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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
April 21, 2025 | 7:00pm
In this file photo from January 2015, Pope Francis is in the Philippines for an apostolic visit
Philstar.com / AJ Bolando, file
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Easter Monday said that the Philippines joins the international Catholic community in grieving the loss of Pope Francis.
Weeks after a prolonged hospital stay due to double pneumonia, Francis passed away the day after Easter Sunday.
“The Philippines joins the Catholic community worldwide in grieving the loss of His Holiness Pope Francis. A man of profound faith and humility, Pope Francis led not only with wisdom but with a heart open to all, especially the poor and the forgotten,” Marcos said in a Facebook post.
“By example, Pope Francis taught us that to be a good Christian is to extend kindness and care to one another. His humility brought many back to the fold of the Church. As we mourn his passing, we honor a life that brought hope and compassion to so many, and inspired us to love one another as Christ loved us,” he added.
The president called today a “profoundly sad day.”
In a separate statement from Malacañang, Marcos described Pope Francis as unique, stating that he was "the best Pope" of his lifetime.
The Philippines is predominantly Catholic, with the Philippine Statistics Authority reporting that, as of 2020, 78.8% of Filipinos identified as Roman Catholic. It is one of the few countries in Asia where Catholicism is the dominant religion.
Francis visited the Philippines in 2015 in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), one of the most powerful cyclones in recorded history.
Yolanda caused widespread devastation, leaving a death toll of more than 6,300 people, with over 1,000 still missing to this day. The pontiff visited the country to offer his support to those hardest hit by the tragedy.
“The central message of this trip will be the poor, the poor who want to carry on, the poor who suffered from Typhoon Yolanda and who are still suffering the consequences, the poor who have faith and hope,” the pope told reporters in 2015.
