HN focuses on fostering thoughtful discussion by curious people on anything those folks find interesting. Technology naturally bubbles up, but it is far from the only thing on HN.
This focus on people is to me, is WAY better than theme-based filtering (compare with many subreddit cesspools).
With that said I think that the pope dying is a subject worth discussing on HN.
It's unfortunate that it seems to be descending into a flame war about Israel though.