A Different Kind of Pope – Analysis by Theodore Kalmoukos

Source: The National Herald

Originally published on April 22, 2025

The late Pope Francis – whose ecclesiastical title was Bishop of Rome (Old Rome, as Constantinople is the New Rome) – was, both in life and after his exit from time (what we commonly call ‘death’), a different kind of Pope.

During his life, he was the Pope “of Christ’s least brethren”: the poor, the lonely, the marginalized, the imprisoned – all those who, as the saying goes, “have no place in the sun.” It was with these that Christ – the One of the Holy Trinity – chose to identify, offering His disciples through the ages a living example that what ultimately ‘judges’ human beings is the measure of their love. Yes, that.

Even after death, Pope Francis continues to teach – through his will, which stands as an paradigm of simplicity, humility, and awareness that “all is dust, all is ashes, all is shadow.” That is why he expressed the wish to be placed in a plain wooden coffin, open, not enclosed in the traditional three ornate coffins as the established protocol dictates.

He also requested to be buried directly in the earth at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, rather than in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica – thus breaking with tradition and becoming the first Pope in a century to be buried outside the Vatican.

His passing also abruptly overturned the planned joint pilgrimage with Patriarch Bartholomew to Nicaea, commemorating the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council. But that is life – which unfolds under the law of probability – and so let us not forget: “When we make long-term plans, God laughs.”

May the hierarch who succeeds him be a person of God – but also a person of the people, just as Francis of now-blessed memory was.

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NOTE:

(May 9, 2025) Orthodox Christian Laity congratulates the newly elected Pope Leo XIV and encourages him to fulfill the previously planned joint pilgrimage with Patriarch Bartholomew to Nicaea, commemorating the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council.