Holy See Observer to UN: Pope Francis brought us together as ‘Fratelli tutti'

By Marie Duhamel and Linda Bordoni 

Recalling the special commemoration at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, during which UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, upheld Pope Francis for always being “A voice of peace in a world of war.”

Speaking to Vatican Radio, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Holy See‘s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York, said participation to the ceremony in tribute to Pope Francis was deeply felt.

He explained that throughout the world, following the death of Pope Francis, at all United Nations offices, the flag was flown at half mast in a sign of respect and solidarity.

He commented on participation at the special commemoration in which all the member states were represented with a unanimous expression of condolences.

“They paid homage to this great figure of Pope Francis, so beloved because he was, as they said in many interventions, the people’s Pope, close to every person,” he said.

A father for all

They felt, he continued,  “that they have lost somebody who, for sure, belongs to the Catholic community, to the Holy See, but in a sense was a father, a familiar figure for all people of all faiths, of all languages, of all cultures.”

Archbishop Caccia also noted that the late Pope’s appeal for unity and fraternity, as expressed in the encyclical Fratelli tutti was realised in a way, “in this particular moment, in which we felt very much united at the United Nations: There was a big consensus about the words and the deeds of Pope Francis.”

“And that was amazing,” he concluded: “Just as  we have seen  at the funeral in Rome - all the world was there and all the world was embraced by the Bernini colonnade;  but it also was embraced by the Catholic Church and for sure it was embraced by Pope Francis himself from up in heaven.”