The Passing of Pope Francis & The Christian Inflection Point – Top 3 Takeaways – April 22nd, 2025 - Driven By Braman Motorcars
Takeaway #1: An Inflection Point
I’m Catholic. I’m passionate about my faith. I was no fan of Pope Francis’s leadership. That makes my position an unusual one generally. I’ll come back to that point in a moment. When I woke up to the news of his passing yesterday, I was hit with mixed emotions. On the one hand there was and is the sadness that comes with the passing of the leader of the faith. On the other hand, there’s the realization that Francis’s era of progressivism within the church had come to a close. That’s also why the church, the faith, and in many ways Christianity by extension, are now at an inflection point in our society. Simply put, there’s no room for progressivism within Catholicism. The very point of Catholicism is adherence originalism. The role of the Pope to this day has not changed since St. Peter, one of Jesus’s 12 disciples, who was also the first pope, was pope. Christ’s teachings are Christ’s teachings. God’s word, is God’s word. Since the onset of humanity, literally going back to Adam and Eve, man has regularly decided to take liberties with God’s law to fit their desires, their curiosities or to change with the times. Here’s a hint. That never ends well. Society after society that thinks it knows better than God, or that has chosen to ignore the word of God, has fallen. If you read the Old Testament, along the way you’re bound to think “what were these people thinking” over and over again. God provided for and protected his people time and again and seemingly each time, after some period of time, they’d go off and do their own things – ignoring God’s teachings in the process. Sometimes it was a desire to worship false idols. Other times it was motivated by greed. The commonality all throughout human history is that when flawed people, as we all are, are left to our own devices we’ll tend to do the wrong things. As in straying from the words and the teachings of God. Nowhere along the way was there or has there been a time where God came back and said...yeah, you know what, I was just kidding about that whole Ten Commandments things. Or, you know what, I’ve been doing some thinking and it’s time for you to go do whatever it is that feels good to you. And that’s effectively what progressivism is. Time’s change, societies change, technology changes, God’s word doesn’t - yet the creeping crud of progressivism seeks to threaten it yet again just as we’ve seen historically. Pope Francis advocated for leftist modern political constructs including social justice, environmental justice and open borders while also softening the church's stance on homosexuality, marriage and divorce. God’s word didn’t change. Just the previous pope’s opinion of those things. History suggests that’s not a good thing which is why this moment in time represents an inflection point for the Catholic Church but also in many ways for Christianity.
Takeaway #2: Progressivism
Many sects of Christianity have already gone woke deciding to go off and do their own thing as opposed to God’s thing, and if the largest of them all falls prey to the progressivism of the day, the outlook wouldn’t exactly be great for the faith, or biblically speaking, for our societies either. It’s incumbent upon the Catholic Church to do its part to hold the line and to spread God’s word – not their own words in place of God’s. According to the Pew Research Center, among Catholics, Pope Francis had a 78% favorability rating at the time of his passing Monday morning. That makes my view of Pope Francis and outlier’s opinion. And that’s also somewhat concerning to me because it suggests that perhaps most Catholics, well intentioned as they may be, could also be susceptible to manipulation of God’s word through the malevolent tenants of progressivism. At the same time, given a better choice, Catholics will embrace it. Pope John Paul II has been the best pope of my lifetime. He’s also the most approved of pope of my lifetime – with 93% of Catholics approving of his remarkable 32 years as pontiff. What this shows, with only a 15-point difference between the favorability ratings for a conservative pope and a liberal pope, is the significant influence over Catholics that the pope has. So...
Takeaway #3: What comes next?
Nine days of mourning, or novemdiales, funeral rites and then a gathering of cardinals to begin the papal conclave at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. It’s a process that will begin in approximately two weeks. Five frontrunners are rumored to have emerged (and this is reflected in the betting markets, for what it’s worth). The names floated include: Luis Tagle of the Philippines, a 67-year-old progressive, Pietro Parolin of Italy, a 70-year-old moderate, Peter Turkson of Ghana, a 76-year-old progressive, Peter Erdo of Hungary, a 72-year-old conservative and Angelo Scola of Italy who is an 82-year-old conservative. That’s two conservatives, two progressive’s and a potential pope in the middle. What comes next from the Vatican potentially matters more than anything else happening in the world right now – which is saying something. I’ll pray that the next decision, no matter who the person ends up being, prioritizes God’s word, over the current ways and temptations of the world, and would encourage you to do so too. The fate of the Catholic faith, but also the world, may hang in the balance.