As the na­tion pre­pares to head to the polls on Mon­day, Mon­sign­or Chris­t­ian Pereira is call­ing on the 161 elec­tion can­di­dates to pause the cam­paign trail to ho­n­our and re­flect on the life of Pope Fran­cis.

He in­vit­ed them to at­tend a re­quiem mass for the late pon­tiff at the Mi­nor Basil­i­ca (Cathe­dral) of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion on Fri­day at 10 am.

Due to med­ical com­mit­ments, Fa­ther Pereira will be un­able to at­tend the spe­cial ser­vice at which Arch­bish­op Charles Ja­son Gor­don will of­fi­ci­ate. Fa­ther Pereira said the elec­tion can­di­dates can learn from the Pope’s life.

“If they re­al­ly want to serve, they can learn a lot from the life and ex­am­ple of this great hu­man per­son who served this world by his life and com­mit­ment to all hu­man­i­ty, es­pe­cial­ly the poor, the mar­gin­alised and those who are dif­fer­ent from the norm.”

Pope Fran­cis, the world’s first Latin Amer­i­can pon­tiff, died at age 88 on East­er Mon­day.

Arch­bish­op Gor­don de­scribed the Pope’s pass­ing as “a pro­found loss for the Church and the world,” and said he was “a true shep­herd” and “a faith­ful dis­ci­ple of Christ.”

“We have lost a man of in­com­pa­ra­ble depth and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to Christ.

“He kept the joy of the Gospel alive in our hearts, even as he called us to deep­er love with­in our fam­i­lies, for our com­mon home, for the poor and mar­gin­alised, and one an­oth­er across every di­vi­sion.” —Sascha Wil­son