For some strange reason we, humans who are still alive, tend to praise anyone who has died, no matter what we used to think of him or her right before. We don’t dare keep our previous critical opinion, as if it were a capital sin or a highway to Hell. Pope Francis was harshly criticized in Argentina, his homeland, for various reasons. He never returned here after becoming the pontiff and warmly welcomed several political figures at the Vatican (Cristina Fernández de Kirchner among them) who had openly despised him when he was Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. These days, after his death, everyone seems to forget all that. They are all rushing to Rome to bid him farewell. Are they playing dumb, or feigning ignorance, I wonder? “Never underestimate the hypocrisy of politicians,” best-selling writer James Herbert once said. I would put it this way: they are all more royalist than the King, or “más papistas que el Papa.” Sigh…
Buenos Aires Times, April 26, 2025