(21 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tokyo, Japan – 21 April 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various stained glass window of a catholic church in Tokyo
2. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Kiyomasa Furutsu, university student:
“It is really sad. He was deeply committed to reforming the often closed-off Church, and also to supporting prisoners. The news reports said that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church has passed away, but even though he was the top figure, he truly served the poor and marginalized. So I do feel a deep sense of loss. That said, I sincerely hope that now, within God’s mercy, he is once again walking with God and in God’s love."
3. Entrance to church
4. Woman bows in front of church
5. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Kiyomasa Furutsu, university student:
“When I entered university, I had the opportunity to participate in a Zoom meeting with the Pope. The words I directly heard at that time were inclusive – to embrace all of humanity as brothers and sisters, including those who aren’t Catholic. Those words really encouraged me, and it also became a guiding principle for how I live my life.”
6. Wide of church
7. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Kiyomasa Furutsu, university student:
“I would like to thank the pope.”
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Fr. Saturnio Ochoa, Priest at St. Ignatius Church:
“He is a pope very involved in social problems of those who are not rich, of the poor, and those who have suffered discrimination against in many places. Probably because of that, he created for himself many enemies, as well as many persons in favor. Now the problem for the church is who is going to be the next pope.”
9. Woman leaving church
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Fr. Saturnio Ochoa, Priest at St. Ignatius Church:
“For me, I think that the pope being 88 years old when he died is a kind of liberation for him. Because… if I remember correctly, the last two years he was practically on a wheelchair and for him it’s a kind of liberation and for the church as well, it will be a moment of reflection and prayer to elect the person who is better suited to lead the Church."
11. Wide of neighborhood of church
12. Various of posters of Pope on another church in the same area
STORYLINE:
Members of the catholic community in Tokyo mourned Pope Francis on Monday after the Vatican announced his death, aged 88.
Dozens of Catholic worshippers came to pray at St. Ignatius Church at an evening Mass.
Kiyomasa Furutsu, a 19-year-old student, said he once participated in a video meeting with Francis and he thanked him for his teachings.
“The words I directly heard at that time were inclusive – to embrace all of humanity as brothers and sisters, including those who aren’t Catholic," Furutsu said.
"Those words really encouraged me, and it also became a guiding principle for how I live my life,” he added.
Fr. Saturnio Ochoa, the priest at St. Ignatius Church, said the pope’s death will mark a “moment of reflection” for the church before electing who will lead the Catholic faithful next.
Francis was history’s first Latin American pontiff who charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change.
Francis, who suffered from chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14, 2025, for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia. He spent 38 days there, the longest hospitalization of his 12-year papacy.
AP video by Ayaka McGill
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