BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Just a few blocks from his childhood home, on Monday evening, the Basilica de San José de Flores in Buenos Aires was packed beyond capacity with people praying for Pope Francis’ soul at a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva.

Teary nuns, babies in strollers, ladies clutching small dogs, and national officials were among some 8,000 somber worshippers who spilled out from the church onto a plaza and into the street.

Where eight days ago, on Palm Sunday, parishioners gleefully waved olive branches, on the evening the Pope died, they clutched rosaries and listened intently to a homily by the popular archbishop, 57, appointed in April 2023 by Pope Francis.

“After having lived the impact of the news this morning,” said Archbishop García Cuerva, “we come here, to this Basilica of San José de Flores, as a family, as brothers, as children, to come to this, the father’s house; dad’s house, the house where he awakened his vocation, the house he lived in as a boy, in the neighborhood of his childhood.”

He continued, “And we’re back in a very contradictory mood. In our heart, it is night; in our heart, there is darkness because our beloved Pope Francis passed away. There is darkness because death also generates fear; it generates anguish for us.”

But at the same time,” explained the archbishop. “We do not fail to have a great light of thanksgiving, for what the life of Francis means, in our life, in our Church and in the world. We do not fail to have a light of hope because we know and are celebrating this Easter: that death does not have the last word.”

He concluded, “May, the Argentines, who have talked so much about Francis, encourage ourselves to live his legacy, living the unity we so badly need, living truly as brothers, and doing among all what Francis so preached: the revolution of tenderness. Amen.”

Most of the faithful remained stoic until the exchange of peace, when strangers embraced each other fervently and a guitar-led choir of young voices rose enthusiastically, singing a song about peace that all knew. It was then that many wept.

Throughout the Mass and after, believers on the Gospel side (left side) of the nave approached one wooden confessional with special reverence, kneeling or laying hands on it to pray. It’s the place Jorge Bergoglio at age 16 felt drawn to confession and then, after, was convicted that he should become a priest.

In the solemn atmosphere, an optimistic element was quietly evident: This parish is known for an active youth ministry, considered a national model.

Me amo y se entrego por mi (“He loved me and gave himself for me”) read burgundy shirts worn by young people who served on Good Friday, executing the foot-washing ceremony — done in Argentina as a roving act of humility, with priests approaching people pre-positioned in the pews rather than lined up in the front — and helped with crowd control on Easter Monday, an unexpected extension of the holy weekend.

Said a ministry teen, swept into the crowd before I could get his name, “We were always waiting for Papa Francisco to come home to visit, so everyone is sad that it will never happen, but we love him so much we forgive him.”