The ‘Transitus’ of Francis

Recent weeks have seen Pope Francis undertake his own transitus of sorts. While at this writing he remains alive and headed in a positive direction health-wise, his age (eighty-eight) and increasingly fragile health certainly augur the last phase of his pontificate, whether measured in days, months, or years. Authors and cardinals alike have anticipated such a change for many years, but the prospect of an imminent papal transition seems more likely now than at any point since the waning days of John Paul II. The power vacuum that opened up within the Vatican (largely occupied by the Machiavellian Angelo Cardinal Sodano) during that period has served as a cautionary tale for his successors. Benedict XVI’s resignation was a clear reaction to his proximity to this situation (along with dynamics of his own pontificate, particularly the Vatileaks scandal), and Francis seems likely by temperament and his particular health issues to resign or die before carrying out the prolonged “witness of suffering” that John Paul did.