Remembering Francis: Pope who carried gospel to the margins

When Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass in Papua New Guinea on September 8, 2024, he offered more than just words of encouragement.

“The most important thing is to open ourselves to God and our brothers and sisters, and to open ourselves to the Gospel, making it the compass of our lives,” he told the faithful.

As Vatican News noted, for the late pontiff, these were not empty words; they were a mission.

The visit, part of his 45th Apostolic Journey abroad, came less than a year before his death.

Vatican said this was a journey that embodied Francis' commitment to bringing the gospel to the world’s peripheries, a hallmark of his twelve-year pontificate.

Cardinal John Ribat, Archbishop of Port Moresby and the first Cardinal from Papua New Guinea, elevated by Francis himself in 2016, was among the thousands who travelled to Rome for the Pope’s funeral on 26 April 2025 and to participate in the Conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

In a reflective interview, the Missionary of the Sacred Heart expressed deep gratitude for Francis’ leadership.

“We have seen how Pope Francis has journeyed with us,” Cardinal Ribat said.

“One approach that he took was to go out to the peripheries, and that’s what he did.”

During a two-week tour from September 2 to September 13, 2024, Pope Francis visited four countries across Oceania and Asia: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore, sharing the message of peace and unity.

His visit to the region was not only pastoral, it was deeply symbolic.

During that trip, Francis named cardinals from each of the countries he visited: Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo from Indonesia, Cardinal Virgilio do Carmo da Silva from East Timor, and Cardinal William Seng Chye Goh from Singapore.

For Cardinal Ribat, these appointments reaffirmed the late Pope’s vision of a universal Church that recognises and uplifts voices from its furthest corners.

“Although Papua New Guinea and the wider Pacific region are far from Rome,” Cardinal Ribat recalled Pope Francis saying during a meeting with civil society in Port Moresby, “they are so close to the heart of the Catholic Church.”

Reflecting on the new papacy, Cardinal Ribat said the College of Cardinals must continue to support the new Pope, Leo XIV, just as they did his predecessor.

“It is very important that we come together as cardinals with the Pope because we are his creation,” he said.

“Pope Francis created cardinals in the peripheries… his intention was not to leave anyone out but to bring us all in together to be united, as Church, from different parts of the world.”

He expressed hope that Pope Leo XIV would build on that legacy, fostering greater collaboration among the cardinals to face the Church’s modern-day challenges.

“My hope for Pope Leo XIV is that he’ll continue in that direction, reaching out to the Church and churches throughout the world,” Ribat said.

“We need to live our faith with confidence in this very challenging time and stand for the truth, and our truth and our hope is Christ himself, in this very fast-changing world.”

As the Church enters a new chapter, the memory of Pope Francis, who brought the Gospel to the world’s edges, continues to echo across continents, in the hearts of those he uplifted and the peripheries he embraced.