After learning of the death of Pope Francis, the UCAM president highlighted the legacy of his pontificate, underlining the defence of the poorest, his fight against the throwaway culture, his attention to the elderly and marginalised people, and his insistence that priests should be shepherds close to their sheep, with knowledge of their problems and sufferings. Likewise, the UCAM president wanted to highlight the Pope's blessing urbi et orbi yesterday, as a final gesture of dedication, hope and faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, addressed to all Christians and the whole of humanity.  

For María Dolores García, the Holy Father was an ‘exceptional’ figure, whose death represents ‘a huge loss for the entire Church’, recalling with special affection the close relationship that the Pontiff maintained with the UCAM for years. This relationship goes back to the times when Jorge Mario Bergoglio was Archbishop of Buenos Aires and participated in the meetings of the Pontifical Council for the Family, in which José Luis Mendoza also took part as a consultant. ‘Since he was elected Pope, we had a very close relationship with him, and we have shared a table with him on many occasions’. 

It is worth recalling that at a meeting held at the Vatican in 2021, His Holiness Pope Francis decorated José Luis Mendoza with the ‘Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal’, a papal distinction instituted by Leo XIII in 1888 to distinguish people who have demonstrated long and exceptional service to the Catholic Church and the Pope.

The founder of UCAM, José Luis Mendoza, and his wife, have met with Pope Francis on numerous occasions, both in institutional meetings and on private visits. María Dolores García also recalled the personal calls that Pope Francis made inquiring about the state of José Luis Mendoza's health during his illness: ‘On the day José Luis passed away, we informed the Pope of his condition and he personally phoned him and they were able to talk’. 

Another sign of the Holy Father's close relationship with UCAM, following the death of José Luis Mendoza, was the private audience he offered in the Vatican to a UCAM delegation headed by María Dolores García, and made up of its Governing Council and the Board of Trustees of the San Antonio Foundation, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the institution. During this meeting, Pope Francis encouraged the representatives of the University to ‘to keep working from the heart of the Church to bring Jesus Christ to every person who comes into your classrooms, into your lives, to educate people capable of welcoming God and bearing testimony of Him in any context, building a fraternal society where the Church is seen through the good deeds of its members’.  

Prior to this meeting, Pope Francis sent the institution a congratulatory message on the anniversary.

On the occasion of the death of the Holy Father, the Vatican and UCAM flags are flying at half-mast on both campuses as a sign of mourning, and in the coming days a funeral mass will be celebrated both in the Monastery of Los Jerónimos, in Murcia, and in the chapel of the Cartagena campus.