the same passionate love for Christ that we have seen shine in this great Pontiff.
With seraphic blessing,
Br. Massimo Fusarelli, OFM,
Minister General
Read the full Letter at www.ofm.org
