IFCA participates in the funeral of Pope Francis represented by Giuseppe Notarstefano, National President of Italian Catholic Action and member of the IFCA Secretariat. Among the bishops Msgr. Eduardo Garcia, Bishop of San Justo and Ecclesiastical Assistant of IFCA, and Msgr. Claudio Giuliodori, General Assistant of Italian Catholic Action and of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
Pope Francis: ‘Don’t worry, God is greater’
These words of Msgr. Eduardo García, Bishop of San Justo and ecclesiastical assistant of the IFCA (formerly Vicar General of Buenos Aires when Pope Francis, Archbishop Bergoglio, was pastor) are taken from his homily during Mass for Pope Francis in the Cathedral of San Justo on 23 April.
And this was Francis, an Argentinean, with a big heart and a sincere desire to carry the Church on his shoulders. And not just the Church on his shoulders like someone dragging it along, but the Church on his shoulders like someone who says: ‘Well, God put me here. God knows why, and I want to know why.’ And in that knowing why of his heart, like Mary Magdalene, he found the faces, the faces he had encountered during his life as a priest, his life as a bishop, the faces of the poor, the faces of the lonely, the faces of the marginalised, the faces of the discarded, those faces that are precisely those who need God’s tenderness.
Francis placed the Gospel at the centre of the Church, above all laws and norms, illuminating laws and norms, giving them meaning, sweeping away many cobwebs to say: ‘What matters is this, what matters is the Gospel’. And the way of sanctity starts with the Beatitudes. And the Beatitudes begin by saying: ‘Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom’. And the way of holiness begins with the Beatitudes and is completed. It has its fullness in Matthew 25.
In the face of difficulties, he always said: ‘God is greater. God is greater’. Yes, Francis, you have gone, you have left us, father. Don’t worry, God is greater. Because we learned from him that God is greater. We encourage ourselves to continue working and building because we learned from him that God is greater. We know that the true Gospel is lived day after day and that the true Gospel is incarnate. It takes flesh, it takes our flesh to become flesh in the lives of others.
Francis asked for an evangelical Church. Francis has opened a breach, as the great figures of history leave a mark. The door of the Church going forth to meet the world.
This door is a door that cannot be closed. He has taken an important step, and many others are needed. And if we are not capable of taking these steps forward, we run the risk of betraying the mission of the Church to be at the height of the times, of the heart of man and of the needs of his people. For this reason, in the midst of this sadness, our hearts are also filled with gratitude. There is true sadness when there is gratitude. No one is sad for what they do not lack. And if we are sad, it is because at this moment we lack that love of Francis for his people, for everyone, every day, in every word.
A great conciliar Pope who challenged us to open wide the doors of the Church
Claudia Carbajal Inzaurraga
National President of Catholic Action Argentina and member of IFCA Secretariat
On Easter Monday morning, we were surprised by the news of the Pope’s death. A good, wise man, close to us, had left us.
That sense of inevitability, of feeling orphaned, was nevertheless filled by his own announcement from the balcony where we saw him for the last time: Happy Easter! Jesus always comes first.
This was Francis, a completely human man and, therefore, a man of God. A shepherd who carried out his ministry among the people, as Jesus did, embracing ‘life as it is’ in the forgotten of the world, making visible the indifference and rejection of a civilisation that privileges the god of money and closes itself off in fierce individualism.
An undisputed leader for a world without direction, he prophesied care for our common home, fraternity and peace because ‘the world lacks a heart’.
A great conciliar Pope who challenged us to open wide the doors of the Church to embrace and proclaim to all, all, all, the mercy of God. A faithful servant who lived his ministry in a synodal way to urge us to be a Church that listens and walks together, building bridges of dialogue and encounter, ‘all brothers and sisters’.
He was a communicator whose powerful gestures confirmed his words, which were as simple as they were profound. He was firm in carrying out necessary reforms and denouncing everything that needed to be purified, with the certitude that preserving tradition does not mean going backwards, but proceeding to the roots: the Gospel.
For Catholic Action, which saw him as a young man in its group in San José de Flores, Buenos Aires, he left as Pope programmatic guidelines in a missionary key in response to the signs of the times and not ‘to questions that no one asks anymore’. An enormous challenge!
Francis has left us, and at the same time we have gained him. In the countless celebrations taking place in Argentina these days, which will culminate with the Mass to be celebrated at 10 a.m. in front of the Cathedral of Buenos Aires, where he left as cardinal, there is sadness and tears, but above all there is the conviction of having been witnesses in history to the passing of a saint man. Simply extraordinary, which will continue to bear fruit among us and urge us to keep pace and move forward, to realise in human history the building of the Kingdom of love, goodness, justice and peace that Jesus announced.
Farewell, Francis! Thank you for your generous dedication, simple and consistent to the end! Catholic Action in Argentina and Catholic Action in the world embrace your legacy and pray for you! (Text in Spanish – orginal – and in Italian)
Catholic Action Catholic Passion
From the article published in Avvenire – Catholic daily newspaper (full text in Italian ) by
Giuseppe Notarstefano and Monsignor Claudio Giuliodori
National President and Assistant General of the Italian Catholic Association. Member of IFCA Secretariat
Pope Francis was familiar with Catholic Action through his grandmother and mother, who were active members. Many figures who were important witnesses to the Church, such as Armida Barelli and Piergiorgio Frassati, whom he knew through family stories, were dear to him. He accompanied the Argentine association as archbishop of Buenos Aires and, as pope, encouraged the entire Catholic Action to rethink itself in a passionate and courageous way, to regenerate itself in and for the mission.
Throughout his pontificate, Francis always reminded Catholic Action to be missionary, not to close itself off in its own schemes, but to live fully as a ‘Church that goes forth,’ capable of drawing close to all the sufferings of the world.
The Pope’s invitation has always been clear in all his speeches to the association: listen to the silent cries of humanity, read the signs of the times, open yourselves to the existential peripheries, with ‘ears open to new things’ and with a ‘Samaritan heart’.
Pope Francis inspired us to live our mission with joy, responsibility, and courage
Codruta Fernea
National President of Catholic Action Romania
Pope Francis has been more than a Supreme Pontif for us: he has been a spiritual father, a close friend of Catholic Action.
Through his simple and profoundly evangelical style, he inspired us to live our mission with joy, responsibility, and courage. He taught us that mission is not an optional activity, but the very essence of our associative life.
The Jubilee Year of Catholic Action in Romania, marking 20 years of a shared journey (Latin and Byzantine rite associations together), is our concrete response to Pope Francis’ call to be a Church that goes forth—synodal and missionary. We continue this path begun 20 years ago—on April 9, 2005, in Blaj—living communion as a force that unites in diversity, dialogue as an exercise in listening and discernment, and hope as an active stance in the face of today’s challenges.
We move forward in faith, convinced that his legacy is a path open to a Church of all, for all, with all.
The call to sanctity was present in his teaching
Card. Baltazar Porras
Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas
President of the Foundation Catholic Action School of Sanctity PIO XI
short declaration (23 April 2025)
The teaching and witness that Pope Francis leaves us are immense. First of all, his own life and his preferential love for the marginalised. The call to sanctity was present in his teaching and in his exhortation to coherency between words and actions.
Rest in peace, dear Pope Francis, and in the closeness of the Virgin in your final resting place, be for us the mantle that protects our weakness.
Ora pro nobis, worthy successor of Saint Peter. (Text in Spanish – orginial – and in Italian)
video message in Spanish during the visit to the Pope in St. Peter’s Basilica (24 April 2025), with Silvia Correale Vice President of the Foundation
from Catholic Action in the world
ITALIA Website
Italy: A vigil of love. Small groups of young people take turns, a few metres from the Pope’s body
Austria: ‘Francis went to the margins of society’
Argentina: Holy Rosary on zoom for Pope Francis promoted at national level with the participation of all diocesan Catholic Action on Tuesday
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