A good Pope says goodbye

Of all the ones I’ve known, Pope Francis has been my favorite and I’m sad he’s gone, even though I’m not a practicing catholic. Still I know that I’m counted into the 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide and that’s okay with me. 

That figure is based on the number of people who have been baptized into the Catholic faith. This said, it seems that the Catholic Church isn’t too exacting when it comes to keeping statistics, simply because of its sheer size, as there are more than 250 million Catholic parishes. 

Assessing the number of faithful doesn’t hinge on strict methodology, instead, parish priests are asked to estimate the size of their flock. That's partly a function of how many people turn up to mass, but they also make some sort of guesstimate of the number who might come along for rites of passage like baptism, first communion, weddings, funerals and so on. 

This may lead to some vast over-counting of anyone who has lapsed or left the Church altogether or has even died be still is counted, a problem that every religion faces, not to mention a natural human tendency for one-upmanship that most religious are guilty of. 

But back to Pope Francis, filled with humility, compassion and goodness, I can only hope that his successor will be as tough on the Catholic establishment and the Curia as his predecessor has been, and will continue on the path of meaningful reforms, for which I’m still ready to be disappointed...

Sure, Francis as a Pope wasn’t perfect as he stumbled with Ukraine, but even when labeled “infallible” who really is?  In the meantime, as Pope Francis discovers that there’s an afterlife or just nothing, I wish him a well-deserved rest!