Pope Francis’ ‘Lifewatch’ Encapsulates the Real Work of the Catholic Church

National Catholic Register, 25 February 2025

However, vigils for popes, like the current one for Pope Francis, have been the exception, not the rule.

Twenty years ago, as Pope St. John Paul II entered the last weeks of his life, I wrote that a papal “deathwatch” — as some inelegantly styled it — was really a “lifewatch.” John Paul was teaching the world how to suffer and to die, which is an important part of how to live. 

“John Paul II is aging, deteriorating and moving closer to his death,” I wrote. 

“In the meantime, a period of reflection, contemplation and prayer will increasingly occupy himself and the Church. But reflection, contemplation and prayer are not something to pass the time until the Church can get back to work — they are the work of the Church. Aging and deterioration are part of life too. So let the lifewatch continue. There is enough to see now, without looking anxiously ahead.”

The lifewatch for Pope Francis has begun, even as the most immediate crisis seems to have passed. The Church is getting to work. On Monday night, pilgrims prayed the Rosary in St. Peter’s Square for the Holy Father, as it was 20 years ago, though then John Paul was above the square in the Apostolic Palace. He had by then come home to die. Pope Francis is at the Gemelli hospital, as he is still responding to treatment. The Church’s work remains the same, namely to get disciples — including the Supreme Pontiff — ready for death. 

“We of the Catholic family, and so many of our friends and neighbors find ourselves this morning at the bedside of a dying father,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York said on Sunday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “Our Holy Father, Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health and probably close to death.”

A lifewatch is a blessing. Families who have had the grace to accompany their loved ones in the days before death know that. But for the Church as a whole regarding the Holy Father, a lifewatch is the exception, not the rule.

Now, we know that popes are sick when they are hospitalized. Until John Paul II, it was not customary for popes to go to the hospital; they were treated in the Apostolic Palace. A makeshift surgical suite was set up there in 1967 for Pope St. Paul VI. Hospitalization means that the world knows that the pope is in danger; the Church knows that it must pray and keep vigil.

Recent experience has been that popes have died rather quickly, without an extended final illness.

St. Pius X (1914) and Pope Pius XI (1939) were only seriously sick for a few days before they died at the Vatican. Venerable Pius XII had serious health difficulties in the last four years of life, but in 1958 he was working a full day as late as Oct. 5. He died in the early morning of Oct. 9 at Castel Gandolfo, removed from Rome. 

St. Paul VI also died at Castel Gandolfo, at the height of summer vacation, so he was not expected to have public engagements. When his death was announced, it was not widely known that he was seriously ill. He died on Aug. 6, 1978, the feast of the Transfiguration, at Castel Gandolfo.

Paul VI did seem to know that the end was near. His last homily was delivered on the solemn feast of Peter and Paul, June 29. It was just days after the 15th anniversary of his election, and he preached a valedictory, applying to himself the words of his papal patron saint. 

“This the Church’s faith, the apostolic faith,” Paul VI said. “‘I have kept the faith!’ I can say today, with the humble but firm consciousness of never having betrayed ‘the holy truth.’”

Nevertheless, even at age 80 in the summer of 1978, it was not expected that he was in his final months. 

Paul VI’s successor, Blessed John Paul I, had the most unexpected death of all, dying suddenly during the night only a month after his election.

The only opportunity for a lifewatch before John Paul was that of St. John XXIII. He had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in the fall of 1962. 

By May 1963, it was clear that the end was coming. He was in Rome and in the Apostolic Palace; it was known that he was dying. People gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray for him; he died on June 3, 1963, soon after a Mass, which had been offered for him in St. Peter’s Square, finished. 

In his book on the seven last words of Christ, Death on a Friday Afternoon, Father Richard John Neuhaus recalled the very public witness to the faith of a dying Pope John XXIII.

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