Pope Francis Has Died and I Have Mixed Feelings
I’m sure by now the title of this post isn’t news to anyone in the world.
I took my time with memorializing my thoughts partly because I wasn’t available before, and partly because I didn’t know how relevant they’d be to the conversation at large. But since this blog is by a Catholic, I might as well.
I admit I wasn’t interested in a good way in Pope Francis’s papacy past his election. on that day I was in a newsroom for a now-defunct Hispanic publication and my coworker was Argentinian so she was over-the-moon about the news. I was low-key excited because I couldn’t believe they had actually picked a Hispanic pope. I thought he’d be amazing and that he’d help restore the faith of many Catholics.
And to an extent, he did just that. He welcomed home a record number of now-Catholics and indeed inspired so many more as popes do. So I’m grateful that through him, many saw the Light and either came home or came back home.
We’re one such family that came back home. We married in the Church and had our kids baptized so on paper, we believed. However, we felt distant to it. Part of that was laziness, poor catechesis (though fortunately we still knew of the importance of the Sacraments!), and if I’m being completely honest, our unwillingness to support a pope and a bishop who are so for illegal immigration.
After our miscarriage three years ago, we reverted to the Church (but have since been attending less frequently) and I developed this great passion for my faith that I never had growing up or as a young adult.
Burying a baby feels like a curse, a “death by a 1,000 cuts,” so to speak, but to me it also felt like a gift because it brought.me.back, and I couldn’t feel more blessed and grateful that God looked and looked for me and finally got me (us) home.
Pope Francis kept making headlines for all the wrong reasons, it seems like, and it felt weird being proud to be Catholic at times. It’s like having this uncle (grandpa?) who makes the crudest remarks that go against what you know is true but somehow you still love your family and wish he gained some common sense (and a good talking-to from someone who’d make him understand what’s true).
I’ve always known Catholicism to be the true Church, faith, and denomination out there (I didn’t go far, God!)–the home of THE Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.. the Way, and The Life. Yet Pope Francis made me question my fervor a few times.
Then, in 2025 he published a letter that rebutted Vice President Vance and went against Catholic teaching (on immigration) and the order or charity, and that was almost the final straw. God kept telling me, “No, no. Just wait.”
As I was seeking the opinions of other more knowledgeable Catholics online about it, I had the pleasure of finding a few more podcasters to start following, including Dr. Taylor Marshall, Avoiding Babylon, and The Traditional Thomist, among others. I try to listen to almost every episode they publish.They, in turn, have led me to “discover” other Catholic commentators, and together they all make up a super neat pool of individuals who’ve studied the faith for far longer than me and whose knowledge and opinions of our Faith I can use to help broaden my own.
That aside, I want to get back to Pope Francis because something I heard recently on Avoiding Babylon really resonated with me. They were talking about how OF COURSE we must pray for the repose of Pope Francis’s soul because it’s the right things to do as Catholics and, in general, as Christians. We ought to pray for the souls of the faithful departed because we’d like others to pray for our own souls when we pass.
In that sense, and if he, as the sinner he was like we all are, confessed his sins on his deathbed like we should, then Pope Francis deserves the prayers. We’re not to judge the state of anyone’s soul.
But we can judge their actions, and Pope Francis sure made that easy. I often chose to bury my head under the sun every time he said something nonsensical or that went against Church teaching. He DID unfortunately violate Church teaching and, in my opinion, led many astray, but I have faith the Church will be restored.
Part of me wants the Church “fixed” in my generation but a bigger part of me doesn’t think that’ll happen. Still, we can pray, and thankfully, some reform can already be seen in the way the U.S. government has handled the illegal immigration crisis that the U.S. bishops seemed all too happy to further. For what reason? We don’t know, but nevertheless, screw those bishops. Although Church higher-ups make them think they have it, no, they don’t deserve the right to break the law, aid criminals, fund atrocities done to children, and advance further lawlessness.
In the end, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you, readers, to join me in praying for the soul of Pope Francis and for the souls of those who’ve left us. But also please pray for reform in the Church, and for a holy Pope to lead the Church.
(Feel free to use Bishop Schneider’s and Father Ripperger’s prayers for a holy Pope, if you’d like.)
The Avoiding Babylon guys said that if an actually GOOD Pope comes next, he’ll be the kind that can lead the world to persecute Catholics–unlike Francis, who was more “of the people” and therefore seemed to care more to make the Church play nice with populations that it has no business appeasing.
For a really cool and interactive look at all the cardinals and where they stand on important issues, check out this College of Cardinals Report.
In closing, I’d like to add a few articles that have both helped inform my perspective this week and put into words many of my own thoughts from the past ~13 years, and that can hopefully help you understand where many Catholics stand:
- May Pope Francis Rest in Peace. And May Peace Return to Mother Church. (Crisis Magazine)
- God Rest The Pope. Here’s What Comes Next. (The Pillar)
- Almost No Chance of US Pope (Newsmax)
- The Pope of Ironies (Crisis Magazine)
- The Pope is Dead. Long Live The Papacy. (Crisis Magazine)
Thanks for stopping by today! Take care and God bless.
-Annie
