Farewell, you dear, good man! As a father you were to me, for a little while. Thank you! May God welcome you into the Ecstasy with peace and love through Jesus Christ, whom you served so well.
The Eastern Church has a tradition that to die during Easter Week is particularly blessed. I could not help but feel there is something exquisitely beautiful in Pope Francis being given the grace of a death on the very heels of Easter Sunday. It’s like a kiss from God. A “Well done good and faithful!” sky-written in capital letters. I will miss him greatly, for countless reasons…
…and I am moved by the way he made even his death a Teaching Moment:
But I cannot feel bad for him because if anybody ever fell asleep in the hope of the Resurrection, it is that dear, good man. I could not help thinking at Mass on the morning he died, “If you strike him down, Satan, he shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” The devil, being hermetically sealed by his pride against learning anything, does the same stupid stuff over and over. So now a great saint has passed from this life to full participation in the life of the Blessed Trinity and has no more struggle with concupiscence but can focus on interceding for us completely. He will be one of our most powerful allies in the struggle the Church faces to turn away from fear and selfishness and relearn the gospel’s love for the poor and the common good.
And, you gotta respect a Pope who earns this kind of praise:
As to the future, I think the Holy Spirit nailed it when he reminded a fretful Pope John XXIII, “It’s not your Church.” It wasn’t Francis’ either. It’s Jesus’ Church and, as he assured us, “I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18).
Speaking from the catbird seat of Wholesale Ignorance and Indifference where I am completely at peace with letting the Blessed Trinity guide the picking of the next pope, may I just put in my two cents and mention in the Lord’s ear that *I* personally would be tickled pink to have a Pope named “Pizzaballa” because, well, how Catholic and fun can you *get*?
Still and all, God’s will be done.
As to prognosticating, do yourself and everybody else a favor and just don’t. Especially if you are somebody who trusts right wing Catholic media. A word to the wise. You will see lots of charts and predictions about who the next pope will be (like the one above or, worse, this one):
I am blessedly and wilfully ignorant of who the overwhelming percentage of these guys are. The reason I am is because, last time, neither you nor I nor any of the prognosticators had ever heard of “Jorge Bergoglio” till he was suddenly pope and my money is on it being the same this time.
But here’s something I do know: anybody who for one second takes seriously the idea of a US pope knows nothing at all in the whole wide world about the Faith and lives in utter delusion. If that person tells you they think Cdl. Burke has a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming pope they are wilfully delusional. And if they describe some other papabile as “moderate” because they “are against the criminalization of homosexuality” you will know why the chartmaker is wilfully delusional and are among the legion of fearful, spiteful cruels who hate Francis for not stigmatizing LGBTQ people among the vast and swelling ranks of victims they long to scapegoat. The Totality of the Faith, indeed the Majority of the Faith, is not the Pelvic Fixations of a few Reactionary Weirdos.
“Moderate” and “liberal” are Greatest Catholic Inquisitor of All Time code words for “orthodox”. “American conservative” is code for radical “prolife” heretic and quasi-schismatic.
Our Lady of the Amazon, pray for Pope Francis and for the Amazonian Catholics he served so well when bigots in your Church betrayed them.
Pope St. Francis, ora pro nobis! And thank you for everything!
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16 Responses
It’s depressing to read right wing Catholic media and see all the venom directed at Pope Francis, even in death. Right Wing Catholics seem to believe in a vengeful, angry God, who is eager to get us Ona technicality, rather than a loving father who wants us to be happy. They think it is desirable to hate immigrants, gays, non Christians,etc. They love Donald Trump and his politics of bluff, bluster and bullying. And of course, these right wing Catholics think that they and they alone speak for God.
I have crossed swords with these pious fools quite often and have noticed a common characteristic of the Catholic Right. They love to sit in judgement of other people and their sins, especially sexual sins. They are fixated on pelvic issues of other people. If you disagree, they become quite self righteous and sanctimonious. They are insufferable.
One final note: Cardinal Burke is not going to be Pope. Self righteous Americans are not that popular in the rest of the world. With the Trump Administration and it’s war on the rest of the world, rest assured that Burke, indeed, any American Cardinal will not be elected.
It really doesn’t matter who the next Pope is, as Catholics we are called to obey him in his Magisterium, which I fully intend to do.
The problem with this statement is that nobody is immune to straying.
The most conservative ones have thrown in the face of Benedict XVI detractors that he is Peter and all Catholics should obey him. Then when the pontificate of Francis started, they suddenly said “Akshually” and drew up some ridiculous “Benevacantism” scenarios where Francis would be an illegitimate pope.
Thing is, if the next elected pope is a swingback to somebody more conservative who wears a tiara on his coronation, a lot of more liberally-minded Catholics will say it’s not “their” pope. (Not that I think that would happen, I’m just bringing it up as an example).
That’s precisely what happened to me after Benedict resigned and it’s exactly what I’m praying WON’T happen to other Catholics if someone from the more “conservative” camp gets elected, especially if he starts undoing some of the more controversial aspects of Francis’ legacy (e.g., overturning Traditionis Custodes, walking back Amoris Laetitia and/or Fiducia Supplicans, etc.).
Maybe I don’t need to be, but I’m especially worried about folks like Mark and some of the writers at W.P.I., who’ve endured so much animosity and lost so many friends/loved ones in the course of trying to do what they saw as their duty and promote/defend the late Holy Father’s vision for the Church. If that ends up getting thrown in their faces the way many “JP2/B16 Catholics” (including me) rightly or wrongly felt was happening to John Paul and Benedict’s legacies under Francis…let’s just say it leads to a very dark place and I don’t want anyone else to go there if I can help it.
I’m not going anywhere.
The “papabili” are an interesting phenomenon. I think compiling them is an example of very lazy journalism that purports to be well-informed and deeply researched.
You only need to get a few facts on cardinal heads of Vatican dicasteries, comb the news for the word “Cardinal” to appear there and get the most common names that appear and only state their function and original nationality.
Or gather some tidbits of their stances on various topics, paste it and call it a day. Wikipedia will probably have all the data you need, you don’t even have to dig that deep.
Other than the prefects of dicasteries, some of the names that appear are only there because they made headlines here and there. Matteo Zuppi is an outspoken liberal. Malcom Ranjith is an outspoken conservative. Both of them made comments that are shocking outside their context… Maybe not the best fit for a pope whose words would be endlessly twisted as we’ve seen with pope Francis. Arborelius is considered “successful” in increasing the number of Catholics in lay Sweden. Pizzaballa is indeed a popular cardinal…
And all of this makes it more difficult, not easier, to predict who the next pope will be. Especially since cardinals know each other much better than half a century ago and it’s much easier for them to research each other.
Albino Luciani was probably the last papabile to be elected. A “safe” choice. An Italian, the patriarch of Venice, which is a large and important diocese, and known to not be a conservative who would somehow block or revert reforms of Vatican II.
Then Karol Wojtyła came, who was completely unknown to everyone. Joseph Ratzinger was not listed among the papabili in most lists at the time, but when he was elected, he was considered a “safe” choice because he was old enough to be an “interlude” pope that would just let everything stabilize after John Paul II… Only to renounce the papacy after eight years.
And Jorge Bergoglio was a complete unknown by the time of his election.
I’m now hoping papabili lists start including Cdl. Grzegorz Ryś of Łódź in Poland so that he doesn’t get elected 🙂
Beautiful, Mark, thank you!
Thankee, dear!
Maybe J D Vance can be Pope? After all, he has been a Catholic since 2019, and is an esteemed theologian. Just ask the Catholic Right. They seem to hang on his every word.
The fact that Francis gave some of his very last hours to a creature like Vance…
That shows true charity and forbearance.
I’d sooner cuddle a bubonic rat than spend five minutes with JD.
Too true. It’s funny you mention that – I’ve often been haunted by visions of JD Vance in papal regalia, eyeliner a bit heavier than liturgical norms allow. I always thought Scott Hahn held the title of America’s pope. But it looks like US VP Vance, at some point, staged a silent conclave and claimed the throne.
Vance should be Pope. He’s been a Catholic for five years. He knows everything. Just ask him.
I agree with Mark’s post. While I would love to see a pope who carries Francis’ torch forward, I think it’s important not to get too attached to any candidate or to a particular kind of pope that suits our preferences. It can reveal a lack of faith. The papacy isn’t meant to reflect our ideals. It’s Jesus’ Church, and the Holy Spirit works in surprising ways!
TOTALLY metal that he waited to say goodbye to us on Easter!!!
I got the text that he died, early Monday morning. I felt so relieved for him, but of course sad that his own children treated him badly here. What a hero for the truth he is! I’m going to have a really hard time fighting my disgust for his “celebrity” Catholic persecutors.. They are their own worst enemies –a gaggle of puffed up, loquacious ninnies. Poor them.
I couldn’t sleep after Easter dinner because the day had been so packed with my mother-in-law’s birthday brunch, getting to Easter mass, and then cooking, hosting guests, clean-up. I should have konked out in bed that night, but I couldn’t. After the text about Francis’ death, I thought of the sheer joy and celebration in heaven and prayed for his soul knowing that it was more of a high five to him, and a thank you. After such a troubled night, I fell into the BEST, restful sleep. How nice that we can thank him in person now.
I wouldn’t advise anyone here staking out any positions in the next couple weeks that you can’t easily pivot away from.
What part of “I believe all that the Holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims is revealed by God” do you think I will have to pivot away from?