Cardinal Fernández: Pope Francis was a tireless worker

By Jean-Benoît Harel 

On Thursday 1 May, which is a public holiday in the Vatican as in many countries around the world, the College of Cardinals did not hold a General Congregation to prepare for the conclave.

Many members, however, did gather in St Peter's Basilica for the sixth mass of the Novemdiales, the period of mourning for the late Pope Francis.

The celebration was presided over by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, a good friend of the late Pope’s who served under him as Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Fernández began his homily by saying that since his death, Pope Francis had become ‘fully united with Christ’.

Dignity through work

1 May is also International Workers’ Day, stressed the Argentine cardinal, who said that, for the late Pope “work expresses and nourishes the dignity of the human being”.

“It allows us to develop our abilities, it helps us to grow in our relationships, it allows us to feel that we are God's collaborators in caring for and improving this world”, said Cardinal Fernández .

Promoting human dignity means enabling people to “develop all the good they have within them, to earn their living with the gifts God has given them, to develop their abilities”, he added.

The false idea of ‘meritocracy’

Fernández went on to explain Pope Francis’ criticism of meritocracy, which leads to “thinking that only those who succeed in life have merit”.

The Argentinian Cardinal told the story of a man he knew in Buenos Aires who worked between 12 and 15 hours a day, choosing not to see his children in order make enough money to feed them. Once, Cardinal Fernández said, a well-dressed passer-by shouted at him: “Go and work, lazybones”.

"These words struck me as horribly cruel and vain”, said Cardinal Fernández. “But they are also present in other, more elegant speeches”.

In today's world, “it seems that someone who has inherited a lot of property is more worthy than someone who has worked hard all their life without being able to save”, he stressed, before asking: "Don't the weak have the same dignity as us? Do those born with fewer opportunities simply have to survive?"

Pope Francis, a tireless worker

Cardinal Fernández then turned to consider the example of Pope Francis as a worker. “He worked not only in the mornings, with meetings, audiences, celebrations and gatherings, but also all afternoon”, he recalled, adding that, only four days before his death, very weak, he had insisted on visiting a prison.

The Holy Father rarely took any time off. A habit he already had in Buenos Aires, recalled Cardinal Fernandez: “he never went out to restaurants, the theatre, for a walk or to see a film, he never took a full day off”.

For Francis, Fernández continued, “his daily work was his response to God's love”.

Entrusting the Pope to Saint Joseph

The members of the Curia are also workers, Fernández highlighted: “work is also for us, in the Curia, a path of maturation and fulfilment as Christians".

In conclusion, the Argentine cardinal recalled that, whenever Pope Francis was worried, “he would place a piece of paper with a supplication under the icon of Saint Joseph”.

It is to saint, who worked so hard to take care of Mary and Jesus, Cardinal Fernández said, that we now pray: “Let us ask him to embrace our dear Pope Francis in heaven”.