On Easter Monday, Pope Francis went before the fearful judgment seat of Christ. There is no need to sugar-coat his departure with pious platitudes, as the mainstream ‘c’atholic media will be doing ad nauseam (“a man with a shepherd’s heart for the poor,” etc.). This kind of autocanonization is familiar to us from six decades of Novus Ordo funerals, which have, at least if their actors can be believed, doubled or quadrupled the ranks of the saints.
I have been praying for years that God would deliver us from the scourge of this pontificate, and understood that if He willed for it to continue, it must have been for our testing and purification, our strengthening in virtue, and especially our growth in awareness of the stark contrast between raw power and genuine authority, between the reign of novelty and the rights of tradition. Now that Francis is gone, it feels, quite honestly, as if an enormous burden has been lifted from the Church (and, indeed, from the world).
All the same, it is never amiss to pray for the repose of someone’s soul, no matter how much evil he has done. As the Church teaches, a man’s merits and demerits are known with certainty to God alone. If Francis died with a penitent heart, prompted by a secret grace of God, he may well be saved — but he may be consigned to the fires of Purgatory for thousands of years, the poorest of the poor souls. Just as we would want to be prayed for after we die, let us do the same for his soul. This is why I prayed on the morning of his death and will continue to pray: Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace.
No prayer is wasted. If it so happens that our prayers cannot benefit Francis (only God knows), they will still benefit the Mystical Body as an act of charity.
Let us also begin to pray earnestly for the upcoming conclave, which has every reason to be the most storm-tossed in centuries, as radically opposed visions of Catholicism vie for the cardinals’ votes. We do not know what is ahead, but we know that the Lord is risen and remains with us always. Whether the chair of Peter is empty or occupied, Christ is the everlasting Head of the Church, and her only Head in heaven where we long to join Him. Tu nobis, victor Rex, miserere.
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