Pope Francis has visited Benedict XVI in the wake of “Lettergate” (Christa Pongratz Lippitt). Iraq’s parliamentary elections are “our golden opportunity to change”, Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako has said. Paola Totaro argues that the Vatican old guard is “exploiting Cardinal George Pell’s absence". Cardinal John Dew says he’s just “a ‘normal Kiwi bloke’ who tries to be aware of the presence of God”. Stephen White thinks the next papal election won’t be a “a Flight 93 conclave”. Ross Douthat hopes there will be room in heaven for “rigorists and pharisees and obstreperous undereducated newspaper columnists”. And Shaun McAfee recalls the Pope who sacked his jester. Follow me on Twitter @lukecoppen for updates throughout the day.