Transitional deacon, seminarian studying in Rome attend Requiem Mass for late pope
May 13, 2025
An estimated 200,000 people gather in St. Peter's Square and the neighboring streets to attend funeral Mass for Pope Francis at the Vatican April 26. (CNS Photo/Cristian Gennari, pool)
VATICAN CITY — Among the 250,000 who flocked to St. Peter’s Basilica to pay their respects to Pope Francis as he lay in state in front of the altar was Deacon Mitchell Schumann, a transitional deacon studying for the priesthood at the Pontifical North American College (PNAC) in Rome.
Deacon Schumann, who was also in Rome for the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI in 2022, said, “There is something special about being able to go and see and pray for the spiritual father of the Universal Church.”
While in the hours-long line, he prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary and offered his own prayers and intentions for Pope Francis, the Church and the upcoming conclave.
He also served at the Requiem Mass for Pope Francis on April 28 and said it was a “humbling experience.”
“To think that someone coming from humble roots in the Texas hill country has been able to serve a papal Liturgy, including the reigning pope’s funeral, it really brings home just how much the Lord has blessed me,” he said. “Being able to be a part of such a historic event was amazing.”
Though he was physically about a half-mile away from the main altar, he felt spiritually close to the “action” as he joined other seminarians at a nearby church along Via della Conciliazione to help distribute communion to the people in the streets crowded all around the Vatican who were watching the Mass from screens set up around the area.
For Ethan Sicking, another Archdiocesan seminarian studying at the PNAC in Rome, attending the Requiem Mass for Pope Francis was "a truly powerful experience."
"The Church from all over the world was represented and gathered to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and to commend with prayer the soul of Pope Francis to God," he said.
A particular moment that stood out to Sicking was when patriarchs of different Eastern Catholic Churches stepped forward to chant a prayer for the Holy Father as he lay in his enclosed wooden casket in the forefront of St. Peter's Square.
Though the Greek chant was in an unknown style to him, it sparked a deeper reflection on the Church for him.
"In that moment I was struck with awe at the display of Catholic Unity unfolding before my eyes. Here in this action was expressed the Universal nature of our Catholic Faith. That the Church is truly one in Jesus Christ, her head, and guided by the Bishop of Rome," he said. " What further captivated my mind was the recognition that the reality I was seeing embodied was the same reality that St. Peter's Basilica has been proclaiming for 400 years through one piece of art in particular."
The prayer reminded him of a ring of words painted in two different languages, Latin and Greek, that are found high in the apse of St. Peter's Basilica, above the Chair of St. Peter and the famous stained-glass window of the Holy Spirit, which call Peter as the Shepherd of Christ's flock.
The inscribed "words stand even to this day as a testimony to the Church's living and active presence in every civilization and in every part of the world," he said.
The painted words and the witness of the patriarchs singing over the late pope's casket, exemplified in living action "that the one Church of Jesus Christ is universal, encompassing both Eastern and Western Traditions and forming one single Body of Christ."
Deacon Schumann said Pope Francis had a strong impact on his vocation.
“He has been the only pope I have known since I began discerning the priesthood and was pope when I was ordained a deacon,” he said. “He and Daniel Cardinal DiNardo were the ones I initially promised obedience to … so they were concretely the ones I thought about at the time I made the promises.”
Inspired by the late pope’s first apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium,” (“Joy of the Gospel,”) which began “with a call for us to recover the joy of the Gospel, the joy of serving Jesus Christ,” Deacon Schumann said. “If we do not spend time listening to the voice of the Lord in prayer, encountering Him personally, being rooted in His love, we cannot be an effective, authentic witness of the love and redemption found in the Gospel. [The pope] called us, from the early days of his pontificate, to find that joy again and to carry it out to … all the people the Lord has redeemed.”
Deacon Schumann met Pope Francis during his first year at the PNAC with other seminarians during a private audience, which “was a pretty amazing experience.” He said he could sense that the pope was very concerned about “our formation as pastors who cared for the flock of Jesus Christ.”
Pope Francis asked them to become “priests after His own heart,” telling them to focus on “encountering the people to help them have a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ.”
Deacon Schumann also encouraged continued prayer for the late pope, “As dutiful sons and daughters of Holy Mother Church, we owe it to Pope Francis to continue to carry out his primary request he made every time he spoke, ‘Pray for me.’ Let us continue to do so to help him on his journey home to the Father’s house.”