Taking charge of 1.4 billion souls: the spectacle gripping the world
Serenhedd James• May 1, 2025
Every so often there comes a moment in history when the world’s entire attention is focused on a particular event or person – the death of a pope is one such example. When Pope Francis appeared to give Urbi et Orbi on Easter morning, and to be driven around St Peter’s Square for what would be the final time, he looked so unwell that it seemed obvious that he would not live much longer. With impeccable timing, which could hardly have been more dramatic, he died that night; the last act of this Servant of the Servants of God was to impart his apostolic benediction to Rome and the world beyond its gates.
The response to his death has been remarkable; an international outpouring of tangible grief accompanied by a generally sincere yearning for information. Very quickly requests arrived for interviews from local and international broadcasters – from the UK, Australia and the United States. I did my best to accept as many as possible, and found the experience extremely varied. As we have covered online and in these pages, Pope Francis’s character was a fascinating combination of openness and inscrutability – and occasionally of contradiction, too. For many of my interlocutors this seemed to come as something of a surprise.
Meanwhile, with my historian’s hat on, what was particularly fascinating was the response of the British establishment. The King – the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and successor of Henry VIII – released a heartfelt tribute and conducted official engagements in mourning dress. Flags were flown at half-mast on government buildings, as indeed they also were in the United States. Meanwhile, the Archbishop of York – both the papacy and the See of Canterbury are simultaneously vacant for the first time since 1691 – publicly prayed for the repose of Pope Francis’s soul. What was that about a Reformation?
The reaction online, in an arena that Pope Francis inhabited so effectively, was immediate; so too was the speculation, sometimes frenzied and in many cases perhaps rather too soon for good taste, about who his successor might be.
The Guardian reported that online viewing of Edward Berger’s recent film Conclave, which won best picture at the Baftas and was nominated for eight Oscars, soared by 283 per cent in the days following his death.
As this month’s May edition of the Catholic Herald magazine went to press, the focus in Rome was on the lying-in-state and the papal funeral; very soon it will shift to the conclave, and by the June issue we will almost certainly know who will come next. We will know, too, what his papacy will be like from the moment his name is announced by the senior cardinal deacon: Francis II? Benedict XVII? John Paul III? Pius XIII has surely been ruled out by Jude Law in The Young Pope.
The betting shops wasted no time in publishing their odds, either. Placing a wager on the outcome of a conclave used to be an excommunicable offence, but names have risen and fallen in the rankings like horses at the Derby – some of the touted papabili found themselves mobbed like celebrities in the streets of Rome. Will the next pope come from Asia or Africa? Will the electors think that after five decades, it is time for an Italian to be Bishop of Rome? Will he be well known, like some of the prefects of dicasteries, or from the peripheries of the Church, which Pope Francis loved so well? At the time of writing, God alone knows.
What is certain, however, is that he will have his work cut out. Among other things, whoever appears on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in due course will have to contend with the near-collapse of the Church in her traditional heartlands, bring peace once more in the liturgy wars, continue to work on reforming the Vatican’s finances, and move heaven and earth to tackle decisively and effectively the suppurating scandal of abuse. And all this he must do as a febrile world teeters on the edge of further violence and instability – as if personal responsibility for 1.4 billion souls were not already burden enough.
Photo: Pope Francis prays in front of the statue of the Immaculate Conceptionon at Spanish Steps, Rome, Italy, 8 December 2013. Following a tradition laid out by his predecessors, Pope Francis celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception by travelling to Spanish Steps where he venerated the statue named for the Marian Feast. The statue of the Immaculate Conception was consecrated on 8 December 1857, several years after the dogma which states that Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin was adopted by the Church. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images.)
This article appears in the May 2025 edition of the Catholic Herald. To subscribe to our thought-provoking magazine and have independent, high-calibre and counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click HERE.