A number of people have asked why I have not yet commented on the death of Francis (Easter Monday, April 21, 2025). In point of fact, I did comment. Within hours of his death, I had posted a prayer for the repose of his soul.
That’s it? Yes, for the moment. Francis now stands before the dread judgement seat of Almighty God – no need for me to pile on. Besides, my dearly departed Irish mother would turn in her grave were I to “speak ill of the dead” even before the funeral. I’m old school and, back in the day, when someone died – friend or foe, hero or villain – the Catholic response was always the same: Pray for the repose of his soul and let a little time pass before reminding everyone of his sins.
Soon enough, there will be attempts to canonize Francis on the strength of suspect “miracles,” history will be badly rewritten, and many will play politics with the man’s death. But I won’t. Why not? Because I’m not them.
I remember watching the funeral of Pope Paul VI on a little black-and-white TV in our living room when I was a kid. Few Catholic newspapermen had been more critical of Montini’s Modernist agenda than my father. But when I made the mistake of dropping a few disparaging remarks about the deceased pope to one of my sisters, my father reprimanded me. And as if to drive home his point, he then led our family in praying the rosary for the repose of the soul of Pope Paul VI.
For now, let’s pray for Francis and for his successor, that God blesses His Church with one that is truly Catholic next time.
Needless to say, that lesson stuck with me. Like Paul VI back in the day, Francis stands before God now and needs our prayers. There will be plenty of opportunities to discuss his pontificate in the weeks to come. I prefer to use this moment to respond to the death of Francis with an urgent call to pray for the repose of his soul. Jesus said, “love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and PRAY for them that calumniate you” (Luke 6:27). If this is our duty where worldly adversaries are concerned, surely Our Lord would have us do the same when it comes even (especially!) to dead Modernists.
I do not wish for Francis—or anyone else, for that matter—to be damned for all eternity. I have no way of knowing what he may have confided to Almighty God in his last hours on this earth, how he may have responded to God’s grace in those final moments. All I can do is pray that he repented, that God was merciful, and that Francis saved his soul. And that’s the beautiful thing about being Catholic – we can continue to work on seemingly impossible things even after the fact. My mother used to say that betwixt the stirrup and the ground mercy is sought and mercy is found. The nuns in Catholic school used to admonish us not to presume, and that one day we’d be surprised to learn who’d made it to heaven, and who had not.
Presumption is one of the great sins against the Holy Ghost, another being Despair. So, as I see it, the faithful Catholic neither presumes nor loses hope – neither canonizes the dead, nor condemns them. He simply prays for them, especially in the few days immediately following death, and is content to leave their ultimate fate in the hands of the Divine Judge. That’s the way it was when I was a kid, and I hope it still is. The world will do what it’s going to do, but we must remain Catholic on the mysterious and terrifying reality of death, judgement, Heaven and Hell.
Finally, I don’t believe anyone who reads The Remnant or watches The Underground has any doubt as to where I stand on the pontificate of the late pontiff. There’ll be time enough for us to share our critiques and criticisms in the weeks to come. For now, let’s pray for Francis and for his successor, that God blesses His Church with one that is truly Catholic next time.
Eternal rest grant unto Francis, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
