VATICAN CITY — Church bells rang out Sunday morning, celebrating Easter as Pope Francis blessed 35,000 in St. Peter’s Square.
Attendees did not know it would be his last Mass ever.
On Monday, church bells rang again — this time, honoring Francis’s death at age 88. Sometime after Easter Mass, he suffered a stroke that led to a coma and heart failure.
In Rome, news of the Pope’s passing was shocking, but not surprising. He was hospitalized with double pneumonia for more than a month in February and March, a turbulent illness that left many uncertain of his longevity.
Then his recovery and release sparked optimism in the city. Though clearly weakened — sometimes only speaking a few sentences at a time — those in Rome rejoiced to know he would not be hospitalized for Easter weekend.
The days leading up to Pope Francis’s death were by no means quiet. Hundreds of thousands converged on the Vatican for Good Friday and Easter Sunday services. After his appearance at Mass yesterday, the Pope briefly met with Vice President JD Vance.
A few, like Ian Maile, believe the Pope was holding on until his last Easter weekend. Maile is a junior studying journalism at USC, currently studying abroad in Rome this spring.
“Some of me thinks that he kind of held on to being there on Easter, and seeing the people that he made a lifelong impact on,” Maile said.
A devout Catholic, Maile has attended Sunday services almost every week since coming to Rome — including yesterday’s Easter Mass. He said the pope’s passing was “bittersweet,” but that he was grateful the Pope was no longer suffering.
Maile called Pope Francis a “trailblazer” for his humility, and for the many progressive stances the pope took on homosexuality, divorce and women, sometimes controversially and against church tradition.
“Right now is just the time to come together and remember the great life that Pope Francis had,” Maile said.
To Italians, many of whom are Catholic, that remembrance is particularly saddening.
“This is very sad news for those who believe in God, and for those who loved Pope Francis,” Antonella di Clemente, a police officer in Rome, said. “For Italians, he is the one who brought the clergy close to the people. He was the Pope of the people … he was the one who recognized himself in everyone, he was the one who welcomed sick people, [who welcomed] those who believed and those who didn’t.”
Pope Francis’s legacy was particularly powerful to those from Latin America. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pope Francis was the first person from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere to hold the papacy.
“Latin America loved him very much,” Florencia Iglesias, a Chilean studying cinema in Rome, said. “Because he was Latino, he helped create history for all Chileans, Latin Americans and Argentinians … he was a defender of human rights.”
Iglesias expressed some concern over who the next elected pope will be. After a pope as progressive as Pope Francis, the world’s cardinals may next choose a more traditional or middle-of-the-road pope in the upcoming conclave.
But that process may not begin for as long as two weeks. In the meantime, funeral services for the pope will begin within days.
Giulia Elena Tubili contributed to this story.