A valedictory for Pope Francis

OPINION:

One of the best customs that happens after the death of a pope is that he is no longer referred to by his papal name but rather by his baptismal name. This simple but powerful tradition emphasizes that the pope, who in life is arguably the single most important person on the planet, in death is sheared of all temporal glory and faces God and his judgment just like the rest of us: as a (hopefully) penitential sinner in need of mercy and the intercession of as many saints as possible.

I thought about that as it was announced that Jorge Mario Bergoglio — Pope Francis I — had died Monday morning. Our first obligation to the dead is to pray for them. Unfortunately, that went out the window as commentators from all directions and all religions started the long assessment of his papacy.

The truth is, of course, that our opinions about his time leading the Catholic Church don’t really matter. None of us selected him for the job; the Holy Ghost did. Consequently, it is only God’s opinion of his performance that matters. The same is true for all of us.

Like many Catholics, especially my brothers who have tenaciously hung on to the traditional Mass, I did not agree with everything Francis did. Perhaps the only thing we both saw clearly was that the two principal forms of the Mass — the Novus Ordo Mass, which emerged in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, and the Tridentine Mass said in Latin — cannot coexist indefinitely. A century from now, the Roman Church will tolerate only one of these Masses.

The pontiff made it clear that his preference was the new Mass. Fortunately, the traditional Mass is growing in popularity even as the new Mass wanes. Expect that to continue. People inclined to be religious tend to prefer religions with some teeth.

That said, God gave us Francis for a reason. Perhaps it was because he challenged some in the West, especially those of us in America, to think carefully about what we believe and why. Perhaps God wanted us to rise to the challenge of the Tridentine Mass posed by Francis. Perhaps it was because God was concerned that we had become too comfortable and wanted us to suffer a bit. We will never be sure, at least not on this side of the grave.

Finally, it never ceases to amaze how many people care about who the pope will be and, after the election, how many have opinions about whether the pope is too left or too right or too whatever. During Francis’ tenure, Catholics had to listen to all kinds of nonsense from non-Catholics about the supposed failings of the pontifex maximus. It was no different during the reign of his predecessor.

I have been listening to this unsolicited and mostly uninformed commentary for most of my life, and it gets annoying. After all, I have never known a single Catholic who cared what the Archbishop of Canterbury has ever said or what any austere Muslim cleric might have offered or what the Dalai Lama might think.

After some reflection, I have concluded that people care about who the pope is and what he says (even though they may not agree with him) because most people, whether they acknowledge it to themselves or not, view Roman Catholicism as the singularly authentic religion on this planet. It is the standard by which other religions, especially the derivative religions, measure themselves.

This is the fourth conclave I will have seen as an adult. I am confident that in its wake, billions of Catholics and non-Catholics will prove my point and want to know all about the new pope. Like everyone else, I have no idea who will wind up being the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. But I do know that, as always and in all things, God will send us someone who will bring us what we need.

• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times and a co-host of “The Unregulated” podcast.