SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Rome: Governor-General Sam Mostyn hopes Pope Francis’ legacy will inspire a global recommitment to peace and compassion, saying the world needs leaders grounded in humility, mercy and courage.
Speaking after representing Australia at both Francis’ funeral in Vatican City and Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli, Mostyn said the rare convergence of the two solemn events had prompted deep reflection on global leadership and the moral clarity it demands.
“[The Pope] showed that it is possible to be a great world leader but always act with compassion and concern for those that are often marginalised and left out,” she said. “His life, to his church and to his faith, was grounded in humility and care for others.”
Governor-General Sam Mostyn meets a priest inside St Peter’s Basilica ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral.
World leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Argentine President Javier Milei attended the funeral Mass, underscoring the pontiff’s global influence amid ongoing international conflicts.
Initially intended as a modest tribute, the funeral transformed into a significant diplomatic event, with US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holding a private meeting in the basilica, marking their first face-to-face encounter since their Oval Office blow-up in February.
Mostyn and her husband, Simeon Beckett, were among the 250,000 gathered in St Peter’s Square to farewell the Pope. She said the service, staged on a warm, cloudless Roman morning, was marked not by grandeur but by the quiet dignity that defined the Pope’s life.
“There was a solemnity and serenity to the Mass and a beauty in every aspect of the event … It felt appropriate for the celebration of this Pope’s life,” she said. “There was something extraordinary about all of us in that moment. To be there in person is something I will never forget.”
For Mostyn, a long-time student of leadership across sectors, the significance of Francis’ final actions carried particular weight.
In one last public appearance on Easter Sunday, he delivered a poignant message of peace, urging world leaders to “use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development”. He pleaded for an end to wars in Ukraine, Congo, Gaza, Myanmar and Yemen. Despite his frailty, he greeted the faithful from St Peter’s Basilica, emphasising the importance of solidarity and compassion in the face of global challenges.
“What struck me in his final days over Easter was how he chose to spend them – with those he cared most about: prisoners, children, and the communities he moved among,” Mostyn said.
The Australian delegation at Pope Francis’ funeral, from left, ambassador to the Holy See Keith Pitt, Nimfa Farrell and her husband Trade Minister Don Farrell, former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack, Governor-General Sam Mostyn and her husband Simeon Bennett, and ambassador to Italy Julianne Crowley.
“His last words were a call for peace at a time when there was so much conflict. To me, that’s the essence of leadership: staying true to your values, no matter the pressures of the moment.”
The symbolism was not lost on Mostyn as she travelled to Rome from Turkey after marking Anzac Day at Gallipoli, another place where the power of service and sacrifice is never far from the surface.
“The Anzacs taught us that the path to peace is often paved with sacrifice,” she said, recalling standing barefoot with other Australians in the cold water at Anzac Cove, the day before the dawn service. It was, she said, a grounding moment.
She reflected on the striking alignment between the values honoured at Gallipoli and those lived by Pope Francis.
“To come to celebrate and commemorate a Pope who also had peace at the centre of his work … there’s something about the world right now,” she told this masthead. “And I hope, sitting amongst some of the great leaders, or the leaders of the world, that we will walk away with a sense of recommitment to peace and to compassion with one another.”
Though her role is constitutional, Mostyn made clear that she felt a strong sense of duty in attending the Vatican funeral, particularly to Australia’s 5.4 million Catholics.
“I did feel that I was there representing Australians, and particularly Catholic Australians,” she said. “I think it was an absolute privilege to be there on their behalf, to pay respects and to honour their spiritual leader.”
Asked whether the virtues espoused by Francis needed to be religious, she pointed to their universal power.
“When I attended the Commonwealth Day celebrations in Canberra this year, it was so striking that all of the religions of the world have at their core kindness and care, compassion, concern for others,” she said. “If you strip away the differences, it’s about caring for each other and showing kindness.”
In both Rome and Gallipoli, Mostyn said she witnessed not just ritual, but reflection, and hopes the moment could offer something more lasting.
“I think we saw that today in the Pope’s funeral,” she said. “And I think the words of peace and compassion carried very far.”
