Los Angeles-area worshippers and professionals who are mourning the death of Pope Francis share why he was a progressive leader who will be missed. Ted Chen reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
What to Know
- Southern Californians will join Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez for a memorial Mass Friday in memory of Pope Francis.
- The 12:10 p.m. Mass at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles will come ahead of Pope Francis' funeral Saturday in Rome.
- Friday’s mass will be livestreamed on @LaCatholics and OLACathedral Facebook channels.
A memorial Mass to honor the life and ministry of Pope Francis will be held Friday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in downtown Los Angeles
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WATCH HEREThe special service will be held at 12:10 p.m. by Archbishop José H. Gomez, who will be joined by Auxiliary bishops and clergy of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
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SIGN UP Friday's mass will be in anticipation of Pope Francis’ funeral, which is scheduled for Saturday at St. Peter’s Square at 10 a.m. local time (1 a.m. PT). The Holy Father will then be laid to rest at the Basilica of Santa Maggiore in Rome.
Pope Francis died on Monday evening at the age of 88 of a stroke and heart failure, the Vatican said. The pope made his last appearance on Sunday at St. Peter’s, where he blessed the crowds outside St. Peter’s Square.
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.
"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,” said Bishop Gomez in a statement released Monday.
Friday’s mass will be livestreamed on @LaCatholics and OLACathedral Facebook channels.
