Pope Francis has died at 88
On 2 Dec 2015, I published an article entitled “WELL DONE, POPE FRANCIS.” (Please Google that headline)
The article said that I am not a Catholic, but if I were, I would be very pleased with myself that day. For the leader of my Church, Pope Francis, had just undertaken a visit to a place which had been declared a “danger zone” by the French army.
The place was Bangui, in the Centrafrican Republic and French troops had had to be sent there because the populace had been carrying out a civil war. A civil war based on religious divisions.
Now, that was, quite simply, the worst type of civil war, because those who take part in it tend to believe strongly that when they give their lives up for such a cause, they will be handsomely rewarded in heaven.
The people of the Cenrafrican Republic were divided into Muslims and Catholics, and fanatics on both sides had sworn to fight to the death. The French army, which was on the ground in the Central African Republic (a former French colony) had concluded that the place had become so dangerous that they had FORMALLY declined to provide security for the Pope if he refused their advice and visited the country.
You could appreciate how dire the situation had become if you took into account, the fact that the French troops were mostly Catholics, and so owed a special duty to the head of their church, in the area of protection. The Pope knew all that, and yet had decided to visit the Centrafrican Republic.
Not only that — on arriving in Bangui, the Pope had gone to the largest mosque in Bangui and told a huge gathering of Muslims that believers should not be fighting one another because Christians and Muslims worshipped the same God!
What bravery! What enlightenment! And now this unbelievably saintly Pope Francis is dead. At the relatively “young” age of 88. (Younge because the holders of such positions usually ascend to them in near-stage!
I am hopeful that the courage exhibited by Pope Francis will be remembered when the time comes for that famous puff of smoke emerges at the top of the Vatican’s chimney to signify that a new Pope has been elected. There will, of course, be much debating of such questions as abortion, gender issues and things of that nature before a new Pope mounts the throne.
I shall be watching carefully to see who it is that will be considered fit to succeed Pope Francis. However, I am convinced that people like Pope Francis only make an appearance in this world only once in every century or so.
I do hope, though, that I shall get a very nice surprise. Certainly, everything is possible in the realm of spiritual things.
