with trust in God who is immensely merciful, for the eternal repose of the soul of President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias,” Cardinal Urosa said during his homily.

He encouraged prayers for the Venezuelan president, who died March 5, as well as for fraternal peace in the country.

Voicing condolences to the late president’s family and friends, the cardinal invited those present “to pray that the Lord will grant him eternal rest and will lead him to the joys of eternal glory.”

Cardinal Urosa pointed to various moments of difficulty in which the bishops directly aided Chavez, including his 1992 imprisonment and his brief ousting in a 2002 coup attempt, when various Venezuelan bishops reached out to him to offer aid and protection.

After reading a passage from the Gospel of St. John,to unify and renew the Catholic Church.

“As a man who can both preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ boldly and confidently, yet exhibit humility, he looks like he’s got the design for the time and situation that we’re in,” said Catholic intellectual Robert P. George, who is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University.

On March 13, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was elected as Pope, taking the name Francis. He is both the first Jesuit Pope and the first Latin American Pope.

George told CNA that the election of Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope is “not completely surprising.”

The new Pope is one of the “leading Latin-American Cardinals,” a strong candidate in the 2005 conclave and “highly respected in the Church,” he explained.

The professor also commented that the new