Catholics around the world are mourning the death of Pope Francis, including worshippers in Los Angeles. Ted Chen reports for the NBC4 News at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 21, 2025.
Archbishop José H. Gomez joined Catholics in Los Angeles and around the world Monday in mourning Pope Francis, who died at age 88.
Gomez will honor Pope Francis in the 12:10 p.m. Mass Monday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The Archbishop issued a statement, calling the beloved Pope and towering world figure a man of "many kindnesses and expressions of pastoral care for us here in Los Angeles."
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Gomez said, in part, "In this time of mourning, my prayer is that all of us in the Church will honor Pope Francis’ legacy by remembering that he called us to urgent tasks that are still not finished: We must continue our work of serving the poor, the migrant, and all who are forgotten on society’s 'peripheries.'
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SIGN UP "We must persevere in caring for our common home, which is the earth, and in building a world that respects the sanctity and dignity of all human life and the Creator’s desire that we live in peace and fraternity as one human family.
"And we must evangelize, spreading the joy of the Gospel as missionary disciples, accompanying our brothers and sisters and helping them to find in Jesus the happiness and love that every human heart longs for.
"Above all, we must deepen our own love for Jesus and our commitment to seeking his holiness and reflecting his mercy and love in our daily lives."
Gomez added that he will be spending the next few days reflecting with gratitude.
Pope Francis appointed nine auxiliary bishops to assist Gomez. As of 2005, the Roman Catholic population with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which includes Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, was 4.3 million. There are 288 parishes located in 120 cities in the Archdiocese.
The Archbishop said Pope Francis was "always quick to show his spiritual closeness to us in our times of need." In January, Gomez said Francis offered prayers and words of consolation as Los Angeles faced the destruction caused by the wildfires in the Palisades and Altadena.
Francis referred to the wildfires in weekly general audience and invoked Our Lady of Guadalupe, revered by many Latino Catholics.
“My heart is with the people of Los Angeles who are suffering so much as a result of the fires that have devastated entire neighborhoods and communities,” Francis said. “May Our Lady of Guadalupe intercede for everyone to be a witness of hope.”
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, said in an announcement that Pope Francis died at 7:35 Vatican time. Many in Los Angeles woke up to news of Pope Francis' death just hours he last appeared in public on Sunday with an Easter morning blessing and popemobile tour through a crowd of cheering thousands in St. Peter’s Square.
Francis was diagnosed with chronic lung disease and had part of a lung removed when he was younger. He was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 for a respiratory episode that developed into double pneumonia. He spent 38 days in the hospital.
He served as pope for 12 years and set a different tone for the papacy, focusing on humility for a Catholic Church facing scandals and accusations of indifference. The Argentine-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope on March 13, 2013, and succeeded Pope Benedict XVI, whose surprise resignation led to
Francis' election.
Francis reached out to the LGBTQ+ community and cracked down on traditionalists, which created tension with conservatives in the Catholic Church.
He was pope during the coronavirus pandemic and asked his followers to use it as an opportunity to review the economic and political framework that he said was turning the wealthy against the impoverished.
"We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented," Francis told an empty St. Peter's Square in March 2020. Part of his message included stressing the need for "all of us to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other."
Full statement from Los Angeles Archbishop Gomez
Statement on the Death of the Holy Father Pope Francis
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
April 21, 2025
I join the family of God here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and Catholics all over the world, in grieving the loss of our Holy Father.
In this beautiful Easter season, when we celebrate our hope in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we pray that the angels may lead Pope Francis into paradise, that the saints and martyrs welcome him, and that God in his mercy will make his face shine upon his faithful servant and grant him eternal rest in the love that never ends.
There will be more to say in the days ahead, but in this moment I find myself reflecting with gratitude on the Holy Father’s many kindnesses and expressions of pastoral care for us here in Los Angeles.
Over the years, he appointed nine auxiliary bishops to assist me in serving the family of God and he was always quick to show his spiritual closeness to us in our times of need. It was just in January that he offered prayers and words of consolation as we faced the destruction caused by the wildfires in the Palisades and Altadena. I will never forget his fraternal comfort as we mourned the sudden taking of our beloved Bishop David O’Connell in 2023.
In this time of mourning, my prayer is that all of us in the Church will honor Pope Francis’ legacy by remembering that he called us to urgent tasks that are still not finished:
We must continue our work of serving the poor, the migrant, and all who are forgotten on society’s “peripheries.”
We must persevere in caring for our common home, which is the earth, and in building a world that respects the sanctity and dignity of all human life and the Creator’s desire that we live in peace and fraternity as one human family.
And we must evangelize, spreading the joy of the Gospel as missionary disciples, accompanying our brothers and sisters and helping them to find in Jesus the happiness and love that every human heart longs for.
Above all, we must deepen our own love for Jesus and our commitment to seeking his holiness and reflecting his mercy and love in our daily lives.
Pope Francis showed us, by his constant example, that we should have a great devotion to the Virgin Mary, who is our Blessed Mother and the Mother of the Church.
We turn to Holy Mary now, and we ask for her protection and tender care. May she wrap our Holy Father in the mantle of her love. And may he rest in peace.
