Archbishop Timothy Costelloe to hold Pope Francis memorial mass at St Mary’s Cathedral on Tuesday

A special mass will be held at St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth on Tuesday to honour and thank Pope Francis following his death.

Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, who is also the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president, said everybody was welcome at the 12.10pm service.

“It will be a special mass, I’ll celebrate that mass, to entrust Pope Francis to the Lord’s love and care, and to give us all the chance to thank God for the wonderful gift that he’s been and to pray for the general repose of his soul,” he said.

“Everyone would be very welcome to join us (on Tuesday).”

Archbishop Costelloe said he expected the cathedral would be busier than usual as the community pays their respects.

“It’s school holidays, so a lot of people are away at the moment, but I would imagine there’ll be more people here than normal, and as I said, everyone would be very welcome, not just Catholics, anyone who would like to come, they’d be very welcome,” he said.

Archbishop Costelloe said the sad news, while expected, was still a shock.

“When you think that just yesterday you saw him on the balcony at St Peter’s and then in the Popemobile going through the crowds,’ he said.

“I think we were all hoping that he was on the mend and had turned a corner. But of course, the doctors had been pushing him to rest and recuperate and of course being who is was, he was very keen to be with his people.”

Asked how he thought the Pope would be remembered, Archbishop Costelloe said primarily as a “very humble man, a simple man, and as a man of integrity”.

“He spoke a lot about all kinds of issues that were very important to him, but he didn’t just speak about them, he lived them out,” he said.

“I think that’s a mark of a decent human being and a true Christian, that our words and our actions match, and that’s certainly the case with Pope Francis.”

Archbishop Costelloe said the Pope’s legacy would be “multi-faceted” but that his remodelling of the church’s leadership was significant.

“He’s one of those leaders who’s brought us back to the origins, back to the Gospel, back to the simplicity in a sense, in the best sense of that word, of Jesus himself, so that’s really the call for all of us moving forward,” he said.

Archbishop Costelloe said he was “very fortunate” to meet the Pope a number of times, including for a 20-minute private interview.

“In Rome, over the last couple of years, the synod that we take on synodality — I’ve been one of the people involved in the preparations and in the in the conduct of those synods,” he said.

“On a couple of occasions, I spent the day sitting next to the Pope as he chaired the meetings, and I assisted him in that role.

“He was a very gentle man, he had a great sense of humor, he knew how to laugh, he listened very closely to what you were saying.

“So I’ll treasure those moments.”