Lopez: The pope's example

A papal deathwatch united us. It doesn't seem as crass an observation now that Pope Francis has been rallying, but regardless of one's politics or opinion of him specifically or the Catholic Church more generally, what looked for a weekend like the pontiff's final hours appeared to put one person's health not only on millions of our screens, but in our prayers.

Cynically, I thought the attention would immediately go to score-carding the next papal conclave (and Oscar possibilities for the recent movie about papal succession.) But as with the around-the-clock news coverage of Pope John Paul II's final days, it appears some of us may still believe in something more and something like eternal hope and matters even more important than politics — presidential or papal.

I confess having sighed in relief that Francis' final act as pontiff wasn't to instruct recent Catholic convert Republican Vice President JD Vance on the order of love, in his Feb. 10 letter to the U.S. bishops on immigration. In U.S. Catholic circles, there would never be the end of that social media thread, from the right and left (for lack of a better way to describe "sides" in intra-Church debates).

And while Francis hasn't been known to be the favorite of many a Western conservative, every evening in Rome, U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, about as Western and conservative as they come, has been among those gathering in St. Peter's Square daily praying for him.

George Weigel, the authority on all things John Paul II, referred to JPII's final years as his "last encyclical." It was a living letter to the world about how to die. Similarly, we have seen Francis struggle in a wheelchair, in pain and now out-of-sight at a Roman hospital.

Whereas the advocates of assisted suicide suggest that there is "mercy" in ending things when the going gets tough, watching someone so prominently facing the last season of life as a necessary part of existence should give us pause.

Pope Francis frequently makes headlines for talking about immigration and the environment, but one of the most consistent themes of his tenure has been to push back against our "throwaway" society. As Francis issues messages and moves sainthood causes forward from Gemelli Hospital, he teaches us that life continues. The lack of suffering is not the point of human life. And see how he draws love out of a people who would otherwise be distracted and angry and jaded!

How long Pope Francis will hang on remains unclear. But as he prepares to meet our maker, he reminds us there is so much more to life, and that there is hope beyond wherever our ideological leanings fall.

When the pope between JPII and FI (if you will), Pope Benedict XVI, visited the United States, public transportation in the metro D.C. area proclaimed via an ad buy from the local archdiocese: "He who has hope lives differently." Or so it ought to be. And so, with living our deaths. May it be so — for Francis and for all we love, and are drawn out of ourselves to care for and care about.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and an author."