What the Widespread Response to Pope Francis's Death Tells Us

After the death of Pope Francis, responses and comments from people poured in from all around the world. The Pope is a public figure, either beloved or disliked by many. The purpose of this article, however, is not to discuss the late Pope’s popularity among the people, but a certain kind of response and what it tells us about the depth of the faithful’s knowledge about Catholic doctrine. 

Scrolling through social media and reading through the comments section on posts commemorating the Pope’s death, I discovered that many people seem to believe and assume that the Pope went straight to Heaven. These sentiments were, in my experience, the most prevalent among Spanish-speaking people on Spanish posts. Expressions that referenced him being in Heaven, such as “Pray for us, Pope Francis!” (a phrase that was even used by the Cardinal who presided over Francis’s funeral in the Vatican), “Take care of us from Heaven,” and even words similar to, “Keep doing your work from Heaven,” were (and are) not entirely uncommon. 

But I not only found such sentiments expressed by “insignificant” people in the comments section. There were also Catholic profiles dedicated to sharing prayers, spiritual messages, or reflections spreading things like these — messages declaring Pope Francis as already being or arriving in Heaven and being welcomed by the angels. These are profiles that, while not what can be considered “professional,” are nevertheless followed trustfully by dozens – if not hundreds – of Catholic users who wish to enrich their faith through the Catholic posts they (these profiles) make. 

I was (and am) horrified at this presumption of the final destination of his soul, and even more so that profiles and even news agencies on whom many of the Catholic faithful depend would spread erroneous sentiments and messages like the ones detailed above (Catholic news channel EWTN comes to mind). I do not feel this way because I myself feel sure that Pope Francis’s soul is not in Heaven – to be frank, I do not presume to know anything about it. I hope he is in Heaven, but other than that, I perform my duty as a Catholic to pray for his soul, so that, in the case that he should find himself yet in Purgatory, he might be delivered to his Eternal Reward sometime soon. 

The reason why I was horrified by these responses to the Pope’s death is for two reasons only, which I will proceed to detail below. 

First of all, it is wrong to assume that someone went to Heaven. Not only is this wrong, but it is lacking in christian mercy and charity. This is because, when someone goes to Heaven, it means that they no longer need prayers for their soul. Therefore, when we choose to assume that someone is already in Heaven, it means that we are depriving them of the prayers they may very well need in order to be freed from Purgatory. How many souls have been abandoned without the prayers they needed because of this erroneous, widespread sentiment and belief? 

But such an erroneous sentiment would not be expressed if it were not first believed by people, and here is where the second reason comes into play. The problem, then, lies here: the people believe that the Pope is in Heaven. To play devil’s advocate for a second, one could say that, perhaps, this has come simply as a result of the widespread canonization of the majority of the post-Vatican II popes. “Perhaps this has made the people think that being elected Pope automatically makes one a saint,” you could say. Fair enough. However, it is not only the soul of Pope Francis that people have declared to be in Heaven.

Meander through the comments section of any given post about a person’s death, where Catholic people leave comments. Declarations such as these can be found upon the death of any given person, cleric or lay, practicing Catholic or “non-practicing Catholic” (to use the common term). It is not just with the Pope. It is with anyone and everyone. Even with non-Catholics, in spite of the true Catholic dogma that outside the Church there is no salvation. The idea that Heaven is, indeed, a free-for-all is widespread and believed by the majority of the Catholic faithful nowadays. This demonstrates – once again, and yet in another area – the lack of knowledge among us about what the Catechism teaches. 

It is hard to blame the people, when we know the real reason behind this widespread, confused belief. The people do not know the truth because the truth is not spoken. The truth is that the way to Heaven is narrow, and that there are such places as Purgatory and hell; Purgatory, where souls go to expunge their sins before they can enter Heaven, and hell where souls go to be punished eternally for their sins. These are hard truths – painful truths. But they are truths nonetheless. That they are hard and painful to realize and accept does not make Purgatory and hell any less real, and Heaven easier to reach. Souls are either saved or not saved, and the actions in their lives have a direct effect on whether they are saved or not. 

The existence of hell is hardly spoken of from the pulpit nowadays, or even Purgatory. It is not rare that one attends a funeral Mass only to hear the priest attempt to “comfort” the people by canonizing the deceased. I can attest to this happening more than once in my lifetime as a Catholic. Hearing the kind of homilies preached at average Catholic funerals, one can easily walk away with the impression that we are Protestant in our beliefs of salvation, except that we have the Mass and seven sacraments. The kind of homilies given by priests at average Catholic funerals are, to be blunt, abominations. Add to that the permission of eulogies where people are allowed to say anything they like, and things only get worse. 

But what happens when it is not only the homilies of confused priests that are misleading the faithful, but even the liturgy itself? 

As attested in my profile, I attend the traditional Latin Mass. Two years ago, however, I had to attend the funeral of my uncle who passed away after a long battle with cancer. This was one of the funeral Masses at which I experienced a priest declaring the soul of the deceased was in Heaven, but, aside from that, I remember being struck when I realized that some of the prayers of the Mass themselves – prayers that the priest was reading and not ad-libbing of his own volition – seemed to indicate the same thing. I was not nit-picking to try to find things that were wrong with the liturgy at that time – I had never even attended a traditional Requiem Mass – yet that is the impression I got. 

Something is wrong with how the modern-day Church reacts and perceives death, and what happens to a soul afterwards. The death of Pope Francis exposed this dearth of knowledge among the faithful at a large scale. Yet the faithful cannot be blamed for this when they have either not been taught the truth, or, even worse, been taught a falsehood by those who should be their teachers. The problem will never be corrected, however, until the issue of the ambivalence of the funeral prayers for the New Rite of the Mass is addressed. We cannot have mixed messaging, for it would only lead to more confusion. The issue, then, is two-fold. Pray for the soul of Pope Francis and those of other deceased Catholics, for it is not Christian to abandon a soul to its own helplessness.