VATICAN CITY (RNS) — A group of 40 people, including migrants, the incarcerated, homeless people and transgender people, will greet the late Pope Francis with white roses on the steps of the Basilica of St. Mary Major after his funeral on Saturday (April 26), the Vatican announced.
“The gesture of the white rose is a way to say ‘welcome home’ because he will go to the house of the father,” said Bishop Benoni Ambarus, secretary of the commission for migrations of the Italian Episcopal Conference and delegate for charitable initiatives, speaking to Vatican media outlets on Thursday (April 24). “It’s a rose to say thank you for what you have done for us. … They will be children saying farewell to their father.”
Pope Francis spent his life advocating for the welcoming, promotion, accompaniment and integration of marginalized groups, especially the poor, and was the first pope to publicly meet with members of the LGBTQ+ community. During his last Easter message, the Urbi et Orbi Easter blessing on April 20, Francis condemned “how much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants!
“I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!” read the pope’s speech, which he was too weak to pronounce himself.
Francis’ charity extends beyond words, according to those who were directly impacted by his spiritual and financial support. The Rev. Andrea Conocchia, the parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin located in Torvaianica on the outskirts of Rome, ministers to a small community of trans women, many of them immigrants and sex workers, who were directly helped by the pope.
“Pope Francis always repeated to them that they are children of God, that they were loved and he cared for them,” Conocchia said, expressing his “intense and deep sorrow” at the news of the pope’s death.
The Rev. Andrea Conocchia talks to a small group of trans women at the Church of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022, in Torvaianica, Italy. (RNS photo/Federico Manzoni)
Francis sent the parish financial and medical support through the years and made sure they received the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic, all expenses paid. On several occasions, Francis sat with the women in the community during his yearly lunch with the poor, offering “gestures and smiles,” Conocchia recalled.
The pope also ensured places were reserved in the front rows of his weekly general audiences in St. Peter’s Square for Conocchia’s community members, he said.
“For Pope Francis they were important,” he said. “They stood in the rows reserved for the heads of state and important kings and queens.”
The priest added that he “hopes and prays to God” the next pope “will complete the processes started by Pope Francis so that those doors that were half-opened by him may be truly opened.” The trans women in his community, he said, “are worried — I would dare say desperate — because they wonder who will listen to them now? Who will answer their pleas as Pope Francis did?”
Sister Geneviève Jeanningros of the Little Sisters of Jesus, who has spent the past 56 years living in a trailer near the circus in Rome, was seen weeping in front of the pope’s open casket in St. Peter’s Basilica. Her friendship with the pope started when he was a cardinal in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and she often promoted his charitable outreach to poor, homeless and trans people in her community.
Pope Francis welcomes a group of Syrian refugees after landing at Ciampino airport in Rome following a visit at the Moria refugee camp in the Greek island of Lesbos, on April 16, 2016. (Filippo Monteforte/Pool Photo via AP)
“For us, he was a friend, a father, a brother. We felt him very close,” she told TV2000, the television network of the Italian Bishop’s Conference.
She would often attend Francis’ public appearances, bringing with her people who would usually never get a chance to get close to the pope. She said that during one of their last meetings, the pope said, “Please, don’t forget trans people.”
Catholic lay social service movement the Community of Sant’Egidio said it will have a delegation of refugees the pope helped flee war-ridden countries (by establishing humanitarian corridors) at the basilica for the funeral. Among them will be refugees Pope Francis took with him aboard the papal plane on his return to the Vatican from the refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, where he visited in 2016 and 2021.
The pope also showed unwavering support to people who are incarcerated, and had a Holy Door placed in the prison of Rebibbia in Rome, allowing them a chance to obtain forgiveness for their sins during the 2025 Jubilee year.
“The news of the pope’s departure has left a profound emptiness, especially in the penitentiaries, where Francis was a father for the suffering,” said the Rev. Raffaele Grimaldi, inspector general of chaplains in Italian prisons, adding that prisoners are joining for masses and prayers in light of Francis’ death.
Pope Francis washes and kisses the feet of 12 women inmates of the Rebibbia prison in the outskirts of Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024, a ritual meant to emphasize his vocation of service and humility. (Photo by Vatican Media)
He said that just as the disciples were inspired by Jesus washing the feet of the poor and the sick, “Pope Francis has left a testament to his successor, expressing his desire ‘to do as I did and visit prisoners, wash their feet.'”
Shortly before his death, the pope sent everything he had in his bank account — roughly $200,000 — to help those who are incarcerated.
“It was very emotional, especially for them — they felt seen. Since Monday, I have been constantly receiving messages of those who say they feel orphaned,” Ambarus said. “Some prisoners asked me to put a flower on Pope Francis’ tomb on their behalf.”