Pope Francis was a remarkable impactful man. It took me the whole of ten minutes to forget him. It was frankly embarrassing and painful watching him, living in his own digs, chasing the cameras for over a decade to ensure that the peoples of the world understood  him to be the only really humble Pope, a living Saint, practically canonizing himself live on TV and Social Media.

There was a lot of evidence, early, that he was out to —  in his famous words —“make a mess”. He certainly did. And he made sure that he stood in no predecessors shadow. In fact he practically pulled the curtain down on them. He evidently wanted the world to see he was utterly unique, sublimely led by the Heideggerian Transcendental Ground of Being like none other. And it must have made the National Trans Catholic Reporter crowd (his real advisors) proud.

So we hope for our new Pope. We hope he has learned from the Francis debacle, taken any non rencid parts of the meat —any parts dogmatically affirmed by our Church Fathers — and tossed the blackened bones, remembering that “Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.“

Meanwhile…

A Synodal Pope. Will he steer it back to Sacred Tradition?

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+ America Magazine on the Election of Pope Leo XIV

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Updated