The Death of Pope Francis

Nation First looks at the end of a catastrophic papacy and the possible coming of something worse.

Dear friend,

I was just metres away from him. It was Easter Sunday, 2018. Saint Peter’s Square. Morning Mass. The Pope came whizzing by in the popemobile — smiling, waving, soaking in the adulation. I remember being struck by how small and frail he looked even then. But behind that carefully cultivated image of humility and simplicity stood something much darker. A man whose pontificate did more to disfigure the Catholic Church than perhaps any in modern memory.

Now, Pope Francis — Jorge Mario Bergoglio — is dead at 88. And with him ends more than a reign. It closes the most confusing, scandal-ridden, and ideologically compromised papacy in centuries.

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• Pope Francis destroyed Catholic tradition by flooding the Church with globalist ideology, moral relativism, and political activism.

• He replaced doctrine with confusion, blessing heresy and empowering radical reformers under the guise of compassion and dialogue.

• His leadership emboldened predators, punished faithful clergy, and launched a brutal war against the Latin Mass and orthodox belief.

• He filled the College of Cardinals with ideological clones who are now poised to elect an even worse successor.

• The Church — and the West — now stands at a crossroads, needing truth, clarity, and holy resistance to survive.

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So, the radical Francis papacy has ended, but don’t breathe easy just yet. The damage he did wasn’t just episodic — it was structural. He remade the College of Cardinals — the very body responsible for electing his successor — in his own image. And many believe the next pope may not only continue his revolution. He may deepen it.

This is not just about Catholics. This matters to anyone who values truth, order, faith, and the moral bedrock of the West.

The Roman Catholic Church is still the largest Christian denomination in the world. With over a billion adherents, what happens in Rome ripples across the globe. Its teachings, policies, and compromises influence Christian institutions far beyond its own walls. When the Vatican speaks — or worse, confuses or capitulates — it subtly steers Christianity as a whole into waters that can be either life-giving or deadly. As the cultural tide rises against Judeo-Christian values, millions look to Rome, whether they admit it or not, for direction and moral clarity. Under Pope Francis, what they got instead was a spiritual fog machine.

Let’s not whitewash this legacy.

Francis oversaw — and in many cases orchestrated — the infiltration of globalist ideology, moral relativism, and left-wing activism into the highest corridors of the Catholic Church. In the name of “compassion,” he blessed confusion. In the name of “dialogue,” he emboldened heresy. In the name of “mercy,” he turned a blind eye to corruption.

One of the earliest signs of his drift came with the scandal surrounding the pagan idol known as Pachamama. In October 2019, in the heart of the Vatican Gardens, indigenous figures prostrated themselves before wooden statues of a naked, pregnant fertility goddess. Francis not only presided over the ceremony — he later apologised when faithful Catholics threw the idols into the Tiber River. And he even placed a Pachamama offering bowl on the altar at St. Peter’s Basilica. The symbolism was unmistakable: syncretism replacing sanctity.

This wasn’t an isolated event. It was emblematic of a papacy obsessed with “dialogue” and “accompaniment” — code for dissolving doctrine in a soup of political correctness.

The Pope’s obsession with Synodality — sold as a process of listening and inclusion — became, in practice, a vehicle for dragging the Church into the modern world’s moral abyss. In plain terms, the “Synod on Synodality” was a years-long effort to decentralise truth, empower heterodox activists, and blur the lines between sacred tradition and social engineering. The German Synod, emboldened by Francis’ style of leadership, didn’t just push Protestant-style democracy — it endorsed same-sex blessings and openly supported access to abortion.

The nadir came in December 2023, when the Vatican released the infamous document Fiducia Supplicans, authorising “blessings for couples in irregular situations and same-sex unions.” While claiming not to endorse the lifestyles of these couples, the document did precisely that — by granting liturgical recognition where none belonged.

This document was written by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, known to many as “Tucho.” He’s not some anonymous bureaucrat. He’s the Pope’s theological brain — handpicked to lead the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog. Fernández’s most infamous contribution to Catholic thought? A book on the “theology of kissing,” followed by another even more bizarre text exploring the theology of orgasms. Yes, really.

And what of Francis’s theology?

In July 2024, during his visit to Singapore, Pope Francis made headlines again — not for proclaiming the Gospel, but for watering it down. Speaking off the cuff, he said: “There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian — and they are different paths.” This bold assertion — that “all religions are a path to God” — was met with strong rebuke.

Bishop Joseph Strickland, formerly of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, fired back on social media: “Please pray for Pope Francis to clearly state that Jesus Christ is the only Way. To deny this is to deny Him. If we deny Christ, He will deny us. He cannot deny Himself.” Strickland, one of the few voices of clarity in the episcopacy, was dismissed by Francis in 2023 — after publicly correcting multiple heterodox statements from the Pope.

Protestant leaders joined the outcry. Evangelical pastor Greg Laurie quoted Christ’s own words: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Former Anglican and now Old Catholic priest Fr Calvin Robinson called the Pope’s comments “counter-scriptural” and warned that the “gate is narrow.”

This pluralistic theology wasn’t a one-off. In 2018, Pope Francis told a grieving young boy — whose atheist father had died — that God “would not abandon his father.” It was a tender moment. But it flew in the face of both Scripture and Catholic doctrine. Romans 10:9 is clear: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Francis, instead, chose emotional consolation over eternal truth.

He did the same with public figures. The Vatican awarded a papal knighthood — the Order of St. Gregory the Great — to Lilianne Ploumen, a Dutch politician who launched She Decides, a global movement promoting abortion as a human right. She later claimed the award was “confirmation” of her work for “safe abortion.” The Vatican said little. Francis said nothing.

Meanwhile, a stalwart pro-life priest, Fr Frank Pavone, who ran Priests for Life, was defrocked because he went too hard with visuals on social media. He was actually accused, by the Vatican, of “blasphemy” for his pro-life posts.

Francis railed repeatedly against “rigid” Catholics — a label he slapped on anyone who loved the Church’s traditional teachings or attended the ancient Latin Mass. In fact, one of his first motu proprios — papal edicts — was Traditionis Custodes, a brutal crackdown on the Traditional Latin Mass, which had been flourishing among young faithful worldwide. He stripped bishops of the power to authorise it, banned it from parish churches, and hinted at banning it altogether. Why? Because it reminded people of what the Church once was: holy, reverent, masculine, eternal.

Then there were the scandals. Sex abuse coverups weren’t a bug of this pontificate — they were a feature.

Francis protected Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, a fellow Argentine credibly accused of abuse, by creating a Vatican job for him and resisting efforts to extradite him. He allegedly lifted the excommunication of Father Marko Rupnik, a serial abuser of nuns, within weeks — and allowed him to continue his ministry. And in 2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former papal ambassador, dropped a bombshell letter alleging that Francis had knowingly rehabilitated Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a known predator, and made him a close advisor.

Vigano’s mention of non-pope and anti-pope may bewilder some. However, many Catholics — including canonists and theologians — have long questioned whether Francis was ever validly elected. Some argue that Pope Benedict XVI's resignation in 2013 was invalid — either because it was coerced, or because he only resigned the ministry of the papacy, not the office (the munus). Others point to irregularities in the 2013 conclave itself — with allegations of political organising in violation of papal election law. These concerns may not be resolved until Judgment Day, but they are no longer fringe.

In a post to social media platform X after Francis’ death became news, Viganò recalled that interview and the error within it, and said:

“His soul has not disappeared, nor has it dissolved: he will have to account for the crimes he has committed, first of all having usurped the throne of Peter in order to destroy the Catholic Church and loose so many souls.
But if this non-pope and anti-pope can no longer harm the Mystical Body, his heirs still remain... the subversives whom he has invalidly created ‘cardinals’... It is on these people that the greatest responsibility for the outcome of the next ‘conclave’ falls.”

So, where does that leave us?

It leaves us with a Church that has been led by a man who diluted doctrine, sided with heretics, coddled predators, and hollowed out the institutions he was meant to protect. Worse, he’s left behind a College of Cardinals stacked with ideological clones — many of whom owe their red hats to their support for the very revolution Francis unleashed.

The next pope will likely come from this poisoned pool. And unless God intervenes, the downward spiral will continue.

For Catholics, this is a time for penance, clarity, and holy resistance.

But for everyone else — Protestants, secular conservatives, libertarians — this moment is also a wake-up call. Because if even the Vatican can fall, what makes you think your church, your party, your country is immune?

As for the next papacy, Watch what it teaches, who it blesses, and where the money goes.

Yes, the next pope may be worse. That’s the simple, chilling truth. Francis has set the Church on a path where confusion is now policy, and where wolves not only roam the sheepfold — they run it.

I keep coming back to that moment in 2018. Easter Sunday. Rome. I was metres away from him—the Pope of the Catholic Church—riding past in his popemobile, smiling to the crowds. A man who carried the hopes of a billion souls, he should have been a rock. But as I stood there, I didn’t feel peace. I felt unease—the same unease that millions of faithful Catholics and Christians around the world have come to know.

Now that chapter has closed. And a darker one may yet begin.

The question now isn't how close we are to the next Pope. It’s how close we are to the Truth — and whether we’re willing to stand for it, no matter what comes next.

The soul of the West will not be saved by politically correct platitudes or bureaucratic synods. It will be saved by men and women who cling to the Truth, no matter the cost. Truth that is not created by men or mutated by trends, but revealed, eternal, and unchangeable.

Until next time, God bless you, your family and nation.

Take care,

George Christensen

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George Christensen is a former Australian politician, a Christian, freedom lover, conservative, blogger, podcaster, journalist and theologian. He has been feted by the Epoch Times as a “champion of human rights” and his writings have been praised by Infowars’ Alex Jones as “excellent and informative”.

George believes Nation First will be an essential part of the ongoing fight for freedom:

“The time is now for every proud patriot to step to the fore and fight for our freedom, sovereignty and way of life. Information is a key tool in any battle and the Nation First newsletter will be a valuable tool in the battle for the future of the West.”

— George Christensen.

Find more about George at his www.georgechristensen.com.au website.

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Authorised by G. Christensen, River Street, Mackay