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RIP Pope Francis

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Obituary

88. Been in very poor health of late but still managed to do the traditional Easter Sunday papal blessing just yesterday

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  1. Can a mod kindly correct the unfortunate mistakes (and me a catholic although a very lapsed one) in my subject line before someone comes along to pontificate about not posting while badly hungover

  2. I grew up in a very religious (non Catholic) home. I am now totally against organised religion and the Catholic church has done way more harm than good in it’s lifetime. RIP if he was one of the few good ones

  3. He died a few days after a visit from JD Vance.

    The rules are that, though it’s usually one of the cardinals that gets the top job, any practicing Catholic male can be elected pope.
    Are Trump, Vance or Musk catholics? Is this part of their dastardly plan?

  4. From a non-believer he appears to have been one of the better leaders of an organised religion. But above all this reminds me I must finally get round to watching Conclave.

  5. Pope Francis had some progressive ideas by Papal standards and AFAIK was the first pope to use Twitter. I used to see his messages to the Faithful and some resonated with me. I remember one where he stated that trickle down economics do not work because “the rich just get bigger cups”. It struck me as a well phrased take but totally blind to the irony that the word chalice could replace cup in that sentence. I found the excesses of the Vatican (St. Peter’s) itself quite obscene and combined with the toxic effect of the Catholic church on Ireland until the last few decades, with its hypocrisy and moral double standards, this left me totally disinterested in his visit here. I’d imagine his successor will be a regressive traditional type.

  6. Glad the post title was changed, but nice to see that the url keeps the original – for posterity. He seemed like a decent fellow, particularly with his writings on climate change supposedly prompting some other world leaders to sign up to the Paris Agreement.

    I wonder if his successor will follow in his path, or slide back in the direction of conservatism.

  7. I would not have paid much attention to his tenure as head of the RC Church. But he seemed to be a decent skin with good intentions. There’s a quote going around that has been attributed to him and it seems like a nice outlook on life for any of us:

    “Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is…life is good when you are happy; but much better when others are happy because of you.”

  8. I heard that the first thing he did after being elected as the new pope, was that he phoned the owner of the newsstand down the street from his home in Argentina, and cancelled his newspaper subscriptions. Very charming and down-to-earth.

  9. I am a baptized but very much not practicing Catholic, yet the Pope’s death at least reminds me of my grandmother and other relations who took the faith seriously.

  10. I am reminded that I am part of one of the world’s largest religious groupings – lapsed Catholics. I don’t believe in it, yet still feel the cultural pull at times like this. Weird eh?

    Anyway, here’s our song, by the great Darren Hanlon:

    • I’m part of a small subgroup; “People appropriated by, but later rejecting, the Catholic Church”.
      Not lapsed, because I wasn’t brought up as one, only baptised Catholic (to appease grandparents). Didn’t even know they viewed me as one of them until I was all grown up, when the letters asking (in a very rude way, I should add) for tithes (sic!) started to appear… Which, alongside the addition of a special church tax that I didn’t want to pay, was the final straw that made me write to the local congregation to be let out of this unwelcome inclusion.
      But I do enjoy the Don Camillo books. 🙂

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