More than 100 mourners gathered at an Auckland cathedral on Tuesday to honour Pope Francis in a last-minute memorial service, organised just hours after the Vatican announced his death.
"I think all the Catholic community and those outside the Catholic Church too are feeling a sense of loss," said Father Craig Dunford, Dean of St Patrick's and St Joseph's Cathedral in central Auckland.
"We've lost a great man in Pope Francis. The word that I've been thinking of in relation to him was he was genuine... he was authentic."
The cathedral opened its doors at 7am, inviting mourners to pray and sign a condolence book.
Turn the pages back and you would find signatures from 1978 memorialising Pope Paul VI and from 2005 for John Paul II.
Pope Francis was mourned in Auckland on Tuesday. Photo: MARIKA KHABAZI / RNZ
Julie was one of the mourners leaving her mark on the historic document.
"Just really a sense of sadness, if I'm honest," she said. "He connected a lot with people, no matter who you were and what you believed in and that sort of thing.
"He was very, just down to earth."
Another mourner Louana said she admired the Pope's bravery.
"He was not scared of anything. He would fight for the rights of the Catholic Church.
"He loves all the poor, especially the poor. Pope Francis was such a good pope for everyone."
Angus, who was raised Catholic, but said he no longer practised, still felt compelled to pay his respects.
"As a bit of a lapsed Catholic myself, I'm just interested, I suppose," he said. "There's some emotion as well.
"Seems that he's done a reasonably good job as far as popes go. I don't come often, but here I am today, because of Pope Francis' passing."
After a mourning period of 2-3 weeks, Father Dunford said cardinals from around the world would gather in Rome to select the next pope, but with many cardinals selected by Pope Francis himself, he expected the next pope to have similar values.
"This pope has chosen and elected most of the cardinals that are the ones that are going to elect the next pope, so he's probably chosen people that are of a similar mind. I would imagine, probably someone of the same ilk, but we rely on the Holy Spirit.
"God will give us the right pope for the right time."
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