{"id":38894,"date":"2025-04-21T17:41:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T17:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/38894\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T17:41:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T17:41:11","slug":"pope-francis-said-liverpool-was-the-napoli-of-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/38894\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis said Liverpool was the ‘Napoli of England’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tributes have been paid following the death of the leader of the Catholic Church<\/p>\n

17:17, 21 Apr 2025Updated 17:40, 21 Apr 2025<\/p>\n

\"ArchbishopArchbishop of Liverpool Malcolm McMahon pictured with Pope Francis in Rome<\/p>\n

The late Pope Francis held Liverpool “in his affections” and referred to the city as “The Napoli of England”, according to the city’s former Archbishop.<\/p>\n

The Catholic Church is in mourning today after the news that Pope Francis has died at the age of 88. Tributes from around the world have been paid after the announcement from The Vatican this morning.<\/a><\/p>\n

Among those to pay tribute to Pope Francis was former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool Malcolm McMahon, who spoke warmly of the late pope during an interview on BBC<\/a> Radio Merseyside.<\/a><\/p>\n

He revealed the fondness Pope Francis had for Liverpool, stating: “Locally, here in Liverpool, he always used to say to me ‘ahh you’re in Liverpool, the Napoli of England, the Naples of England’.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t quite know what he meant by that but I think it referred to football, rather than pizzas. That was his little joke about Liverpool, he had Liverpool very much in his affections, in his mind.”<\/p>\n

One of Pope Francis’ final acts of a 12-year period as head of the Catholic Church was to appoint Bishop John Sherrington as the new Archbishop of Liverpool, succeeding Archbishop McMahon in the role.<\/p>\n

In an earlier statement, Archbishop McMahon said: “Brothers and sisters. It is with a sense of deep sadness with thanksgiving to God for a life lived in the Lord’s service, that we have learned today of the death of our Holy Father Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

\"PopePope Francis has died at the age of 88(Image: AP Photo\/Andrew Medichini)<\/p>\n

“From the first moments of his pontificate, as a bishop from the peripheries on March 13 2013, he has impacted the minds and hearts of many in the world seeking that we should all be ‘fratelli tutti’ – brothers and sisters together, in this our common home.<\/p>\n

“The Catholic Church has lost its universal Pastor, and so today we pray for his eternal rest, we thank God for the much good he has done, and we pray for the Cardinals as they move to elect another successor of Saint Peter to continue to guide and lead the Church in 2025<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

He added: “I have many fond memories of meeting him, most recently in January at the first general audience of the Jubilee Year. I will remember him as a kind and welcoming priest and bishop.<\/p>\n

“Francis asked everyone who met him to never to forget to pray for him – let us assure him of our prayers that he would finally meet the good shepherd and gentle judge he so zealously served.”<\/p>\n

Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral today announced that it will hold a special mass tomorrow evening (Tuesday April 22) at 7pm for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, where people can come and pay their respects and pray.<\/p>\n

The city’s Catholic cathedral has also opened a book of condolence for anyone who wishes to leave a message or prayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have been paid following the death of the leader of the Catholic Church 17:17, 21 Apr 2025Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,378,22171,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-38894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-in-the-news","12":"tag-the-pope","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114377188099180149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}