Francis by Patrick J. Marrin for April 21, 2021

Today’s strip is a little deaper than usually. And that’s a good thing.

I like this one!

It comes to us all.

Oh dear, have I missed something? Is Francis ailing? This is the second strip to alluding to an ending, and he didn’t give the Mass at Easter, right?

♪♫ “Don’t fear the Reaper!” ♫♪

Death is a part of life… the last part.

As my long-gone grandmother used to joke, especially on her deathbed, “home is where the harp is" and I’m not absolutely sure she wasn’t, in some small way, also alluding to the beer!

Someone else commented recently elsewhere: A 100 year old woman said “I’ll bet all my friends think I went to Hell”.

I’m missing something. Why would Francis go back to Argentina? Benny didn’t go back to Germany.

I don’t think real Francis has ruled out retiring (and yeah, Benedict made a point of not being elsewhere. That helps weed out chance of anything being misconstrued as alternate location or competition or undermining current pope).I think Francis would retire if he felt he wasn’t up to the demands of the job, but would be especially reluctant to do so while Benedict is still alive, to avoid the scenario of having TWO (!) living ex-popes.

amen

“Then out spake brave Horatius, the captain of the gate, ‘To every man upon the earth, Death cometh soon or late..’ "

A change up. This came out Wednesday instead of Thursday.