The eyes of the world turned toward Rome in February as Pope Francis was hospitalized, and diagnosed with pneumonia. Many began to assess his pontificate and think of his possible successor. We pray for his soul…
By Dr. Robert Moynihan
Friday, February 21, 2025 — The eyes of the world turned toward Rome in February as Pope Francis was hospitalized, diagnosed with pneumonia, and the Swiss Guard began practicing their maneuvers in the case of the Pope’s death. The photo on this month’s cover shows Francis gazing upon the wounds of the crucified Lord during his last public appearance before he was hospitalized on February 14.
As I write on February 21, the latest press briefings offer hope for his recovery. His fever has subsided, and he is alert and in good spirits. But Pope Francis is 88, by any standard an elderly man, and his health is clearly precarious. He may very well recover (his care is no doubt the best available), but mortality looms large for him in any case, and thus it does for the Church.
The final days or months, or even years, of this Pope’s reign will be marked by changing circumstances in the world.
First of all, in the political world: a new US President, Donald Trump, and his vice-president, Catholic convert JD Vance, are presenting Pope Francis with an almost entirely new array of American stances on everything from migrants to AI, from conflicts like the ones in Ukraine and Gaza to population control and gender ideology.
Francis believes all migrants should be treated as persons with great human dignity, while Trump is bent, he says, on stopping illegal immigration dead in its tracks in a way likely to denigrate that human dignity. Thus, the Pope wrote a letter to the US bishops in February in which he rebukes the US government (and therefore Trump) for planned mass deportations of illegal immigrants. The US bishops have sued the Trump administration, in fact, for halting the flow of tens of millions of dollars to the USCCB’s migrant-assistance operations — efforts which they say are strictly for “legal” and “vetted” migrants, but which many accuse of aiding and abetting not just illegal immigration, but drug proliferation and child trafficking. So, Francis’s repeated statements about compassion and welcoming immigrants, regardless of their legal status, put him and the new US administration on a collision course.
In regard to AI, Artificial Intelligence, the Vatican, approved by Francis, issued a cautionary document on the dangers of AI and counseling tight control of its development. At the same time, Vice-President Vance just gave a talk to European leaders urging them to lean toward less regulation in order to allow AI’s unhampered development “for the good of the world.”
It is almost as if the differences the Pope had with previous president Biden, though often touching on the very heart of our Faith and the Catholic perception of reality (Holy Communion for those supporting abortion; the nature of the human person, body and soul, created by God), were not as pronounced — did not arouse the Pope to speak out — as much as his differences with Trump, an abortion foe and pro-religious freedom crusader, in the social and political spheres.
This papal attitude annoys many American Catholics, especially the large swath of Trump supporters. Will this American dissatisfaction with Francis’ political and social stances exert any influence as the cardinals look ahead — as they surely are now — to the choosing of his successor?
It is hard to tell if the Trumpian ascendancy actually translates into an American ascendancy of influence in the Catholic Church, but it may. Certainly, the US has always had an outsized footprint at the Vatican, given that it is the richest country in the world and consequently, the Church in the US has always been a generous source of funding for the Vatican. Money talks, as little as we like to admit it. But how loudly it talks remains to be seen.
In fact, the American influence has actually been waning, especially in the Francis pontificate. Perhaps that will change, but perhaps the cardinals, the majority of whom have been chosen by Francis himself, will continue the line of the current Pope.
One thing that Trump and the Pope agree on is the need to end war immediately. The Pope, to his credit, took a fair amount of flak for refusing to throw his support unilaterally behind Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine in the protracted conflict with Russia, and now Trump is taking even more for engineering a meeting with Putin to discuss terms to end the Ukraine war. Yet we do not know what kind of world will result; what kind of world will the attempt at using American muscle to reshape the political landscape produce? What kind of Pope will we need to exert the “soft power” that only he can exert on world diplomacy?
One ray of sunshine for traditional Catholics: a report that the Pope recently wrote a letter to a group of traditional Catholic priests of the Fraternity of St. Peter that they can continue to use the traditional Latin Mass. Here is what a friend just wrote to me: “The other day we got a visit by two seminarians from Wigratzbad in Germany where they study and prepare themselves for priesthood with the tridentine Petrus-brothers who are and live — unlike the Pius Brothers — in full communion with the Pope. But nevertheless they were quite concerned by Traditiones Custodes and were afraid that Pope Francis might take away and cut all their privileges. Therefore their superior wrote a letter to Pope Francis with the following story: ‘Dear Holy Father, ‘there was a little white rabbit chased by a hunter with his gun in a big forest. Bullets all around his ears, but he succeeded to escape and escaped. But then, finally the rabbit was cornered and no escape anymore in sight in front of the hunter with his gun. Then the following thought came to his mind. Yes, there is one safe place left that I see. And with a huge jump the rabbit leaped right into the hunter’s arms, who couldn’t, of course, harm it anymore nor even think of it.’ Having told you this dear Holy Father we’d like to jump into your arms and ask for mercy!” Two days later their superior got a phone call from the Vatican saying: “Here is the Pope. May I invite you to come to Rome to see me to discuss all the relevant issues?” And that’s how it happened. They came to Rome, met the Pope, and confirmed all their privileges and annihilated every obstacle for them. Good morning and love from Rome.”
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