Following Pope Francis′ death, the scribes at News Corp’s Holt Street (both religious and non-religious) have been hard at work colouring in the lines of his legacy and where the progressive pontiff leaves the Catholic Church.

It was the turn of The Australian’s editor-at-large, Paul Kelly, on Wednesday. Didn’t he deliver: a sweeping meditation on modern Catholicism that jumps from references to the late pope’s “synodality”, underground priests in China, the AUKUS agreement, and many mentions of the late Cardinal George Pell, who apparently cast aspersions on Francis in private conversations with Kelly.