Replacing Pope ‘great challenge’, says Middlesbrough bishop

A bishop has recalled how a meeting with the Pope turned into laughter over his language skills.

The Bishop of Middlesbrough, the Right Reverend Terence Patrick Drainey, said when he met Pope Francis – who was Argentinian – he spoke to him in his native Spanish.

“You could see across his face this big smile,” he said. “Who is this Englishman speaking to me in Spanish and speaking to me in posh Spanish?”

He said the Pope asked him where he learned the language and the bishop replied “in Spain” and that he spoke “like the king”. “He just burst out laughing,” he said.

Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, died on Easter Monday aged 88.

Bishop Drainey described the Pope as a “man of integrity, he lived what he said – there was no division”.

He said his death had left the public with a “great legacy” but also a “great challenge”.

“How are we going to carry on caring for the poor, caring for the marginalised?” he said. “Recognising that’s what the church is about.”