Religion

POPE FRANCIS HAS DIED

The world has awaken today, Easter Monday, to the news of the passing of 266th Catholic Church leader, Pope Francis. Catholics have gathered outside the Vatican this morning as they learned of the passing of the 88 year old pontiff. Pope Francis had been ailing over the past months and and was hospitalised having been diagnosed with pneumonia.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, announced the news in a statement: “At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with faithfulness, courage, and universal love, especially for the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite, merciful love of God, One and Tribune.”

Throughout his 12-year papacy, Francis was a change agent, having inherited a Vatican in disarray in 2013 after the stunning resignation of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, a standard-bearer of Roman Catholic conservatism.

Francis steadily steered the church in another direction, restocking its leadership with a diverse array of bishops who shared his pastoral, welcoming approach as he sought to open up the church. Many rank-and-file Catholics approved, believing that the church had become inward-looking and distant from ordinary people.

Francis reached out to migrants, the poor and the destitute, to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy members, and to alienated gay Catholics. He traveled to often-forgotten and far-flung countries and sought to improve relations with an antagonistic Chinese government, Muslim clerics and leaders from across the fragmented Christian world.

After some early stumbles, he took strong steps to address a clerical sex abuse crisis that had become an existential threat to the church. He adopted new rules to hold top religious leaders, including bishops, accountable if they committed sexual abuse or covered it up, though he did not impose the level of transparency or civil reporting obligations that many advocates demanded.

In his final years, slowed by a bad knee, intestinal surgery and respiratory ailments that sapped his breath and voice, Francis used a cane and then a wheelchair, seemingly a diminished figure. But that was a misleading impression. He continued to travel widely, focusing on exploited and war-torn parts of Africa, where he excoriated modern-day colonisers and sought peace in South Sudan.

Religion

BISHOP NEIL SCANTLEBURY REFLECTS ON THE PASSING OF POPE FRANCIS 1

Catholics to pray daily for the repose of his soul

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgetown joins Catholics and people worldwide in mourning the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis I, who died today at the age of 88. He had been ill for some time.

Bishop of Bridgetown, The Most Reverend Neil Scantlebury, said today: “He was the first Pope I ever met face-to-face and I remember his firm handshake, his warm smile, his simplicity. He was so humble, so real, so jovial, so holy.”

Bishop Neil added: “One of my enduring memories of Pope Francis is when he came out onto the balcony of the papal apartment after he was elected in 2013 and he stood before a packed St Peter’s Square and asked the people to pray for him—and a profound silence fell over the entire space as the people prayed for him. Fast forward to March 27, 2020, when he who stood alone, in silence, in that same Square and prayed for all of us during the height of the COVID pandemic—when he made his statio orbis. And then, just yesterday, Easter Sunday, he is wheeled out onto the same balcony where he began his pontificate, and gives us—the Church and the world—his final blessing. He was a true shepherd. May he rest in peace.”

Bishop Neil also hailed the depth of the insights shared by Pope Francis in documents like Laudato Si’, Amoris Laetitia and Evangelii Gaudium. He said: “Pope Francis was so full of mercy in his perspective, from the very start when he likened the Church to a ‘field hospital’, to his championing the care of the Earth, to the hailstorm of criticism he received for saying ‘Who am I to judge?’. He was big-hearted, he was courageous, and his call for us to unflinchingly minister to the ‘fringes of humanity’ still resounds.”

The Diocese of Bridgetown will have a Requiem Mass for Pope Francis, details of which are still being finalised. Prayers for the repose of his soul will be offered daily, and special prayers for the election of a new Pope will also begin soon.

Religion

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

EASTER MESSAGE FROM THE BISHOP OF BRIDGETOWN

Easter is a sacred and powerful reminder that light overcomes darkness, love conquers hate, and life triumphs over death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just an event in history—it is the foundation of our hope.

This year, as we celebrate Easter, we do so in the face of real challenges. Our nation has felt the sting of rising violence—lives lost too soon, families grieving, communities living in fear. These acts tear at the fabric of who we are as Barbadians: a people of peace, dignity, and unity.

Yet Easter calls us to a different way—a higher way. We are called to be pilgrims of hope, walking together toward healing, reconciliation, and peace. Hope is not passive; it moves us to action. It invites us to see the face of Christ in each other, especially in those who are hurting, marginalized, or forgotten.

To be Easter people is to reject violence in all its forms and to work for a Barbados where every life is valued, and every voice is heard. It is to teach our children the power of forgiveness, the strength of compassion, and the courage of faith.

As pilgrims of hope, let us hold fast to the promise that the Risen Christ walks with us. He is not in the tomb—He is alive, and His love is alive in each act of kindness, in every effort to bring peace, and in every heart that chooses hope over despair.

May this Easter season renew us all and bless our beautiful nation with peace.

Happy Easter, Barbados! Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

The Most Rev. Neil Scantlebury, Bishop of Bridgetown

Religion

EASTER MESSAGE FROM

THE BISHOP OF BARBADOS, THE RIGHT REVEREND MICHAEL MAXWELL

It’s Easter time again when we are invited to celebrate the power or omnipotence of God to enable new beginnings, that of raising us to new life whenever our lives seemed not worth living or have come to a halt or dead-end. The raising of Jesus, that first Easter morn, gives testimony that our loving Creator is in the business of enabling a resurrection after the experiences of a Good Friday for those who trust and serve Him, enabling them to soar after a crisis or challenge in life.

The reality of life today is that there will be many Good Fridays due to the presence of evil, but the good news is that they will not have the final say for there will always be Easters to follow, new beginnings, newness of life through the great giver of life. Therefore, when we are called to walk through the valley of the shadow of death or amid those Good Fridays, we are encouraged not to fear any evil or lose hope, never to give up, but rather to maintain our trust in our Creator God who brings good out of evil, right out of wrong, light out of darkness, and life out of death. One of the central truths we are to be ever mindful of, which this Easter Day highlights, is the power of God to restore life, joy, hope, and peace where there once existed death, sorrow, despair, and conflict.

Just five years ago, the world experienced one of its worse crises because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were confined (“locked down” as we said), at times quarantined from others and even lost loved ones to death due to the infectious and life-threatening nature of the virus. Today, we can reflect on that time and acknowledge that God brought us through that crisis, that Good Friday experience, to Easter joy in having freed and raised us up to rebuild our lives and be in contact with each other once again in-person.

We are again living through very difficult times. We are faced with drug addiction and violence of varying kinds resulting in the demise of the lives of many young people. There is civil unrest and international wars within and among several nations causing many innocent lives to be lost. More recently, there is the trade war that will make life more difficult across our world, especially for us in this small developing nation of ours as it will likely lead to a further inflation in cost of living, poverty and a possible global recession. Nevertheless, Easter reminds us that, although we may have to struggle through difficult and painful times in this life as Jesus did, when we continue to trust in God and focus on fulfilling the way of life and love demonstrated by Jesus as a people and as a nation, He will ultimately deliver and raise us up and put us back on our feet or in a better place.

As we are invited at this time of year, within the Christian Calendar, to once again commemorate the anniversary of Jesus’ resurrection, we can celebrate, and should always be mindful of, the life-giving power of God that always enables a resurrection, a new beginning, out of every challenge that we encounter. Such resurrections are to enable us to trust God more, to boldly face whatever life may bring us; and because “we know who holds the future, life is worth the living just because He lives.”

On behalf of my family and the Anglican Church of Barbados, I wish you and yours a blessed and joyous Eastertide filled with new life, new beginnings and fresh hope.