The Pope has died

I prayed yesterday for the Pope's abdication and a good successor. Now we learn of his death.

I am certainly not happy he has died, but certainly not sad. 

The best Pope in many centuries was followed by the least gifted.

Pope Francis died two weeks after former Cardinal Theodore "Uncle Ted" McCarrick who was credibly accused of sexual offences going back to the 1980s. 

Pope Francis was his protégé and that of the group of cardinals who called themselves 'the St Galen Mafia'. They got Francis elected. Francis then cancelled the restrictions that Pope Benedict XVI had placed on McCarrick. 

In a talk at Villanova University in Philadelphia six months after Pope Francis's election, Mr McCarrick said:

“Before the Conclave, nobody thought that there was a chance for Bergoglio”

"A very interesting and influential Italian gentleman” [asked me], ‘What about Bergoglio?’

"And I was surprised at the question.

"I said, ‘What about him?’

"He said, ‘Does he have a chance?’

"I said, ‘I don't think so, because no one has mentioned his name. He hasn't been in anyone's mind. I don't think it’s on anybody's mind to vote for him.”

"He said, ‘He could do it, you know.’

"I said, ‘What could he do?’

"He said, ‘He could reform the Church. If we gave him five years, he could put us back on target.’

"I said, ‘But, he’s 76.’

"He said, ‘Yeah, five years. If we had five years, the Lord working through Bergoglio in five years could make the Church over again.’

"I said, ‘That’s an interesting thing.’

"He said, ‘I know you’re his friend.’

"I said, ‘I hope I am.’

"He said, ‘Talk him up.’

"I said, ‘Well, we'll see what happens. This is God’s work.’

"That was the first that I heard that there were people who thought Bergoglio would be a possibility in this election."

Mr. McCarrick continued: 

“[Francis] has an understanding of human nature, an understanding that, though he says some things that maybe would surprise us, but the interesting thing is that if you examine what he is saying, it is what the Church has said all the time. Maybe not what the canonists have said all the time, or what different theologians have said all the time. But the teaching of the Church all the time is the teaching of Pope Francis.”

And:

“If he has two years, he will have changed the papacy. The longer he is in, the more I think it is likely that we could say that he has changed the papacy".