Pope Francis wanted to 'create a more fraternal world'

Pope Francis wanted to "create a more fraternal world and to work for peace", the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth has told the BBC.

The first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church passed away on Easter Monday aged 88.

He was buried in Rome on Saturday following a funeral that saw 400,000 mourners and heads of state from around the globe gather to remember the late pontiff.

The Bishop of Portsmouth, the Right Reverend Philip Egan, said the service had been "really beautiful" in its "simplicity".

"There was really nothing different in it from any mass for anyone who has died, that any Catholic can have in their parish church," Bishop Egan said.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: "It followed exactly the same ritual, the same liturgical arrangements, and I think that's very much a mark of Pope Francis.

"His simplicity of life and his faith, and the fact that he very much wanted to be a pope for the ordinary, the faithful and especially the marginalised."

Following his death, tributes for Pope Francis poured in from around the globe after his 12-year pontificate.

Many referred to his modernisation of the church and how he spoke up for society's marginalised, while remaining steadfast to the Vatican's traditional values.

Paying his own tribute, Bishop Egan said there was "something very human about Francis".

He said: "I met him on three or four occasions and each time I was very taken with his smile and also the phrases that he used, which were very down to earth, he was a very good pastor in that sense.

"He wanted to create a more fraternal world and to work for peace, and he wanted us to care for one another and particularly for the ordinary, invisible people on the margins."

Bishop Egan oversees the Diocese of Portsmouth, which is spread across Hampshire, Berkshire, Dorset and Oxfordshire, as well as the Channel Islands.

The diocese is made up of 142 churches in 87 parishes and is home to a Catholic population of more than a quarter of a million.

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