An Editorial by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Those, who should be in the know, act differently when the consequences of what they know effect them personally. That is why, as far as Conservatives in the Church go, how the closest collaborators and allies of Pope Francis have acted since his entrance into the hospital on Feb. 14, 2025, gives a lot of reasons to have bright hopes for the future.

There is a saying at Rome, that “Don’t believe anything is true until it is denied”. This reflects the labyrinthine politics of the Italian culture, where the truth is rarely told. And in the present case, I find that it is a maxim fully verified.

The Pope’s O.K. Don’t Worry

At first, all the Pope’s allies insisted immediately upon his going to the hospital that there was nothing to worry about.

Yet, as we have seen there was a lot to worry about. The pope was diagnosed with pneumonia and high risk of sepsis, and just yesterday with thrombocytopenia, a low blood-platelet count.

The Pope is stable, Let’s pray for him

Then, after few days passed and no substantive news was being released — we would later learn that the Pope’s doctors said that they were acting in this way under direct orders of Pope Francis — his friends and allies, even in the press, began a single song, of “the Pope is stable”. “Stable” implied not getting worse and being in a good condition.

Yet, we see now that the Pope was anything but, his condition was critical, which means his vital signs were out of the normal bounds and that his condition has deteriorated.

Talk about a Renunciation is useless and shameful

Then, as the week moved on, and the common man began connecting the dots, it was reported that Pope Francis himself had feared he would not make it this time around at the hospital. So naturally, since it was insisted he was stable, even high Churchmen began to speak of a possible resignation. This brought quick and forceful back-lashes from Cardinals Parolin and Fernandez.

Yet, there was a half truth in this, as we have seen that the Pope’s health is not going to take a long time to recover, because he is rapidly deteriorating.

The Pope’s not out of danger, but his prognosis is for recovery

Then, Pope Francis’ allies who were not medical doctors began singing together that he was on the road to recovery. They even engineered a conference where his team gave this impression on Friday, afternoon.

Yet, we learned late Saturday, that upon rising in the morning the Pope had a serious and prolonged breathing problem, requiring high doses of oxygen and several blood transfusions.

Conclusion, with an observation

All the high clergy, whose careers were promoted by Pope Francis, are terribly worried anyone might think that he is going to die or resign. And we have seen that this worry is not a psychosis, because it is based on his real medical condition.

But this worry is very revealing. It means that they have NO CONFIDENCE at all, and perhaps even the certainty, that with Pope Francis’ exist stage left, their careers in the Church will come to an end: they see no light at the end of this tunnel.

And that means they already know that in the next Conclave the critics of Pope Francis will elect one of their own by large majority and that this pope is likely to be the Pope Restorer that we have all waited for and prayed for, for more than a generation.