"My brother would have known Pope Francis almost certainly"- Jerome Mullen

PAYING his sincerest tributes following the passing of Pope Francis was the Polish Consul to Northern Ireland Jerome Mullen.

With Poland still having one of the highest proportion of Catholics of any country in Europe, Mr Mullen expressed his sincerest condolences upon the death of the pontiff in his capacity as the country’s consul to the north,

However whilst many practicing Catholics both in Poland and throughout the world will have felt a tangible spiritual connection with Pope Francis, Mr Mullen's connection is of a more personal nature.

The polish consul related the fact that his own deceased brother Monsignor Kevin Mullen may very well have known the pope whilst he was still administering the gospel as a Jesuit in Argentina, with Jerome having written to Pope Francis personally regarding the cirumstances of his beloved brothers tragic death in 1983.

Personal Correspondence

“I am deeply sorry to hear of his passing as he will be sadly missed by the catholic population and by those of other faiths throughout the world”said Mr Mullen.

“He was a very popular pope throughout the church and he opened up the church in many ways. He was much more liberal in relation to bringing all the faithful into the church. This appealed to many people, he did a lot of good work in relation to this.

“I would have written to Pope Francis when I was writing the book in relation to the death of my brother. My brother was a church diplomat who died in Cuba.

“My brother died in 1983, Pope Francis and he would have been very close in age. There would have been only two or three years difference.

“My brother would have known Pope Francis almost certainly, he would have been around at the time my brother was there.

“Pope Francis was an Argentine native and my brother was the first secretary in the nunctre in Beunos Aires. My brother was serving in Buenos Aires during the years of the military coup that took place in the 1970's and my brother did some very heroic work during these difficult years.

“I referred to this at the time I was writing the book in a the letter to Pope Francis.

“I received a response from his secretary head of state and I got a satisfactory answer to the questions that I was raising at that time in relation to the circumstances regarding how my brother Kevin died.”

In the wake of Pope Francis passing the Vatican will soon be searching for a successor to fill the shoes of the much admired church leader, with Mr Mullen stating that one big question which remains is what attitude will be taken on the part of the next Pope regarding the many matters that Pope Francis worked to address.

“He was trying to tackle many of the particular big issues that were affecting the church .

“He had a very conservative group in the Vatican that did not necessarily agree on his approach or openness to a lot of the big issues around the likes of same sex marriage.

“The big question is who will be replacing him as the next pope and what way will the church go forward?”