Pope Francis Death: Archbishop of York pays tribute
Stephen Cottrell says the 88-year-old was "witty, lively, good to be with."
The Archbishop of York has released a tribute to Pope Francis, who died this morning at the Vatican City.
He died aged 88 just a day after being out greeting Easter Sunday crowds in St Peter's Square.
After being elected in 2013, he has suffered heath concerns in recent years and spend five weeks in hospital earlier this year after suffering pneumonia and kidney problems.
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell has been leading tributes from religious leaders in the UK. He's said: "‘Let us walk together, work together, pray together.’ These are the words Pope Francis said to me when we met in 2023. They sum up his vision for the church, both the Roman Catholic Church but also ecumenically. Francis’s whole life and ministry was centred on Jesus who comes among us not to be served, but to serve. We saw that compellingly in Francis’s service of the poor, his love of neighbour especially the displaced, migrant, the asylum seeker, his deep compassion for the well-being of the earth and his desire to lead and build the church in new ways. Francis showed us how to follow Jesus and encouraged us to go and do likewise.
"His encyclicals, writings and teachings, were supported by his deeds and actions. In their humility and focus on those in the margins, those actions, his whole life, was instantly recognisable as those of one who followed Jesus.
"Pope Francis was acutely aware of the divisions between our churches and how they stand in the way of seeing Jesus Christ more fully. I remember the powerful work the Pope did with the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland in promoting peacebuilding in South Sudan.
"He was a listening Pope whose commitment to the principle and the process of synodality will be a permanent legacy to the Roman Catholic Church and to all of us.
"I remember, in the brief times I spent with him, how this holy man of God was also very human. He was witty, lively, good to be with, and the warmth of his personality and interest in others shone out from him.
"May he rest in peace and rise in glory."