Bishop Paolo Martinelli has shared a message recalling the life and witness of Pope Francis on the first anniversary of his passing. He highlighted moments particularly significant for the Church in the Gulf, including the Pope’s visit to the region and the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity. The Bishop also reflected on Pope Francis’ simplicity of life and his deep love for migrants and the refugees. His message points to a witness rooted in fraternity, dialogue, and peace. It invites the faithful to give thanks and to carry forward this legacy in the life of the local Church.

Following is the text of the message:

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35).

With these words, Jesus reveals a crucial aspect of his identity and mission. The Son of God became our nourishment; he became for us the bread of life, he became “Eucharist”. And it is the Eucharist that makes us the Church, the mystical body of Christ. This body is composed of many members, each with a different task. Pope Francis concluded his earthly mission the day after Easter, exactly a year ago, on this day, the 21st of April 2025. He lived his mission in this world to the last day. As the Bishop of Rome, he presided over charity among all the Churches, spread throughout the world.

He himself wrote in the programmatic document of his pontificate, Evangelii Gaudium, "My mission of being in the heart of the people is not just a part of my life or a badge I can take off; it is not an 'extra' or just another moment in life. Instead, it is something I cannot uproot from my being without destroying my very self. I am a mission on this earth; that is the reason why I am here in this world. We have to regard ourselves as sealed, even branded, by this mission of bringing light, blessing, enlivening, raising up, healing, and freeing." (EG 273)

He truly lived these words in his life until his last breath. He was nourished by Christ, the bread of life, and became for all bread broken for the life of the world.
 
We remember him with immense affection for his example and his teaching, especially for being the first Pope to visit the Gulf. His visit to Abu Dhabi in February 2019 remains unforgettable, as is his visit here to the cathedral of Saint Joseph, the signing of the document on Human Fraternity, together with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, which opened a new chapter in the history of relationship between religions.
 
Above all, we remember him for the Holy Mass he presided over here at the packed Zayed Stadium, where he described our Church as a “joyful polyphony of faith”. Indeed, we are this miracle: faithful from over 100 different nations, with different languages, traditions, cultures, and rites, forming one body because we profess the same faith having received the same baptism.

We, the Church of Migrants, have felt so close to Pope Francis because of his passionate love for migrants and refugees. The messages he sent to our young people and our faithful through a short video that he kindly shared with me during the Synod is unforgettable: he urged us to remain united, anchored to our Christian faith and to our families; he exhorted young people to look to the future with confidence, rooted in hope.

Today, a year has passed since his death, and we all remember the numerous expressions of affection we have received in our churches, the celebrations filled with faithful, including those from other Christian denominations; people of other faiths who expressed their closeness and prayers. I think our faithful at St. Joseph's Cathedral remember the signs that the faithful immediately filled with prayers and words of thanks addressed to Pope Francis. The people of God in the Gulf have thus expressed their deep gratitude for his pontificate. 

We still feel that his legacy continues, first and foremost in the Church, under the serene, gentle, and confident guidance of his successor, Pope Leo XIV, especially on the crucial issue of peace among peoples. Especially after these long weeks of war in the Gulf, we strongly hear his call for peace.

But what, finally, is the secret of Pope Francis's life, dedicated to the imitation of Christ to the very end? He himself revealed it in his last writing, the encyclical Dilexit nos. It is the certainty of being loved irrevocably, the experience of divine mercy that leads us to trust in Christ. This is not an abstract or sentimental love, but real, human, so human as to be divine: “Entering into the heart of Christ, we feel loved by a human heart filled with affections and emotions like our own. Jesus' human will freely choose to love us, and that spiritual love is flooded with grace and charity. When we plunge into the depths of his heart, we find ourselves overwhelmed by the immense glory of his infinite love as the eternal Son, which we can no longer separate from his human love. It is precisely in his human love, and not apart from it, that we encounter his divine love: we discover “the infinite in the finite.” (DN 67)

Dear brothers and sisters, Pope Francis has been a witness to this irrevocable love, a love that does not forget, a steadfast love that endures forever.

May the Mother of God, whom Pope Francis loved so much and to whom he always entrusted himself, help us to live his legacy and to be witnesses to the joy of the Gospel and peacemakers in this dramatic moment in history of humanity, so that his kingdom may come into all hearts.