BRAINTREE -- Archbishop Richard G. Henning has announced that three Masses will be celebrated in the coming week, where clergy, religious, and laity can pray for Pope Francis and mourn his death.

The three Masses were announced on April 21, the same day that the Vatican confirmed the 88-year-old pope's death in Rome. The cause of death was reported to be stroke and heart attack.

The Masses will all be celebrated at 7 p.m. The first will be celebrated by Archbishop Henning on April 23 at St. Theresa of Avila Parish in West Roxbury; the second on April 24 at Immaculate Conception Parish in Lowell by Bishop Robert Hennessy; and the third on April 25 at St. James Parish in Stoughton by Bishop Cristiano Barbosa.

"I strongly encourage the people of this Archdiocese to join one of these Masses and commend the Holy Father to the Lord," the archbishop said in his statement announcing the Masses.

"I was deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Pope Francis," Archbishop Henning said in a statement issued on the morning of April 21 regarding the pope's passing. "His legacy as Holy Father is broad and deep. In his ministerial writings he has continuously called us to deeper faith and to a more generous participation in the boundless compassion of God. He has challenged us to turn away from selfish impulses and towards communion with others and respect for God's creation."

The archbishop expressed his gratitude for Pope Francis calling him to the episcopate and appointing him to be Boston's shepherd.

"His example remains a guiding light into the universal church," Archbishop Henning said in his statement. "Through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, may he rest in peace."

The Archdiocese of Boston previously gathered to pray for Pope Francis during his 38-day hospitalization for pneumonia earlier this year. Despite the health issues he experienced in the final months of his life, he delivered his traditional Easter blessing from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica the day before his death.

"Pope Francis was a sign and source of hope for people throughout the world, particularly the forgotten, the poor, the sick, and the voiceless," Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley, a close collaborator of the late pope, wrote in an April 21 in a post on his personal blog, www.cardinalseansblog.org.

The cardinal said it was fitting that Pope Francis spent some of his last moments with the faithful at St. Peter's on Easter Sunday.

"This was the culmination of his life and call to holiness," the cardinal wrote. "He never lost hope in the goodness of people. He never lost faith in the mercy of God."