This week in our school community: 25 April 2025

Students were so incredibly respectful and dignified in ensuring our liturgies captured the season of Easter whilst prayerfully giving thanks for the life of Pope Francis...

 

We are most grateful to Fr Bill and Fr Tibor for joining us to celebrate Mass on the first two days back, remembering the Holy Father Pope Francis and praying for his soul.  Students were so incredibly respectful and dignified in ensuring our liturgies captured the season of Easter whilst prayerfully giving thanks for the life of Pope Francis and vowing to be the hope in the world that he modelled so humbly.  As he lies in state in St Peter’s Basilica, both staff and students have taken time to pray in our Chapel in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. 

It is great testament to the life he led, along with the development of technology and wide scope that can be reached, to see so many beautiful and heartfelt obituaries and write-ups.  Back in 2019, a few staff and a  group of thirty students representing the community of St Gregory’s, met with the intention of restructuring the St Gregory’s House System.  Our starting point was a House system centred around the names: Alexander, Benedict, Clement, Leo, John Paul and Peter.  All saints of the past two millennia, all men of a certain age and, sadly, most of them disconnected in story to our young people.  The story of why Clement house were ‘The Anchors’ or Benedict house ‘The Pastors’ was lost. 

Our new system needed to be centred on saints who were diverse, far reaching, personal and spoke to the student body through their word or example.  We broke up into groups and explored all of this before our first whole group feedback.  There were so many ideas and suggestions but one common occurrence – each group fed back the name Francis as their first choice.  Not St Francis of Assisi, but the pontiff, in the words of one student on that day “We know he’s not technically a saint, but he’s like a living saint already.”.  There was no way out of it, everyone in the room was insistent that the first of our four new House saints would be Pope Francis – not a saint!  He might have been alive, but something about such a special man made the school want to emulate his model of living before any congregations at the Vatican potentially canonised him in years to come.

Fast forward a few years and the late Holy Father added so many more reasons to love him.  To imitate his witness; to hear with our hearts the Gospel being preached for the third millennium.  When considering the legacy of his Papacy, there are so many themes that punctuate the 265th successor to St Peter and Christ himself.  He outlined from the beginning where his focus would be – the poor and marginalised.  For our times he was sent to be a voice of reason, strength and objection to a world that has fragmented in the last 12 years – wars, environmental crisis, refugee crisis, pandemic.  There is so much being shared, I encourage you to look at the Vatican Media tribute giving an overview of his pontificate (https://www.vaticannews.va/en.html)  and other reliable outlets.  Below I’ve outlined an overview of themes that capture his legacy, along with some of the moving, powerful, humorous and humble snapshots that made Pope Francis beloved.

REFUGEES

Pope Francis sets down a marker by making his first visit outside of Italy to the Island of Lampedusa to visit refugees stranded on the Island and to “mourn the dead of immigration”. He threw into the water a wreath of flowers in memory of the thousands of people drowned in the Mediterranean, a sea that has become a "great cemetery" due to this crisis. Some years later he wanted to make a mark on European consciences.   When he travelled again to a refugee camp, this time Lesbos, he brought 12 Syrian migrants back to Vatican City with him on the plane. At a time when countries were closing borders to all refugees, Pope Francis took the three Muslim families back to Rome for a new life. 

THE HOMELESS

Pope Francis made caring for the homeless local to the Vatican a focus from an early stage, making tangible and effective changes to help those who needed it nearby.  He had showers installed in local toilets, gave out hundreds of sleeping bags, opened a free launderette, barbers and medical centre, as well as making it safe for those who slept in tents on the streets to camp in Vatican City.  For his 80th birthday he sent an Archbishop out into the city to gather eight local homeless people and brought them into the Vatican guest house to share breakfast with them and listen to their stories.  During a visit to the US, he addressed Congress then decided to have lunch in a local homeless shelter rather than with ‘powerful people’.  The Pope saw those with addiction, victims of abuse, disabilities and struggling single mothers as VIPs.  Francis said to those present “Jesus was homeless when he came into this world.  We can find no social or moral justification for lack of housing.” 

SMALL AND HUMBLE ACTS

From the moment Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected in 2013 he made a number of decisions in the first 24 hours which were to define the type of Pope he was to become.  He rings home to cancel his newspaper deliveries in Buenos Aires, refuses a papal limo in place of the shared coach back, insists on paying his accommodation at the Vatican guest house and then moves in there permanently rather than taking the more luxurious papal apartments.

From the moment Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected in 2013 he made a number of decisions in the first 24 hours which were to define the type of Pope he was to become.  He rings home to cancel his newspaper deliveries in Buenos Aires, refuses a papal limo in place of the shared coach back, insists on paying his accommodation at the Vatican guest house and then moves in there permanently rather than taking the more luxurious papal apartments. There was the great story of the Pope interrupting a Swiss guard on duty, insisting the worker have a seat to rest after all night on watch and made him a jam sandwich! The sign that appeared on his apartment door that warned others ‘No Whining’ in his presence. Not to mention stories constantly leaked about the Pope sneaking out of the Vatican without security in disguise to give out money to the homeless, to buy new glasses, bless a Record shop and many more.

FOUGHT FOR PEACE

At the outbreak of war on Ukraine the Pope marched himself straight to the Russian Embassy to make his feelings clear and mediate. "It was a decision I made during a night of wakefulness, thinking of Ukraine," he would later recount, saying that he was absolutely determined to do something "so that there would not be one more death in Ukraine.”. He made a huge gesture a few months later by holding up a Ukrainian flag during his weekly audience and kissing it. In the years that have followed he never stopped calling for peace and an end to violence against the innocent. We heard recently that he was constantly calling a Church in Gaza to check in on them, and his final address on Easter Sunday was a plea for peace "What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of our world! I would like us to renew our hope that peace is possible!"

IMPORTANCE OF YOUNG PEOPLE

He became the first Pope to evangelise in ways that reached young people with his TED Talk being watched millions of time on YouTube, years after he joined social media to share the Gospel. The 2018 synod focused on young people in the Church, following it up with a document after hearing the views of millions of young people – he titled it ‘Christus Vivit!” (Christ is alive). “Don’t go through life anesthetized or approach the world like tourists. Make a ruckus!” appeared in an official document!

CLIMATE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

World leaders were up in arms this year when the Pope waded into the climate change discussion and took everyone to task on how badly we were treating our planet, and how imminently change was required. His encyclical, Laudato Si’, made the world sit up and take notice as the Pope linked expertly care for our common home with faith. He subsequently released Laudate Deum, a follow up to Laudato Si’, once again highlighting the impact of human actions on the climate crisis and reasserting the urgency required to address our actions. Throughout his papacy he held the leaders of fossil fuel companies to account in meetings, declared a global climate emergency and in 2023 he invited 7000 young people from across the globe to a conference focusing on peace war and climate entitled ‘let us learn from boys and girls’.

REACHING OUT TO THOSE ON THE MARGINS

He understood the challenges, struggles and opposition people felt in everyday life, particularly by those who felt marginalised or on the peripheries in the Catholic Church. For too long women felt their contribution and role was undervalued. In his papacy Pope Francis has championed women’s rights and made efforts to elevate women to positions of leadership within the Church, and the number of women employees in the Vatican is at its highest ever level: one in four employees at the Holy See are now female. On several occasions, people with medical conditions who were treated awfully in their lives were embraced by the Pope. Finally, the Pope has made great strides towards making the LGBTQ+ community feel welcome and a part of the Church. His famous quote “Who am I to judge a person who is gay?” made headlines, but in the years since he has opened up avenues of dialogue and defended the dignity of all God’s people, regardless of sexuality. Last year he allowed priests to bless same sex couples.

Krakow Trip, May 2026 (Deadline Thursday 1 May for current Year 9 and Year 11)

We are delighted to be offering the trip to Krakow again in May 2026 for students currently in Year 9 and any Year 11s who will be returning to the sixth form. A key part of the trip will be to journey in spirit with those who lost their lives at Auschwitz Concentration Camp and beyond. We will visit Auschwitz, the Jewish areas of Krakow and commemorate them with a Jewish meal one evening, with live entertainment in the form of a Klezmer Band. The trip will also take in some incredible architectural gems – historical and modern churches, Wawel Castle, the awe inspiring Wieliczka Salt Mines, water park and gaming museum. Letters with full details and link to sign up have been emailed home and sent out via ClassCharts. For more info contact Mr Robinson, Lay Chaplain on robinsonm@st-gregorys.org .

Mr Robinson

Lay Chaplain