One pope dies, another comes along

 Well, he's gone, God rest his soul. And whatever our feelings might be, it is time now to say with the ancients, De mortuis, nil nisi bonum. As I said in an earlier post, God will be his judge, and mine.

I thought the funeral was impressive for many reasons, not least the fact that the Sistine Choir seems finally to have got its act together; they performed very creditably. The choice of music was good, though some of the new compositions, for those responsories, were a little peculiar; polyphonic verses in sharply different styles. Even the vestments were decent, as was the dignified ceremonial.

Attention has been drawn to the large crowd present. Indeed there was a very large crowd; it seemed to me much larger than the late Pontiff ever drew in his lifetime. Many in the media asserted it was a popular endorsement of his reign, especially by the young, who were there in number. I'm not so sure; it is still Holy Year and the weekend of the funeral was to have been dedicated to the young, many of whom travelled to Rome for that reason, and just happened coincide with the funeral. Cardinal Kasper (yes, he's still going!) commented that the size of the crowd was a clear sign, vox populi, vox Dei, that the entire Church is calling for a continuation of exactly the style of Pope Francis. Well, he's entitled to his opinion, but he might have remembered the even larger crowds at the funeral of Pope St John Paul. Was that also the voice of God calling for more of the same? And, look as I might, I did not see a single banner saying Santo subito this time round. No, I think it was simply that the funeral of a pope is one of those occasions that will naturally draw a crowd; these things are some of the turning points of history, and naturally people want to be there.

Much too has been said of the humility of Pope Francis' simple burial and tomb, in contrast to the magnificence of his predecessors'. I fail to see a significant difference between his tomb and the original tombs of Paul VI, JPII and Pope Benedict, except that Francis is buried in the body of the church and not in a crypt. But one mustn't overdo this or read too much into it.

As for the guests, well really it was an extraordinary turn-out of heads of state and royalty. I gather that the only state that did not send anybody important was Israel: the Israeli newspaper Haaretz pointed out acidly that whereas countries like even Iran and the Gulf states managed to make a good showing, Israel cared little enough only to send its own ambassador who presumably had to be there anyway. We all know about the Trump and Zelenskyy meeting, which will hopefully bear some good result, but I'm sure that a lot of other meetings will have taken place; there can be few occasions when so many of the great and good are together in one place.

And now we await the conclave. Now the world knows far more about how these things happen, thanks to the movie. That should save us having to confront the stranger opinions about what the cardinals get up to. 

I read that some cardinals visited an ice cream parlour a day or so ago, and were bemused that the group of young people they encountered there dropped to their knees and asked the cardinals' blessing. That perhaps is a surer indication of the sort of pontificate they desire than speculation that their mere presence at the funeral could be taken as wanting to continue the policies of the late Holy Father.