I am not Catholic, but I know many of you are. I know the news of Pope Francis’s death is affecting many today. Francis seemed to try to make the Catholic Church more welcoming and inclusive, and I know there are those who believe he did not do enough. I hope the cardinals will elect a pope who will push harder for reforms and to do more against the abuses of the church through the years. I fear they won’t, but I hope they will. My condolences today to all my Catholic friends out there. As the t-shirt on the man above says, I think Pope Francis did leave a mark on Catholic history.
In a more personal and different note, I’m having an ultrasound of my liver this morning. The blood test conducted while I was in the hospital and the CT scan that I had, showed some worrying numbers. I had already known that I have fatty liver disease, but I’ve been working on exercising more and being more careful with my diet. The CT scan showed that fatty liver may have caused some fibrosis, and so the doctors ordered a liver ultrasound and liver elastography to assess for fibrosis. I’m not too worried about this. When I saw my doctor last week, he said the numbers in my blood tests did not show signs of fibrosis, and he thought the severe numbers they saw at the hospital were because I was so sick. However, he wanted me to still have the ultrasound to be certain.
In other news, this is the last week of classes. While I have enjoyed teaching this class, it has been a lot of work. I hope I will teach this class again in the future now that I have the basics created for it. I have one more lecture tomorrow which I plan to be more of a discussion than a lecture, then it will be all about grading to finish things up.
I hope everyone has a great week! Again, my condolences to my Catholic friends out there.
Joe
The Closet Professor 
April 21st, 2025 at 7:12 am
Pope Francis’ death is so very sad but not a surprise given his many life-threatening medical scares. I’ll put up a candle for him soon. Not sure if the Protestants do votive candles too.
Who will succeed him? Perhaps Ralph Fiennes!!
Seriously, I suspect the Italian super-conservative Curia were pretty fed up with Francis and liberal and radical policies and the end result will be a traditional Italian or Spanish Pope and not one who is a Jesuit firebrand.
RIP
April 21st, 2025 at 8:36 am
Michael, some of us in the Anglican tradition do use votive candles….I can only imagine that Francis struggled mightily to hold on until Easter so that his death would not overshadow the Resurrection of our Lord. Either that or having to meet J.D. Vance was the final straw.
April 21st, 2025 at 8:39 am
I had the same thoughts about Pope Francis’s death when I heard the news.
April 21st, 2025 at 8:52 am
I suspect that having to meet JD Vance would equate to one of the lower circles of Hell. About on par with poor King Charles having to meet Trump.
There is a true story that at a grand state dinner at Blenheim Palace on Trump’s first visit, he asked the foreign secretary whether Britain had any nuclear weapons. Would you believe it?
April 21st, 2025 at 11:32 am
Sadly, I do believe Trump would ask that. I doubt Pope Francis was anything but gracious with JD, but I would love to think he gave JD a lecture about selling his soul to the devil for political and financial gain, how he should be so ashamed of how he treated Zelenskyy, and he needed to repent for his lies and hateful speech or Vance would be the one in the lower levels of hell. Sadly, I think Francis’s health was too poor for any of that, but when you are supposed to be the voice of God on earth, I suspect the Pope could have gotten away with it and humiliated Vance in the way someone who you might admire tells you they are profoundly disappointed in you. He could have, and I’m sure would have done it in the most Christian way possible but there is no way Vance would have ever been able to get up and leave. He’d have to sit there and take the chastisement. It wouldn’t change anything but someone of moral authority, and who is supposed to have more moral authority than the Pope, needs to tell these people how evil they are. Francis did make disparaging remarks about Trump during his first term, though it wasn’t direct, it was still unmistakably a chastisement.
April 24th, 2025 at 10:32 am
Actually, the “polite” way to instruct Vance is to ask him how long it has been since his last confession. Once he answers, the Holiness would be well within his pastoral role to urge Vance to reflect on his behavior and words towards migrants and the laundry list of others he has bashed prior to making his confession.
The Papacy dances on eggshells when it comes to speaking truth to evil people in power. Pope Pius never excommunicated Adolf Hitler out of fear Hitler would retaliate against clergy and nuns in Germany. And the Vatican was more than glad to doing money laundering of funds Hitler took from Jewish folks… And look at Berlusconi when he led Italy—having his orgies and cheating on his wife…
Thanks Joe
April 24th, 2025 at 10:34 am
I suspect that the only thing Trump knows about the United Kingdom is that his mother was an illegal immigrant from Scotland and that he owns some golf courses there…but a global embarrassment
April 21st, 2025 at 8:31 am
Joe, your post was my first news of the death of Pope Francis. I am no longer a Roman Catholic. I was in seminary studying for the Catholic priesthood when he was elected, so I felt somehow involved in the process because of my prayers during the conclave. The idea of having anyone besides Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) as pope was welcome news. I can still remember being forced to read one of Ratzinger’s books in my moral theology class. There is nothing more stupid than having to read about sex as “explained” by a man who was obviously a virgin. Being the first Jesuit elected as pope was a wonderful new adventure. May he rest in peace.