Today, March 13th, is the tenth anniversary of the election of Jorge Bergolio as the 266th successor of Saint Peter, the first Pope from the ‘new world’, the first Jesuit to become Pope, and the first to take the name Francis.
I will prescind from all the discussions of sedevacantism, which seems too simple and blunt a solution to the very complex, multiple crises facing the Church and the problems of this troubled pontificate. But who will declare the See of Peter vacant? As Thomas More might have put it, one goes with the law, until there is clear and direct evidence, from the proper authority, to the contrary. And our Church is thick with laws, canonical and otherwise. God will take of His Church, in His own good time.
So we pray for the one chosen as Christ’s Vicar on this day, offering up our supplications and our sacrifices, in the span of time that God will give Him – he is 86, approaching his four-score-and-ten. After which the Pope will render an account for all that he has done and not done, as will we all. +