Alf McCreary: Pope Francis - the world at large respected this man of deep faith and humanity

Nowadays we have the magic of television – now taken for granted – which gives a close-up of almost every major event, including the coronation of King Charles, the inauguration of US president Donal Trump however flawed and objectionable he remains, and today the funeral of pope Francis, a good and great man.

It is one thing to watch a papal funeral on television, but quite another to report it directly, which I did for the Belfast Telegraph when covering the funeral of Pope John II in Rome some 20 years ago. Two decades later, my memories remain rich about the reporting assignment of a lifetime.

I remember the sheer volume of people who thronged to St Peter’s Square to share in history in the making. I made my way towards the Basilica on the eve of the funeral but soon realised there were several barriers preventing people moving through unless they had a pass.

I did not have an official Vatican pass, but I had with me a press pass which I had used several years earlier when covering the visit of president Ronald Reagan to Ireland.

I produced this at each barrier, with my fingers over the date, and was waved through. Perhaps my long black coat, big hat and red scarf made me look like a ‘cardinal’, which is my nick-name among rugby friends when we visit Rome.

At the final barrier at St Peter’s Square I joined international press corps. The atmosphere was respectful, with sombre music interspersed with readings from the Book of Romans. Even the most ardent Protestant would have been impressed.

I rang my wife and she suggested that I should try to get into the Basilica itself. I did not have time to queue for hours so in another subterfuge I slipped through the barriers with three Italian television cameramen in black boiler suits, and within minutes I was standing several feet from the pope’s body. Only later I learned that Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush as well as Condoleezza Rice had been standing on that spot only an hour earlier.

The funeral next day was another adventure. I chose not to stay in the press centre but instead to join the many thousands thronged into St Peter’s Square. I was standing among young Polish mourners paying tribute to their fellow countryman, but I kept getting pushed in the back by a young photographer.

She had a long lens and a step ladder over her shoulder, and it turned out that she was working for the News Letter. It was virtually beyond belief that two Ulster media professionals ended up together among a crowd of so many thousands.

The funeral was most impressive. It was well choreographed by the Vatican, and there was an air of reverence and dignity. I have no doubt that the atmosphere in Rome this week has been much the same.

The funeral of pope Francis is simpler, at his own request, as he is being laid to rest at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore outside the Vatican, which I know well.

Two days after Francis was elected I was in Rome, and I took the opportunity to visit this beautiful church. I was told that Francis had been there earlier in the morning to pray, after driving alone to the church he loved in his old VW car.

This gave me an almost personal connection with the new pope, and in 2018 I reported on his visit to Dublin, where I noticed how he related so warmly to people.

In his last book the story is told how the pope’s advisers tried to persuade him to wear white trousers along with his white cassock. He refused to wear the trousers because he thought it would make him look like an ice-cream man. How could you not warm to a man with such humour.

He gave a human face to his Church as well as reaching out to the poor and marginalised. Sadly however there are strong voices who want the papacy to return to its traditional roots, which will turn many Catholics off.

In 2005 I had no opportunity to gauge the reaction back home to the death of John Paul II as I was in Rome, but this time I can observe this reaction at first hand.

The unionist councillors in Belfast City Hall joined other parties in expressing condolences, which is a far cry from the Reverend Ian Paisley who told his followers when the reforming Pope John XXIII died in 1963: “This Romish man of sin in now in hell.”

To be fair, however, his son the Reverend Kyle Paisley said this week: “We can understand how Roman Catholics feel at the death of the pope and we would want in no way to interfere with their expression of sorrow and grief at this time”.

Perhaps we are progressing in our attitudes even if sometimes at a glacial pace.

There has been an air of respect from all the main Churches on the death of Pope Francis and notably the DUP leader Gavin Robinson made a gracious statement of sympathy, even if his party’s reaction was more nuanced after the disgraceful display of bigotry by a marching band at an Apprentice Boys parade in Lisburn.

This was from a minority, but it still gave Protestantism a bad name. However Fr Tim Bartlett, who organised the pope’s visit to Ireland in 2018, said that Francis himself would not have held a grudge over such ugly sectarianism. He was bigger than all of them, and the world at large respected this special man of deep faith, inspiration, Christian tolerance and humanity. That will be his greatest legacy.

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l Alf McCreary is a former Religion Correspondent of the Belfast Telegraph and a long-time contributor to the paper. His latest book ‘Keeping the Faith’ is published by Messenger at £12.95 and is available in local bookshops and on Amazon