The Week: Pope Francis’s Death, and His Successor’s Challenges

• The vice president should visit Putin next.

• We pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, the first pope to take the name of the beloved saint from Assisi, the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope from the Western hemisphere. His pontificate will be remembered for his welcoming words and humane gestures, such as his dramatic Urbi et Orbi blessing in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and for his final passage through the crowds at St. Peter’s Square, hours before his death. But he was at times provocatively iconoclastic and informal, and often needlessly antagonized those committed to orthodox Catholic belief. He tasked theologians and church leaders with finding a way to justify permission for divorced Catholics to receive Holy Communion even as they remained in second marriages, which the church considers adulterous. He criticized “rigid” young priests. And he clamped down on the traditional Latin Mass. His pontificate began with high hopes of curial reform, to address financial scandals and problems of governance related to child abuse. He did not entirely succeed in either objective. None of those shortcomings, however, detract from the high importance of his office. So we also join in the prayers for the College of Cardinals, which now has the duty to choose Francis’s successor. The college should choose the man who is best equipped to lead the institution of 1.4 billion souls while remaining a humble follower of the Good Shepherd.

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• The vice president should visit Putin next.

• We pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, the first pope to take the name of the beloved saint from Assisi, the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope from the Western hemisphere. His pontificate will be remembered for his welcoming words and humane gestures, such as his dramatic Urbi et Orbi blessing in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and for his final passage through the crowds at St. Peter’s Square, hours before his death. But he was at times provocatively iconoclastic and informal, and often needlessly antagonized those committed to orthodox Catholic belief. He tasked theologians and church leaders with finding a way to justify permission for divorced Catholics to receive Holy Communion even as they remained in second marriages, which the church considers adulterous. He criticized “rigid” young priests. And he clamped down on the traditional Latin Mass. His pontificate began with high hopes of curial reform, to address financial scandals and problems of governance related to child abuse. He did not entirely succeed in either objective. None of those shortcomings, however, detract from the high importance of his office. So we also join in the prayers for the College of Cardinals, which now has the duty to choose Francis’s successor. The college should choose the man who is best equipped to lead the institution of 1.4 billion souls while remaining a humble follower of the Good Shepherd.