Leo XIV at Mass for deceased cardinals and bishops: prayer “means to celebrate life”

At 9 a.m. this morning, Thursday 5 November, at the Altar of the Chair in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV presided at the Holy Mass in suffrage for the Cardinals and Bishops who died during the year. The Holy See Press Office Bulletin (B0870) confirms the celebration and publishes the full text of the homily.

According to Vatican News, over the past year — from October 2025 to the month just ended — 7 cardinals and 136 bishops died. Among those present were Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle and Leonardo Sandri, Dean and Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals, who approached the altar at the Eucharistic Prayer.

In the homily, starting from John’s Gospel (“If anyone serves me, they must follow me”), the Pope recalled Saint Monica’s words to her sons Augustine and Navigius: that they remember her “at the altar of the Lord, wherever you may be”. He then reflected on two truths that illuminate prayer for the dead: hope in the Resurrection and the communion of saints.

Citing the Second Book of Maccabees, Leo XIV stressed that remembering the departed at the Lord’s altar “is founded on the promise that our life, in Christ, is not lost, because it has been redeemed.” And he said: “Dear friends, to pray for the repose of the dead is to celebrate life — firstly the risen life of Christ the Lord, and then, by his grace, our own life, which rises again in him.” Remembrance, he added, must not become “mere nostalgia”: “In faith, let us contemplate the mystery of death without fear, because the Lord is alive, awaits us and has already prepared a place for us in his Father’s house.”

On the communion of saints he explained that when we pray for the dead we do so “not only for them, but also with them.” In Christ, he concluded, “death does not dissolve our bonds. Rather, it transfigures them into a new dimension.”

Vatican News also reports the shape of the Liturgy of the Word: first reading in French from 2 Maccabees (12:43-46); Psalm 142 in Italian; second reading in English from 1 John (3:14-16); the Gospel of John (12:23-28) proclaimed in Italian. In the Prayer of the Faithful, intentions were offered, among others, for those with civil and social responsibilities and for all the faithful departed.

Sources: official homily text on vatican.va and Bulletin B0870; liturgical report and numbers of the deceased from Vatican News. Photo: Vatican Media.