⛪️ ‘The Pope Is Dead!’: How News Outlets Prepared In Advance To Cover Francis’ Passing 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
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(ANALYSIS) “The pope is dead!”
Religion writer Kelsey Dallas shouted those words to her husband — or something to that effect — when she awakened to a push notification Monday.
Like fellow Godbeat journalists, she immediately scurried to get her prewritten obituary of Pope Francis published.
“I wrote it in late February at a point in the pope's hospitalization when the daily updates were quite grave,” said Dallas, who covers religion for the Salt Lake City-based Deseret News. “The text was edited, and photos were attached, so all I had to do Monday morning was write a brief intro.”
When the leader of the world’s estimated 1.4 billion Catholics passes, it’s always banner-headline news.
Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Dec. 4, 2024. (Shutterstock photo)
A non-Catholic, I remember when Pope Paul VI — later canonized a saint by Pope Francis — died on Aug. 6, 1978.
Not long after that, smoke started billowing from the Vatican on all three major networks. Suddenly, the cartoons I enjoyed watching as a kid were replaced with somber-looking dudes with red hats (although I’m not entirely certain my family owned a color TV at the time).
Then Pope John Paul I died after just 33 days in office, and the process started all over again. What a traumatic experience for a 10-year-old boy.
I’m joking … mostly.
But keep in mind, we didn’t have 150 channels back then.
Fast-forward a few decades: I got my first major religion reporting experience when I covered Pope John Paul II’s 1999 visit to St. Louis. (Beatified by Pope Benedict in 2011, John Paul II was canonized a saint by Pope Francis in 2014.)
This week, of course, the death of Pope Francis at age 88 has dominated global headlines.
Francis suffered a stroke, followed by a coma and irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse, according to the Vatican. The first pontiff from the Americas passed at 7:35 a.m. Rome time Monday. Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced the pope’s death at 9:45 a.m. Rome time.
As you may recall, Clemente Lisi — Religion Unplugged’s executive editor and resident expert on Catholic news — lives in New York, which is six hours behind Rome.
So the news of Francis’ passing — on the morning after Easter — hit the Big Apple at 3:45 a.m.
Like most Americans at that time, Lisi was asleep. But he’s an early riser.
Up by 5, he quickly learned the news and — like Dallas and other Godbeat pros — got to work filling in the pertinent details.
“Our story went up pretty early,” said Lisi, noting that it’s standard practice for news organizations to prepare obits of major figures in advance.
Lisi wrote most of his Francis obit about a year ago, including details such as the pope’s childhood growing up in Buenos Aires and his years as an Argentinian priest, bishop and cardinal.
The editor updated his draft about a month ago after Francis spent 38 days in a Rome hospital with bronchitis, which lingered and resulted in pneumonia in both lungs.
As Francis fought for his life, Lisi formatted the piece in Religion Unplugged’s publishing system. But he warned the staff against publishing any report of the pope’s death without official confirmation from the Vatican.
“That’s the one thing you don’t want to do in journalism,” Lisi explained. “You don’t want to kill anyone by mistake.”
But with Francis’ passing confirmed, Lisi’s ready-to-go obit required little massaging before he hit the publish button.
“All I needed to do was update the age and say that he died at age 88 on Monday,” Lisi said. “And then you might want to go back in there and update it with maybe a paragraph or two from the Vatican’s latest comments.”
It’s always fascinating to see a prepared obit written by a journalist who no longer works for a particular publication — or, as was the case with President Jimmy Carter’s New York Times obit this past December, a journalist who actually died before the subject.
Over a year ago, I lamented the Wall Street Journal laying off Francis X. Rocca, its Vatican and global religion correspondent for nine years.
But guess whose byline appeared atop the Journal’s front-page obit Tuesday about the pope’s passing?
Yes, that would be Rocca (who also produced coverage of Francis’ death for The Atlantic, The Dispatch, The Free Press and the National Catholic Register).
Similarly, the Washington Times — where Mark A. Kellner covered religion from 2021 to 2024 — published his prepared obit of Francis.
Kellner, too, got a front-page byline Tuesday.
“When Francis fell ill at the end of 2023, I wrote and filed an obituary to be used in the event of his passing,” Kellner told me. “The editors kept it handy, updated the top of the story with the latest details on when he died and posted the result.
Kellner left the Washington Times last year to cover swing-state election news in Nevada for the New York Post.
When Francis was hospitalized earlier this year, Kellner did some prewritten pieces for the New York Post on Francis’ complicated legacy and top contenders to succeed him.
“I can’t claim any prophetic gift in writing ahead of when an article might be needed,” Kellner said. “It’s just the experience of knowing a ‘pre-write” is easier for a publisher to work with than scrambling when something breaks, especially in the middle of the night, when a writer is counting sheep, not column inches.”
Ken Chitwood, the Religion News Association’s former president, edits ReligionLink, which offers ideas and resources for Godbeat pros.
“ReligionLink prepared a source guide for the passing of the pope and the process of selecting his successor beforehand, so we were ready to publish it on the news of his death,” said Chitwood, who is based in Germany and got a head start on his slumbering American colleagues. “I started working on this piece by piece in early 2024 but did the most intense work at the beginning of the year.”
After publishing her Francis obit, the Deseret News’ Dallas showered and got her kids ready for school.
Then she directed her attention back to her computer.
“I was able to dive back into work … and write stories about how the Catholic Church chooses a new pope and how world leaders reacted to Monday’s news,” she said.
As for me personally, I didn’t do any breaking coverage on Francis’ death. But I did wake up before sunrise — not of my own accord — because my wife, Tamie, and my basset hound, Frannie, felt certain I’d want to know the news.
Here at Religion Unplugged, Lisi has stayed busy following the latest developments — from the tributes from around the globe to the frontrunners to succeed Francis.
Lisi plans to rise bright and early Saturday to watch and report on the pope’s funeral, set for 10 a.m. Rome time (4 a.m. Eastern).
The conclave to elect Francis’ successor and make other decisions about the Catholic Church is expected to start sometime between May 5 and May 11.
Lisi — and other Godbeat pros — will pay close attention to that, too.
Journalists might like to prepare advance pieces on the next pope. But despite all the speculation, they really have no way of knowing who that might be.
“There’s an old Italian proverb that says, ‘The man who enters into the conclave as the favorite for pope comes out as a cardinal,’” Lisi emphasized. “That’s to say that the person you think it’s going to be — it’s probably not going to be that person.”
Inside The Godbeat
Religion Unplugged columnist Richard N. Ostling spent decades covering religion for Time magazine and later The Associated Press.
Ostling shared this piece with me on “A reporter’s spiritual journey covering religion.”
It’s an interview with Deena Yellin, an award-winning religion writer for The Record and NorthJersey.com.
The Final Plug
Apparently, last Friday was Superman Day.
The Associated Press’ Deepa Bharath and Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana teamed up to produce a fascinating religion story on Superman.
The dynamic duo’s stellar lede:
Superman was born Kryptonian, raised Methodist and sketched into existence by two Jewish teens in 1930s Cleveland. Faith and morality are his DNA.
There are no overt religious references in Superman comics. But over eight decades, he’s been viewed as a divine entity, a savior figure — his sacrifice Christ-like, his will to lead as strong as Moses parting the Red Sea, and his compassion akin to a bodhisattva, an enlightened being who guides Buddhists on the spiritual path.
While scholars, comic book writers and fans alike are struck by the religious undertones in Superman comics, they say what separates Superman from the ever-growing pack of superheroes is his singular ability to bring hope in a hopeless world.
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.