EPISODE 1013: POOR JERUSALEM
Pope Francis' funeral ends an Easter Week we won't soon forget.
Easter was literally seven days ago. It feels like seven years. I can’t say that it’s been my favorite Easter week, either. But it certainly has been one to remember.
Macavity’s Not There
I don’t know if you caught any of Francis’ funeral. It was quite long. I dropped out at the 2 hour mark and they had just picked up Francis’ casket and walked it into St. Peter’s before the final journey to his burial site at Santa Maria Maggiore.
Speaking of which, may I ask a question?
Was Pope Francis in a fraternity in college and no one bothered to tell us?
These men are apparently known as “the Papal Gentlemen", and yes I want to know more, and also probably none of it will be as interesting as their title.
In general, I would say the funeral had a bit of a You had to be there kind of vibe. On TV it was fine—the music was at times really affecting. The celebrant’s words about Francis were at times really emotional. Certain choices, most especially the fact that Francis chose a plain wooden box for his casket, felt bold and inspiring.
But beyond the casket there wasn’t much that really felt like Francis. He had been such a friend to migrants, to children, to people on the margins. It would have been nice to have seen that reflected in the liturgy somehow. More than that, it felt like a missed opportunity. The Gospel, which I assume Francis chose, is the famous “Feed my sheep” story from the Resurrection. Peter, having denied knowing Jesus three times, is now asked by the Resurrected Jesus whether he loves him. It’s very much a story about confronting one’s failures, and discovering in that confrontation the path to freedom and grace. It’s really Francis’ own story, and exactly the kind of thing he had been trying to get the bishops and clergy and powers that be to do during his time as pope. It would have been great to see celebrant Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re acknowledge that, or call his fellow cardinals and priests to remember it as they go forward. But funerals are like sportsball games, I guess. Your hindsight is 20/20.
There was a way in which the whole thing left you with the feeling that something was missing. And I guess that makes a kind of sense, because yeah, there is.
Heaven on Their Minds
The one non-papal story I saw come out of the weekend concerned the U.S. President spending 15 minutes with the President of Ukraine before the funeral. I’ve seen a number of pundits swoon over the fact that this happened, or even propose Francis had delivered one last miracle.
Personally, I wonder whether the people saying such things have been paying attention. It’d be great to see the U.S. president actually show a moment of grace, wisdom, or humanity. But I think it’s far more likely he saw an opportunity to use Francis’ death for his own gain, just like he and his vice president do everything else, and he took it.
Suffice to say while pundits Catholic and otherwise waxed eloquent over the possibilities, my mind went instead to the end of the new episodes of Andor, where Mon Mothma realizes she really has lost everything to lead the Rebellion and responds by crazy-dancing through her doomed daughter’s wedding reception.
Sure, U.S. press, tell me again how things are going to be okay. I’ll just be over here in the corner quietly losing my mind.
So What Happens Now?
Pretty much all weekend this lyric from Evita has been playing in my head, alongside images of Madonna looking sad and not-at-all pop star-ish.
From what I gather, one answer to this question is: The press descends upon Rome and spends the next three weeks making the same specious predictions about who the cardinals are going to elect as the next pope.
Francis appointed so many cardinals in places that have never had one, and picked people for their pastoral care rather than their political acumen. And it could be that the former means that a significant number of them will be looking to cardinals with more experience to help them in this conclave process (although whether that means that person or persons becomes the pope or simply has a lot of influence in the process is anyone’s guess).
Based on the latter, I’d say the only thing about which I have any confidence is that they’ll be trying to pick someone whom they find to be a good pastor themselves. But what that means in the concrete from person to person could vary from “kind” or “predictable” to politically centrist or even conservative. And what they think they’re getting may not be what they’re actually getting at all. See: this guy.
If you are interested in how things will play out the next few weeks, one person whom I would suggest reading is Marist brother Mark O’Connor, who just happened to be in Rome for Easter and is now reporting on the goings on for his diocese in Australia. Mark is a beautiful writer and he’s written a couple really nice pieces already about Francis and his funeral. He also knows pretty much everyone in Rome and out. I thin he’ll have interesting and meaningful insights.
Otherwise get ready for lots of conversation about how a real conclave is or is not like the movie Conclave.
Love Changes Everything
(Yes, my headings throughout this episode are from Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. No doubt that’s in part because I’m writing something about Webber right now. But also everything in me is maybe a little off-kilter. If you’re a Webber fan, enjoy. If you’re not, yeah, I get that.)
I had one idea you might consider over the next couple of weeks or even months. It comes from an experience I’ve been having this week. I was reading something somewhere about Francis, and it mentioned something Francis had done, something really big—I think it was the fact that he demanded the bishops of Chile all come to Rome together to talk about the terrible way they’d been handling abuse cases, and then ended up firing a bunch of them. That was a huge moment, but I’d completely forgotten it.
The fact is, Francis did so much with the time he had as pope. And our lives being as busy as they are, I suspect there’s a lot of it that we’ve forgotten, even if in the moment it meant a lot to us.
At the end of a retreat it’s common to invite the person on retreat to “gather the graces” of their retreat, that is, to go back to some of the bigger moments from the retreat time and sit with them again. And I had this idea that maybe in this time between popes, it could be helpful to spend a little time like that, simply naming some of the things that Francis did that meant a lot to each of us personally.
Here’s my pitch: Take a notebook, and put at the top of the first page something that Francis did that you liked or that meant something to you. Then, write a couple paragraphs about that thing that he did and ask yourself what it was that made that meaningful for you. Write in total no more than a page about that. (If you’ve got a lot to say about a couple, you can write two pages. But in general try to keep it brief.)
See if writing that one page doesn’t make you think of other things that Francis did. If it does, put them as the headings of the next few pages in your notebook, and either then or later, write up to a page about each of those. What was that moment, and why was it meaningful to you. And just keep doing that for as long as you have things to write about.
When you’re done, whether you’ve written a couple pages or filled the whole notebook, you’ll have something personal that you can remember Francis by, the gifts he had for you.
If you’re interested in more from me on all this, including the similarities and differences between Francis and Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) and why I think Pope Skywalker could be a great name, I did an Ask Me Anything on Facebook Live Friday. You don’t have to be a Facebook subscriber, it’s open to the public. It’s sometimes serious and sometimes silly (often at the same time), and it was really fun to do.
I was going to end with something silly, but then I stumbled onto this, which is definitely silly, but also something else entirely, and kind of exactly what we’re talking about right now.
Have a good week.
I was not thrilled to see the meeting with Trump and Zelenskyy for the same reason as you. Was there no more private place they could meet? Also - where can I follow Br. Mark O’Connor? Thanks.