Singapore faithful mark 12th year of Pope Francis’ pontificate at cathedral

Mar 20, 2025

By Victoria Lim
Even as 600 faithful celebrated the 12th anniversary of Pope Francis’ pontificate with a Mass at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd on March 9, he remained in Rome’s Gemelli hospital recovering from pneumonia in both lungs.

The Vatican reported the same day the Holy Father was still receiving therapy and had begun eating solid food as part of his diet.

On March 13, 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected the 266th pope of the Catholic Church by the College of Cardinals. Inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, the new Pope chose the name Francis for his pontificate.

Pope Francis’ credo
In his homily that Sunday morning, Cardinal William Goh shared his sentiments on the Holy Father’s credo, his personal statement of belief, explaining how its four aspects – being a companion of Jesus; the Jesuit motto Ad maiorem Dei gloriam; his missionary spirit; and his personal conviction that every Catholic must be a missionary – undergirded his papacy.

Friend of Jesus
As a member of the Society of Jesus, a religious order whose priests are called to be companions of Jesus, the Pope takes his personal relationship with Christ seriously, said Cardinal Goh.

Using his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), as an example, Cardinal Goh showed how, in the Pope’s writings, he emphasised the importance of a personal encounter with the Risen Lord in order to be a missionary and proclaim the Good News:

“I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since ‘no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord’” (EG, 3).

The Cardinal also shared how Jesuit founder Saint Ignatius of Loyola developed spiritual exercises consisting of prayers and meditations to help people deepen their relationship with God.

God, not glory
Taking reference from the day’s Gospel of Luke on the temptations Jesus faced in the desert, he explained how Jesuits are asked to choose between serving God or worldly power and wealth in these exercises.

“The Jesuit motto is Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, which means ‘for the greater glory of God’, and Pope Francis always chose God over the world,” said Cardinal Goh.

Missionary spirit
He added that the Pope always had a heart for the marginalised, vulnerable, poor, elderly, and those who do not live the Gospel right – including the divorced and those who are LGBTQ – and he tries to bring them all to Christ.

However, said Cardinal Goh, what is most important to the Holy Father was that every Catholic must be a missionary.

Like his predecessors Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Pope Francis knew the only way to prevent aggressive secularisation of the world was through evangelisation, he said. “That is why he called for the Synod on Synodality (2021-2024), so everyone could be part of the Church, journeying together, feeling with the joys and sorrows of the other and supporting one another in their faith.”

Cardinal Goh concluded by asking the faithful to thank the Lord for the Pope who shows what it means to be a Christian by living out his credo, confessing the name of God through his life.

Prayers for the Pope
At the end of the Mass, Monsignor Marinko Antolovic, Chargé d’affaires (ad interim) of the Apostolic Nunciature in Singapore, said Pope Francis’ health has been “very fragile” and invited everyone to pray for the Lord to “restore his health and strength”.

Mr Gerald Wong, a Church of the Risen Christ parishioner, was at the Mass specially to pray for the Holy Father.

“Every morning, for the last three weeks, I have been reading updates on the Pope’s health on Vatican News’ Instagram, and I’m encouraged to see he is recovering and fighting his illness,” he said.

Mr Wong added it was heartening to see people around the world praying for him, and that there were rosary sessions organised for him at St Peter’s Square.

“I pray for the Pope and, whatever the Lord wills for him,” said the 30-year-old. “I hope he will get better and continue to serve the Church and its people.”--Catholicsg