What’s next for the church of Peter?

Nuns pray for Pope Francis in front of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, in Rome, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, where Pope Francis is hospitalized since Friday, Feb. 14. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

As I write this, Pope Francis is in a hospital in Rome suffering with pneumonia and kidney failure. That’s not good news for an 88-year-old man. Francis could pull through and I hope he does. But in any case, his papacy will soon be over.

I was standing on a rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square on March 13, 2013, as Jorge Mario Bergoglio was introduced to the world as Pope Francis. A crowd of about 100,000 cheered as he gave his urbi et orbi blessing. All of us in the media scrambled to report that prior to his election, Bergoglio was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Early the next morning I sat in the ABC News Bureau in Rome and wrote the following to wrap up KTBB’s coverage.

I’m not Catholic. I’m a Methodist.

Still, I find myself rooting for the Catholic Church. Everyone who professes a Christian faith is descended from the church in Rome. For all the faults of the Roman Church, and they are numerous, at its core the Catholic Church has been an institution dedicated to elevating humans that they might become more worthy of their belief in having been created in God’s own image. The Christian faith in general, and the Catholic Church in particular, has, among other things, chastened its believers. The authority of the church mitigated the baser instincts of man. The teachings of the church have sought to summon our better angels.

As the church has forfeited moral authority due to ineptitude and self-inflicted wounds such as the clergy abuse scandals, nothing really good has rushed in to fill the resulting vacuum.

I also believe that to the extent that the Roman Church suffers a loss of respect, that loss of respect negatively impacts all Christian congregations. For most of the world, Catholicism is Christianity.

Thus, I wish Pope Francis well. I’d like to see the Catholic Church get some of its mojo back.”

The sad fact is that my wish was not granted.

I went on to say the morning after the election that Job One for the new pope was to re-evangelize Europe with an eye toward the same thing for the United States.

Mark 16:15 says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

Much to my disappointment, too much of Francis’s preaching centered not on the gospels but on secular leftist causes such as climate change, transgenderism and unfettered illegal immigration. Pride flags and BLM flags in the sanctuaries of Catholic and other Christian churches served to distract from the dwindling numbers of parishioners in the pews.

European governments are now trying to figure out what to do about their own illegal immigration problem.

The fear is that Francis has packed the College of Cardinals with like-minded leftists who are likely to select another leftist pope.

The hope is that just as it did in our recent election, the pendulum will swing the other way.

For the sake of Christendom and the world, let’s pray that it does.