John MacDonald: What surprises me most after the Pope's passing

There’s only been one pope’s death that has really shocked me – and I don’t think it was because I was only 10 years old at the time.  

It was September 1978 and I remember the shock vividly. John Paul I died just 33 days after becoming the Pope.  

We were a Catholic family so it was all everyone seemed to be talking about. Not just because he had died, but because he died so soon after his inauguration.  

So last night when the news that Pope Francis had died came through, I wasn’t shocked or surprised. And I think most people will be like that.  

Especially when he’s been so unwell. Pretty much for most of this year.  

Nevertheless, his passing is significant. And, of course, first thing I did was get on the phone to mum. Because even though I haven’t been what they call a practising Catholic for quite some time, it stays with you. It’s a sense of belonging that never really leaves you.  

It won’t be the same for everyone who grows up a Catholic, but that’s me.  

So he was the first Pope from South America. He was 76 when he was elected.  

As all Popes do, he chose a name. And he chose Francis in honour of St Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century Italian friar who got rid of all his  wealth to become a man of peace and poverty.   

Which brings me to what I’ve been surprised by the most. It's not the fact that the Pope has passed away, it’s what’s being said about his achievements during his time as Pope.  

I’ve seen headlines quoting all manner of people and they've been saying things about how he was a pope for the poor. That he’d had a lifelong commitment to the poor.  

He was anti-capitalism. He was big on the environment. He promoted tolerance. In fact, one of the last things he did was wash the feet of young people locked up in prison.  

This was just before Easter.  

But I didn’t know that. Which is why, when I consider whether the pope (whoever it is), is a leader for all of us —Catholics, non-Catholics, everyone— I would have to say that the role of the pope doesn’t have the same global leadership or impact that it once did.  

That’s how I see it.  

Which, in a way is surprising. Because it is so much easier to get the message out to the world these days.  

And I think that the church is going to have to do more to promote the values and work of the next pope. Because if it doesn’t, there will be no shortage of people making noise about what they’re up to and the pope’s global influence will diminish.    

Maybe my ignorance of the work and achievements of Pope Francis reflects the fact that I’m not engaged with the church.  

Maybe practising Catholics will be right up with the play. And maybe practising Catholics are quite happy not to see the pope popping up on Instagram and TikTok all the time.  

Two years after becoming pope, Pope Francis issued what’s called an encyclical letter —this was in 2015— and he said then that poverty and ecological destruction were two things the world needed to confront.  

Linking the two together, of course, because coming from South America, he was acutely aware of the link between ecological destruction and poverty.  

And, according to a German Catholic relief organisation, one the Pope's major achievements was the attention he helped to focus on the environment.  

Which is news to me, and it raises the question: is the Pope's global influence what it used to be? 

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