Another (Thoroughly Rotten) 'Un Bites the Dust? Some Would Make a Fairly Reasonable Case Thereabouts (As the Vatican's Former #3, One-Time Australian Cardinal Pell, Departs This Life Closely Upon the Heels of the Papacy's Former #2, German Cardinal Josef Ratszinger, Better Known as the Previous (265th) Pope (Benedict the 16th))

Incidentally, is it a mere coincidence that Ratszinger was the 265th pope, the three numerals adding up to that unluckiest of numbers, 13? He was, after all (is said and done), the first to resign in *600 or so years...

Or, for that matter, that the present pope - Frances - is the **266th, the last two digits thereof being extremely reminiscent of a certain number ascribed the head of a particular religious system in the Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation?

*His 'resignee predecessor retiring like him to seclusion, but unlike Ratszinger not really achieving this, and being disposed of shortly thereafter (presumably by his wicked successor, Pope Boniface (the 16th?)).

**Weird-ish in itself, as the famous 13th/14th-century prophecy of Irish Archbishop Malachy only progressed as far as the 265th pope, appropriate enough ironically in view of the fact that Pope Frances is the first (at least known and well-acknowledged) pope to come from that most clandestine of Roman Catholic orders, the Jesuits.