UN secretary-general pays tribute to late Pope Francis

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent condolences upon the passing of Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis, the first pope from Latin America in the Roman Catholic Church, has died aged 88. He passed after mourning a stroke and following irreversible heart failure, the Vatican remarks in a release.

“I associate myself with the world’s sadness at the death of His Holiness Pope Francis, an apostle of hope, humility and humanity,” said Guterres in a statement. He termed Pope Francis a “trascendent voice for peace, human dignity and social justice” by citing his sympathy for victims of conflict and poverty.

Terming him “a man of faith for all faiths,” the Secretary-General said the pope served across lines to foster unity and understanding.

General recalled the Pope’s expression of the organization’s pursuit of a “united human family” when he paid for his historic visit to UN Headquarters in New York in 2015.

Pope Francis also understood that the protection of our common home is, by its very nature, a deeply ethical endeavor and calling entrusted to all humanity,” noted he, recalling that his second Encyclical – Laudato Si – was a critical intake to the international mobilisation that pinnacled in the Paris deal on climate change.

Pope Francis once said:

“The future of humankind isn’t exclusively in the hands of politicians, of great leaders, of big companies…[it] is, most of all, in the hands of those people who recognize the other as a ‘you’ and themselves as part of an ‘us,’”

he also said.

During his September 2015 visit to the UN, Pope Francis gave a sweeping speech to leaders assembled in the General Assembly Hall to approve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

He called on the world to act to save the environment and bring an end to the suffering of “vast ranks of the excluded.”  He also indicated that the UN can be improved and can “be the pledge of a secure and comfortable future for forthcoming generations.”.

The juridical international framework of the United Nations and of all its activities, like any other human enterprise, can be perfected, but it is still needed,” he stated. The pope had been hospitalized in Rome during February with bronchitis that developed into bilateral pneumonia. He was released after 38 days and went back to his Vatican residence.