Pope Francis Has Died

84 years old I think?

Idk about you, but my social media is full of idiots blaming JD Vance since they just met yesterday.
88 years. I don't get why anyone would blame Vance they spoke for about 5 minutes. It's more likely that if anything took too much out of him, it was the traditional 'urbi et orbi’ speech and that's why he passed away. Now it's 7 days of mourning, and then in a few weeks, the conclave will decide who will become the 267th pope. It will be interesting to see the funeral, with Francis wanting to simplify the burial procedures. May he be welcomed by the Father.

Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires. His parents were Italian immigrants. Bergoglio trained as a chemist and also studied literature and psychology.
He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1969 and later served as archbishop of Buenos Aires, before being elected pope on March 13, 2013.
He took the name Francis after Saint Francis of Assisi. He was an Italian religious and founder of the Franciscan Order who, among other things, devoted himself to caring for lepers and the poor and reforming the church. He also received a call to live without possessions and without a permanent home.

Pope Francis: "Take care of God's creation. But above all, take care of people in need."
Matthew 25:40: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
St. Basil the Great: "The bread that you store belongs to the hungry; the coat hanging in your closet belongs to the one who is cold."
St. Francis of Assisi: "If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."
 
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The Pope has struggled with chronic lung issues since he was a young man, although he was generally in good health when he took the Papacy. His health had been markedly declining since mid-2023, with serious respiratory issues earlier this year -- he pulled through those and appeared to be getting better.

Unofficial word out of Italy was that his death was actually *not* from those respiratory issues; he suffered a stroke.
 
The next pope will likely be much much more conservative.

It might be the case that the Papacy might give up on an increasingly insane and duranged secularist ruled europe and get leadership thats farther afield, south america, africa, parts of east asia these are all options. Either way the Papacity must prepare itself for the long winter the hardest of days and they may be forced to flee europe entirely.
 


Article:
As a mark of respect for the memory of His Holiness Pope Francis, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on the day of interment. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

From Donald Trump Truth Social 04/21/25 11:27 AM


Trump ordering flags to half-staff in honor of Pope Francis.
 


Article:
As a mark of respect for the memory of His Holiness Pope Francis, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on the day of interment. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

From Donald Trump Truth Social 04/21/25 11:27 AM


Trump ordering flags to half-staff in honor of Pope Francis.


Flying the American flag at half-staff for foreign dignitaries is entirely at the discretion of the President and of state Governors. It's not standard, but it's fairly common for notable foreigners.

President Bush had ordered half-staff for Pope John Paul II's death back in 2005; President Biden doesn't appear to have ordered half-staff for Pope Benedict, but that was likely due to the complexity of Benedict's status at that time as Pope Emeritus; Biden did pay his respects personally at the Apostolic Nunciate, so he was certainly not disrespecting the former Pope in that case.
 
Strange,they usually blame Trump or Musk.That aside, we should pray for his soul.
Merry Easter !

There are memes about JD Vance being responsible for his death though.

The next pope will likely be much much more conservative.

It might be the case that the Papacy might give up on an increasingly insane and duranged secularist ruled europe and get leadership thats farther afield, south america, africa, parts of east asia these are all options. Either way the Papacity must prepare itself for the long winter the hardest of days and they may be forced to flee europe entirely.

We'll see. IIRC the College of Cardinals trends Conservative anyhow at the moment.
 


This is keeping in mind most of the Cardinals are by now Francis appointees.

But apparently many of his selections for Cardinals, especially in Asia and Africa, have been fairly Conservative.

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There are memes about JD Vance being responsible for his death though.



We'll see. IIRC the College of Cardinals trends Conservative anyhow at the moment.

It's a recycling of the Liz Truss meme. Where someone meets where someone relatively unpopular meets with a beloved elder political figure who had just survived a health scare and then immediately dies. It happens often in that scenario because the internet is terrible
 
It's rather a shock after the seeming recovery and bit of public speaking he did on Easter.

Leaves behind a bit of an odd legacy of foot-in-dooring both reform and some pretty vocal intra-church objections to certain things, while also I think getting presented as much more of a shaker than he really was because he tended to...politician-dissemble and technicality-phrase his way in public events when answering questions critical of the Catholic Church...Which, now that I write it down, was probably the Jesuit coming out--there's kind of a reason even those friendly to them stereotype them as the sophists and dissembling nonsensitarians of Catholicism.

I have some modest objections to the flag going to half-staff for anyone, including former Presidents or congressmen or such as opposed to civilian deaths from natural disasters or such, and a bit more particularly it being done for anyone foreign on basis of 'fame'/'importance' as opposed to foreign natural disasters that caused loss of life.
Didn't like it even more when we did it for Queen Elizabeth just because....*gestures at US history wrt British monarchy*...but at this point it's basically a Presidential form-letter of sympathy so...Guess we'll just rob that symbol of anything making it symbolic?
I dunnow, it's a minor objection but one I'm going to mention.

Be interesting to see what the College of Cardinals does in electing a new Pope.
 
There are c.150 countries (or is it c.200? Maybe the latter is FIFA numbers?) in the world. Lowering the flag every time a head of state dies means the flag should be at half mast more than half of the time.
 
The Pope is the spiritual leader for about 20% of the citizens in the USA, with approximately half of them being voters who support Trump. Next pope will probably be compromise with a Europe moderate conservative or an American moderate progressive. With them bing a monk friar a real possibility.
 
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What do you mean - former monk? Monastic vows are for life, aren't they? A former monk implies somebody like Martin Luther :)
BTW - Francis was a monk, as Jesuits are priests and monks at the same time (some are monks only, though).
 
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