The leader of the Catholic Church died aged 88, after months of battling illnesses and just a day after appearing to bless the thousands of people in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Easter Sunday.
The President of Ireland said Pope Francis had approached his papacy with “a unique humility” and advocated for the importance of human dignity.
Michael D Higgins also said Pope Francis had sought to play a “positive role” on issues such as attitudes to women and the LGBT+ community in the Church.
Irish premier Micheal Martin said Pope Francis held “a special place in the hearts of Irish people”, while deputy premier Simon Harris said he “bore his illness with great dignity and courage”.
In tributes to the Pope, many recounted his 2018 visit to Ireland, as part of the World Meeting of Families, where he met survivors of clerical sex abuse and made a plea for forgiveness during a mass at Phoenix Park.
His death was announced by Irish-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell, a camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church.
Irish President Michael D Higgins said Pope Francis had constantly invoked a ‘shared humanity’ (Danny Lawson/PA)
Mr Higgins said: “As President of Ireland, may I join with all those across the world, from their different stations in life, who have expressed such profound sadness on learning of the death of Pope Francis.
“Pope Francis, in his important messages and in the presentation of his papacy with a unique humility, sought to show in the most striking and moving of ways the extraordinary importance of the spiritual as a powerful source of global ethics in the challenges of contemporary life.
“On the vital issues of our time – such as global hunger and poverty, of climate change and justice, of the plight of migrants and indigenous peoples, of the dispossessed, of the fundamental necessity of global peace and diplomacy – Pope Francis’s voice constituted a consistent invocation of a shared humanity that is represented by acknowledgement of the essential dignity of each human person.”
Mr Higgins said he had discussed these issues with the Pope “at length” during five meetings they had during his papacy.
He said that during the Pope’s 2018 visit to Ireland, Francis had spoken of “the scandal of child abuse, including in the Church, and its consequences for victims and families”.
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