Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 28, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Honouring the Manitoba workers who never made it home. Each Manitoban who lost their life to workplace injury and illness made an impact. On April 28, we remember them. MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2025 A4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I LOCAL / WORLD Roman Catholic faithful, world leaders attend funeral for Francis Mighty and meek say farewell to Pope V ATICAN CITY — World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faith- ful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for people on the periph- eries and reflected his wish to be re- membered as a simple pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the mass in St. Peter’s Square, prisoners and migrants welcomed Francis’s cof- fin at his final resting place in a basil- ica across town. According to Vatican estimates, some 250,000 people flocked to the funeral mass at the Vatican and 150,000 more lined the motorcade route through downtown Rome to witness the first funeral procession for a Pope in a cen- tury. They clapped and cheered “Papa Francesco” as his simple wooden coffin travelled aboard a modified Popemobile to St. Mary Major Basilica, some 6 kilo- metres away. As bells tolled, the pallbearers brought the coffin past several doz- en migrants, prisoners and homeless people holding white roses outside the basilica. Once inside, the pallbearers stopped in front of the icon of the Vir- gin Mary that Francis loved. Four chil- dren deposited the roses at the foot of the altar before cardinals performed the burial rite at his tomb in a nearby niche. “I’m so sorry that we’ve lost him,” said Mohammed Abdallah, a 35-year- old migrant from Sudan who was one of the people who welcomed Francis to his final resting place. “Francis helped so many people, refugees like us, and many other people in the world.” Earlier, Cardinal Giovanni Battis- ta Re eulogized history’s first Latin American pontiff during the Vatican mass as a Pope of the people, a pastor who knew how to communicate to the “least among us” with an informal, spontaneous style. “He was a Pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone,” the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals said in a highly personal ser- mon. He drew applause from the crowd when he recounted Francis’s constant concern for migrants, exemplified by celebrating mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and travelling to a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, when he brought 12 migrants home with him. “The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open,” Re said, noting that with his travels, the Argentine pontiff reached “the most peripheral of the peripheries of the world.” Despite Francis’s focus on the power- less, the powerful were out in force at his funeral. U.S. President Donald Trump and former president Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelen- skyy, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Prince William and continental European royals lead- ing more than 160 official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had pride of place given Francis’s national- ity, even if the two didn’t particularly get along and the Pope alienated many in his homeland by never returning there. In an extraordinary development, Trump and Zelenskyy met privately on the sidelines. A photo showed the two men sitting alone, facing one an- other and hunched over on chairs in St. Peter’s Basilica, where Francis often preached the need for a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Francis choreographed the funeral himself when he revised and simplified the Vatican’s rites and rituals last year. His aim was to emphasize the Pope’s role as a mere pastor and not “a power- ful man of this world.” It was a reflection of Francis’s 12- year project to radically reform the papacy, to stress priests as servants and to construct “a poor church for the poor.” He articulated the mission just days after his 2013 election and it explained the name he chose as Pope, honouring St. Francis of Assisi “who had the heart of the poor of the world,” according to the official decree of the Pope’s life that was placed in his coffin. The white facade of St. Peter’s glowed pink as the sun rose Saturday and throngs of mourners rushed into the square to get a spot for the mass. Giant television screens were set up along the surrounding streets for those who couldn’t get close. Police helicopters whirled overhead, part of the massive security operation Italian authorities mounted, including more than 2,500 police, 1,500 soldiers and a torpedo ship off the coast, Italian media reported. Many mourners had planned to be in Rome anyway this weekend for the now-postponed Holy Year canoniza- tion of the first millennial saint, Car- lo Acutis. Groups of scouts and youth church groups nearly outnumbered the gaggles of nuns and seminarians. “He was a very charismatic Pope, very human, very kind, above all very human,” said Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru who said he had camped out all night near the piazza. “It’s very emo- tional to say goodbye to him.” Francis, who was also the first Jesuit Pope, died Easter Monday at age 88 af- ter suffering a stroke while recovering from pneumonia. Even before he became Pope, Fran- cis had a particular affection for St. Mary Major, home to a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, the Salus Populi Romani. He would pray before the icon before and after each of his foreign trips as Pope. The Popemobile that brought his coffin there was made for one of those trips: Francis’s 2016 visit to Mexico, and was modified to carry a coffin. The choice of the basilica was also symbolically significant given its ties to Francis’s Jesuit religious order. St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jes- uits, celebrated his first mass in the ba- silica on Christmas Day in 1538. The basilica is the resting place of seven other Popes, but this was the first papal burial outside the Vatican since Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and was entombed in another Roman basil- ica in 1924. Following the funeral, preparations can begin in earnest to launch the cen- turies-old process of electing a new Pope, a conclave that will likely begin in the first week of May. In the interim, the Vatican is being run by a handful of cardinals, key among them Re, who is organizing the secret voting in the Sis- tine Chapel. German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who will participate in the conclave, said the outpouring of support for Fran- cis at his funeral showed the clear need for the next Pope to continue his legacy. Over three days this week, more than 250,000 people stood for hours in line to pay their final respects while Francis’s body lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican kept the basilica open through the night to accommo- date them, but it wasn’t enough. When the doors closed to the general public at 7 p.m. Friday, mourners were turned away in droves. By dawn Saturday, they were back, some recalling the words Francis ut- tered the very first night of his election and throughout his papacy. “We are here to honour him because he always said, ‘Don’t forget to pray for me,’” said Nigerian Sister Christiana Neenwata. “So we are also here to give to him this love that he gave to us.” — The Associated Press NICOLE WINFIELD AND COLLEEN BARRY LUCA BRUNO / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Pope Francis’s coffin is carried into St. Mary Major Basilica Saturday. Some 150,000 people lined the funeral route through downtown Rome. UNION ● FROM A1 The fire department is “un- der-resourced by every modern standard,” including the city’s own strategic plan for the WFPS, the union said. Kasper pointed to the WFPS’s $13-million deficit last year, which included a $7-million over- run of the overtime budget. The union leader believes boosting staffing would reduce the fire department’s reliance on overtime hours and provide a more sustainable service model. The union estimated 59 new firefighter positions would cost WFPS about $8 million in 2026, which would rise to $9.7 million by 2029, the report said. “I respect the constraints that (city) council is working within,” Kasper said. “We’re not asking for more money, we are asking for the money that’s already been spent to be reinvested in a smarter way. “You’re spending that money anyway, but you’re doing it in a way that is at the expense of our members’ health.” Speaking by phone, Mayor Scott Gillingham said he was not surprised by the union’s demand for more staffing; Winnipeg’s population is growing and call volumes are high, he said. He noted the provincial gov- ernment provided millions in its latest budget to support 24 new firefighters in Winnipeg. Kasper said a class of 30 fire recruits will be deployed soon, but said those new positions will only cover staff attrition. Gillingham wants to see the impact those new crews will have on the service before committing to the union’s hiring target, he said. “I think those new firefighters are going to give us at least a bit of a glimpse as to the degree to which it reduces overtime hours. It may not fully cover it, but I think it will help us understand,” Gillingham said. Meanwhile, the city is seeking alternative ways to reduce strain on the fire service, including addressing the scourge of vacant and derelict buildings. It also continues to lobby the provincial government to fund the creation of a new emergency services agency dedicated to responding to mental health incidents, Gill- ingham said. The mayor said he has raised the proposal in several conver- sations with Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Ber- nadette Smith, whose portfolio includes mental health. Gillingham said the minister’s office is currently reviewing the Mental Health Act to determine whether such an agency would require legislative changes. Smith confirmed she was ex- ploring the proposal last October. Asked for an update on Friday, a spokesperson for the minister said that process is ongoing. Kasper stressed relief for fire crews must come as soon as possible. The union found more than 17,600 working hours were lost last year due to psychological injuries within the WFPS. Fire crews accounted for about 16 per cent of those. Kasper suggested many such injuries go unreported by firefighters, who make “personal sacrifices… in an effort to keep trucks on the road and stations operating.” “We’re a very violent city, so… we are exposed to a number of catastrophic, acute (incidents) almost on a shift-by-shift basis,” he said. A firefighter survey conducted by the union between March 28 and April 4 found 98 per cent of respondents feel burnout is a serious concern; 98 per cent reported they suffer from work-related stress; and 98 per cent believe their psychological health is under threat. Kasper said about 12 per cent of firefighters participated in the survey. WFPS officials were not made available for an interview Friday. tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca ;