Pope Leo XIV Prays for 143 Departed Cardinals and Bishops
At St. Peter’s he rooted suffrage in the resurrection and the communion of saints, warning that memory of the dead must not become mere nostalgia.
On Thursday, November 5, 2026, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the repose of the souls of cardinals and bishops who died over the past year. Seven cardinals and 136 bishops—143 prelates in all—passed away between October 2025 and the end of October 2026.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Dean of the College of Cardinals, and Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Vice‑Dean, stood at the altar during the Eucharistic Prayer. Other cardinals and bishops joined the celebration.
Hope Founded on the Resurrection
The Holy Father built his homily on Jesus’ words in John 12:26: “If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.” He also recalled Saint Monica’s final request to her sons Augustine and Navigius: “Remember me at the altar of the Lord, wherever you may be,” underscoring that prayer for the dead is one of the Church’s fundamental duties.
Drawing on the first reading from 2 Maccabees 12:43–46, in which Judas Maccabeus ordered a sacrifice for fallen soldiers, Leo XIV set out two truths. The first was hope in the resurrection. “For our remembrance of our departed brothers and sisters at the altar of the Lord is founded on the promise that our life, in Christ, is not lost, because it has been redeemed,” he said. “If there were no resurrection, it would be futile to pray for the dead.”
“To pray for the repose of the dead is to celebrate life,” the Pope added. He urged the faithful: “Let us not, therefore, allow the remembrance of the dead to become mere nostalgia.”
Communion That Death Cannot Dissolve
The second truth concerned the communion of saints. “When we pray for the deceased, we pray both for them but also with them,” Leo XIV taught. “In Christ, death does not dissolve our bonds. Rather, it transfigures them into a new dimension.”
He concluded by calling the Church to nurture this communion so that, “when our hour comes,” the faithful too may receive the suffrage of their brothers and sisters and share with all the saints the joy of the heavenly homeland.
In the Prayer of the Faithful, petitions were offered for civil and social leaders, that they pursue “projects of justice and peace for the good of the entire human family,” and that the dead be welcomed into the “paternal embrace” of the merciful Father.
The Mass thus joined the Church’s perennial practice of suffrage to the concrete memory of those who served as successors of the Apostles in the past twelve months, placing their names before the altar in hope of the resurrection.