Flags at half-mast across the Pacific for Pope Francis

Apr 23, 2025

By Luke Hunt
Flags flew at half-mast across the Pacific this week as Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and far-flung Islanders remembered the first pontiff from the southern hemisphere whose final tasks included a decree for the region’s next saint.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Pope Francis, who died Easter Monday, April 21, aged 88, shared a compassion that embraced all of humanity, and that he would be mourned by Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

“He was very much a modernist. His message that he sent out echoed in our region during his historic visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and Timor-Leste,” he said. “The first pope from the Southern Hemisphere was close to the people of Australia.”

That papal tour, in September of last year, laid the groundwork for the sainthood of missionary Peter To Rot, of whom Francis had said on tour that he wanted to canonize himself.

Born at Rakunai village on the island of East New Britain in 1912, To Rot led a Catholic mission during the Japanese occupation in World War II. He was detained in a Japanese prison in 1945 for practicing Catholicism, where he was administered an injection and died.

On March 28, Francis approved the decree for the canonization of “Blessed Peter To Rot” from PNG and martyred for the faith, paving the way for him to become the first saint from the Christian-majority nation in Oceania. Francis also appointed PNG’s first Cardinal, John Ribat.

Bishop Rozario Menezes of Lae said Francis was a great example for PNG’s 2.5 million Catholics.

“He really touched the hearts of all the people here in Papua New Guinea,” he said. “We are very sad that he is not the one who is proclaiming him as a saint... but we are very grateful that he has given us these gifts, a first cardinal, a first saint.”

Oceania holds four positions in the conclave to elect a new pope, including Ribat, Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi from Tonga, the Australian-based Cardinal Mykola Bychok, and Cardinal John Drew from New Zealand.

At the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Wellington, Dew told journalists he knew Francis as a humble, open and politically astute pope who had delighted audiences with a surprise appearance on Easter Sunday in St Peter’s Square where he blessed thousands of people.

“It was very obvious that he was fragile and very ill, but no one expected him to die within 24 hours on Easter Monday morning,” he said. “It seems that he had made up his mind that he would do all he could right till the very end, that was the kind of guy Pope Francis was.”

As for who he will be voting for as the next pope, Dew said before leaving for Rome, the funeral and papal elections, that he wasn’t able to share names but many had been bandied about privately and that he would like to discuss this with others once the conclave begins.

“Whoever is elected these days needs to be someone who can speak several languages, who is very politically astute as well, and I’m certainly not that, and can really get alongside people from all around the world,” Dew said.

“He certainly needs to be in the mold of Francis,” he added.--ucanews.com