Our next item of business is a motion of condolence in the name of the First Minister. On behalf of all members and staff of the Scottish Parliament, I extend my deepest sympathy to the Roman Catholic community in Scotland and worldwide on the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis. We will remember his compassion and humanity, which have been at the very heart of the many tributes to him. As a mark of our respect, our flags fly at half mast today.
I am honoured to welcome to the gallery Monsignor Jeremy Milne, Vicar General for the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh; the Right Rev Dr Shaw James Paterson, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; Rabbi Moshe Rubin, Senior Rabbi in Scotland; and Imam Fakhar Aftab of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Scotland.
14:05
On behalf of the people of Scotland, I express my sadness at the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday. His loss will be felt most acutely in the Roman Catholic community here in Scotland and abroad, but his loss will be mourned by countless others who admired, respected and were inspired by the humble, kind and empathetic spiritual leadership that he gave to the world.
Pope Francis brought simplicity and humility to the papacy—he was a gentle spirit who preferred to receive people informally, and always with grace. In deeds and in words, he took forward his leadership of the Catholic church in a manner that was thoughtful, measured and conciliatory. His Holiness’s belief in the goodness of people was as unshakeable as his devotion to the church, and his papacy was defined by the message of Jesus Christ to love your neighbour as yourself.
As the first Pope from Latin America, he sought to build new bridges between nations and faiths. He spoke warmly to advocate for greater inclusivity, both within the church and throughout society. Pope Francis spoke loudly in calling for peace and human dignity around the world. In his final public address, held this Easter Sunday at the Vatican, he used these words:
“What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of our world ... I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves”.
Pope Francis was a man who was always on the side of the poor and the migrant. He was always on the side of those who faced injustice. He had a thirst to use the power of Christian teaching to advocate for those who required a message of justice and the protection of the message of justice. He regularly called for an end to bigotry and conflict.
Above all, Pope Francis worked to bring people together across what often seemed like insurmountable divides. His Holiness was particularly outspoken about the trauma experienced recently by the people of Ukraine and Gaza, while equally condemning the growing climate of antisemitism throughout the world. In 2014, at a prayer meeting held at the Vatican, Pope Francis urged the then President of Israel, Shimon Peres, and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas to be courageous in the pursuit of peace in the middle east.
Despite the weight of his office, and often when he was in poor health, the Pope built friendships and connections to try to bring people together. In recent years, his faithfulness in keeping in contact with Christians in Gaza has illustrated the devotion of his leadership to all congregations, especially those who were suffering.
I express my own gratitude for Pope Francis’s lifetime of faithful devotion and dedicated public service. He was always on the side of the poor and those who faced injustice, and he used his position of leadership to work for a better world. That leadership has been a powerful example to me and to millions around the globe. We are profoundly grateful for his life and his example of principled spiritual leadership in our world today.
In drawing my remarks to a close, I wish to conclude with some words from Pope Francis’s final address on Sunday:
“There can be no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and respect for the views of others ... The light of Easter impels us to break down the barriers that create division and are fraught with grave political and economic consequences. It impels us to care for one another, to increase our mutual solidarity, and to work for the integral development of each human person.”
There could be no finer words to have left the world with, given the challenges and the difficulties that we face as a society today, than the words that Pope Francis left us with on Easter Sunday. They are a mark of the power of his spiritual leadership, and his is an example that we would be well advised to follow.
I move,
That the Parliament expresses its deep sadness at the death of Pope Francis; conveys its condolences to all those in the Roman Catholic community in Scotland and beyond; affirms the affection in which His Holiness was held by people across the world, and expresses gratitude for his lifetime of devotion and dedicated public service.
14:10
As the world mourns His Holiness Pope Francis, I am honoured to have the opportunity to pay tribute to him here today. Pope Francis was a champion of compassion within the church. He was elected to the papacy at a time of huge challenges and controversy for the Catholic faith. Ultimately, however, his time was marked not by those difficulties but by the true love of humanity, with all its flaws and strengths, that he brought to his office.
Pope Francis stood for the downtrodden, the vulnerable, the poor and all those who, for a long time, were not sure whether they were really welcome in church. His accepting, generous spirit reached out to Catholics like me around the world. His famous words “Who am I to judge?” marked the start of a shift in how the Catholic church approached homosexuality, but they also perfectly captured Pope Francis’s humility and compassion for others. That message meant so much to me, as a gay woman, and many others.
However, Pope Francis was not just a champion for those of Catholic faith. His message was one of acceptance and solidarity between people of all faiths. Right up until the final days of his life, he was preaching that message of acceptance and peace and praying for an end to conflicts around the globe, including in his Easter blessing on Sunday, just the day before his death. Although he was not able to deliver his full blessing himself, he still appeared in Rome to wish us all a happy Easter just two days ago, showing astounding dedication to public service even when gravely ill. He demonstrated how all of us can continue to make a difference right until the end, and he left us with the words
“May the principle of humanity never fail to be the hallmark of our daily actions”,
reminding us of the value of every human life and the importance of loving our neighbour.
Pope Francis was a pope who reached out to people across the world, who gave the church a human face and personal touch, and who focused on humanity as well as divinity. His passing will be mourned for a long time by those of many different faiths, but his legacy can be celebrated as one of compassion and peace.
14:13
On behalf of the Scottish Labour Party, I put on the record our deep sorrow on the death of His Holiness Pope Francis. The death of the Holy Father will come as a source of mourning and reflection for Catholics in Scotland and around the world, but the fact that it came on Easter Monday—the day when Christians reflect on Christ’s conquering of death—will, I am sure, have been a source of solace in what is a trying time. While Pope Francis was loved by Catholics worldwide, he was also deeply respected and loved by people of all faiths and none. I saw that when I attended mass at St Andrew’s metropolitan cathedral in Glasgow yesterday.
Pope Francis was not only a remarkable Pope and shepherd of his flock, but a remarkable man. From his humble origins in Buenos Aires to the seat of St Peter in Rome, His Holiness never lost sight of what drove him or lost touch with the feelings and realities facing the people he served. Throughout his ministry, Pope Francis dedicated himself to the corporal works of mercy—feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick, visiting the imprisoned and burying the dead. In the midst of war and depression in his native Latin America, Pope Francis was a voice for peace and reconciliation.
He called again and again for peace in Ukraine, Palestine and Israel, phoning the parish priest in besieged Gaza every single day until the end. As Pope, he threw himself at the feet of warring leaders in South Sudan to beg for peace. He literally washed the feet of prisoners and those whom society had shunned. Only last week, he was washing the feet of inmates in one of Rome’s largest prisons. He was a constant voice for social justice in our world, standing up for the rights of workers, demanding action on the climate crisis and giving voice to the plight of refugees and the dispossessed worldwide.
Pope Francis used his final public address to call once again for peace across our world. He called for a ceasefire in Palestine, the release of hostages and dialogue towards peace. He called out all forms of prejudice and hate and used his final hours to call for justice and peace—yes, in the middle east, but also beyond.
All of Francis’s actions were driven by his deep Catholic faith, his personal devotion to Our Lady and his spiritual connection with the great peacemaker and ecologist, St Francis of Assisi. He was, in short, a humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord; a man who spoke to all faiths and none, who broke down barriers and broke bread with all, who opened his heart to the world and who dedicated his life to making our world a better place. We can unite in our deep hope that he now hears the words “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
In these dark and, at times, violent times, it is worth reflecting on how much better and safer our world would be if we all strived to live a little more like Pope Francis. On behalf of the Scottish Labour Party, I put on the record our prayers and our condolences on the passing of the Holy Father. Eternal rest grant unto him. Requiescat in pace.
14:17
I offer my condolences and those of the Scottish Green Party to the Catholic community in Scotland and around the world following the passing of Pope Francis. The first non-European Pope in more than a thousand years, he was known for his determination to be a voice for the poor. In particular, he recognised climate change as a global problem with significant consequences and he recognised the harms of the developed world’s addiction to consumption. Pope Francis called on the world to join the fight against climate change, writing in a papal encyclical letter that the science of climate change is clear and that the Catholic Church views climate change as a moral issue that must be addressed in order to protect the earth and everyone on it.
The Pope was a committed supporter of Palestine and publicly condemned Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. He called for a ceasefire in Gaza. He urged for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza and for all captives to be freed. He emphasised that war is always a defeat—that every war is a defeat—and begged for the violence to stop.
He often took an inclusive stance in the face of intolerance and prejudice. Although he never actually changed institutional or doctrinal opposition to issues of LGBTQ+ equality, women’s rights or reproductive choice, he did make bold steps to move the Church in a more inclusive direction, allowing informal blessings of same-sex unions and broadening the role of women.
I recognise the sadness that will be felt around the world at Pope Francis’s passing and I hope that his dream of a more peaceful and just world may yet come to be.
14:19
I am very grateful to have the opportunity to express on behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats our profound sympathy and our sorrow at the passing of the Holy Father.
In his words from the balcony of St Peter’s basilica in 2013, on his election, Pope Francis told the packed square below:
“You all know that the duty of the conclave was to give a bishop to Rome. It seems that my brother cardinals have come almost to the ends of the earth to get him.”
Born, as we have heard, in Buenos Aires, Pope Francis was the first non-European Pope in modern times—there had not been one since the year 741—and he was a radical pontiff. He railed against what he termed the “pathology of power” and those in the church who, he said,
“feel themselves ‘lords of the manor’—superior to everyone and everything”.
He urged his church, instead, to
“come out of herself and go to the peripheries”.
His vision was a
“church of the poor for the poor”.
Over the next decade, he put front and centre traditional Franciscan themes, which above all valued humility, compassion and solidarity with the poor. He was determined to favour that humility over grandeur. After greeting the crowds on the day that he was elected, the new Pope shunned the papal limousine and decided instead to share the coach that was taking his brother cardinals home. Throughout his time as Pope, he stayed true to those values of simplicity and became known for it, becoming the first Pope who lived not in the Vatican’s apostolic palace but in the modern block next door, which had been built as a guest house.
Pope Francis always sought to foster peace where there had been conflict. He worked to heal the rift that had existed with the Eastern Orthodox Church for more than a thousand years. He worked with Lutherans, Methodists and Anglicans, and persuaded the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to join him to pray for peace. After attacks by Muslim militants, he said that it was not right to identify Islam with violence. At the time, he said:
“If I speak of Islamic violence, I have to speak of Catholic violence”,
too. He was clearly guided by the prayer of St Francis of Assisi:
“where there is hatred, let me sow love”.
A great internationalism and concern for the natural environment featured throughout his papacy. He appointed more than 140 cardinals from non-European countries, and he passes on a church that has a more global outlook than it did when he was first elected.
Today, we acknowledge the profound loss that a great many people across Scotland and around the world feel. On the mace before us that rests in our well are inscribed the words that are so familiar to all of us in the chamber: wisdom, integrity, justice and compassion. Each of those words defined the papacy of Pope Francis. As we reflect today, therefore, let us commit to standing up for what is right, caring for others and holding on to the values that Pope Francis sought to embody. May the Lord bless him, may the Lord keep him.
The question is, that motion S6M-17250, in the name of John Swinney, on a motion of condolence, be agreed to.
Motion agreed to,
That the Parliament expresses its deep sadness at the death of Pope Francis; conveys its condolences to all those in the Roman Catholic community in Scotland and beyond; affirms the affection in which His Holiness was held by people across the world, and expresses gratitude for his lifetime of devotion and dedicated public service.
I will now allow a short period of suspension until 2.30 pm.
14:22 Meeting suspended.Air ais
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