THE sudden death of Pope Francis hit the headlines all around the world. It was just the day after the very climax of the Christian year, Easter Day, when Christians all around the world commemorate and celebrate the rising from death of Jesus Christ just three days after his very public execution. I think that’s exactly when Francis wanted to go.

The Pope leads the largest Christian denomination in the world, Roman Catholicism, with a global membership of about one-and-a-half billion. The position has continued with ups and downs since the earliest days of Christianity when the disciple of Jesus, Peter, went to Rome in the first century.

The Pope took the name of “Francis” as he clearly identified with St Francis of Assisi, the famous Italian saint of the 12th/13th century who loved nature and every creature in it. Today, the Order of St Francis continues around the world, including the UK, with the First Order (male), Second Order of St Clare (female) and the Third Order known as “Tertiaries” who endeavour to lead simpler lives as personified by St Francis. There is a happy band of them here in Cornwall!

One of Pope Francis’ earliest encyclicals was “Laudate Si” in 2015. Earlier that year, he had visited the Philippines to comfort survivors of one of the strongest ever recorded tropical cyclones, Typhoon Haiyan, which had killed more than 7,300 people and displaced about five million more.

I was in Rome in 2015 and to see beautiful trees in so many churches made a big impression. His encyclical highlighted the dangers of a changing climate to all life on earth due to human activity. He had to speak out. He saw environmental and climate issues as moral concerns.

Wendy Earl,

Lay Reader, Parish of St Mewan.