I'm going to share with you briefly my experience of being blessed by Pope Francis. He was elected and died during my time in Rome, so this was a grace for me.
My first experience with him was on the day of his election. It was on 12 March 2013, around 7pm that the white smoke came out of the Sistine Chapel. I was in the house watching television. As soon as the smoke turned white, Eithne Hughes accompanied Maristella SOOSAIPILLAI and me by car. What a joy it was for me to get there before he appeared.
It was there, with all the crowds that had rushed and waited in St Peter's Square, that I received the first blessing from the new Pope Francis.
The year after his pontificate began, in 2014, I was lucky enough to take part in his morning Mass celebrated in Santa Marta. It was on the occasion of my silver jubilee: 25 years of religious life. Pope Francis blessed me personally and I was given a few minutes to talk to him. My joy was even greater, because this time it was face to face.
A third blessing came in 2022, when the Holy Father postponed his visit to the DRC, my home country. He celebrated a Mass in the Congolese rite in St Peter's Basilica with the Congolese of Italy in general and Rome in particular. I was chosen to carry the offerings. Bowing before him, he blessed what I was carrying and he also blessed me.
In addition to other general blessings I received at the Angelus or at Masses said by the Supreme Pontiff, I remember these special occasions well.
At his last Easter Mass in St Peter's Square in 2025, he appeared for the blessing. I stayed with the crowd to wait for him to go round in the Pope Mobile to greet and bless the crowd. It was the last blessing I received from Pope Francis, on the eve of his death.
When he died and I went to bow before his body on display in St Peter's Basilica, I remembered the journey I had made with him, without him knowing me particularly well. And I asked him to bless me from heaven and to pray for me, as he liked to repeat so that people would do for him.
At his funeral Mass in St Peter's Square, I was still there to say THANK YOU for everything he had been for the Church and the world, praying above all for peace. It was also a farewell to him, because he has been a great inspiration in my life from the beginning of his pontificate with his encyclical ‘The Joy of the Gospel’ to ‘Fratelli Tutti’.
Pope Francis, pray for us!
Sr. Marie-Pierre OTIBA
Generalate Local Community, Rome