Catholics Who Prefer Latin Mass Pin Hopes on a New Pope
About 140 people came to the Sweetest Heart of Mary church in Detroit for the Traditional Latin Mass at noon the Sunday after Easter. Incense and organ music wafted through the ornate sanctuary, built by Polish Catholics in the late 19th century. It was a beautiful sunny spring afternoon, and the lilacs by the rectory were in bloom.
Limited to its essential tasks. The head of the Church is not the Pope, but Christ. Let the new Pontiff's motto be John the Baptist's words about Jesus, “He must increase, I decrease.”
May it be a minimal Papacy. A Papacy like the Minimal State theorized by liberal philosopher Robert Nozick, that is, limited to its essential tasks. Few things, but done well. Not only because the vain loudness of an overwhelming Papacy, and an idolatrous and unbelieving Papolatry, disturb my ears. Especially because “the head of the Church is Christ, not the Pope” (Pope John XXIII). Because “the figure of the Pope is praised too much. One risks falling into the cult of personality” (Pope John Paul I). Because “the Pope is not an oracle, he is infallible only on very rare occasions” (Pope Benedict XVI). Let us begin again with the beautiful Gregorian title “Servus servorum Dei.”
[Read our previous piece on the Conclave here.]
The spectre of the coming conclave hangs ever over the heads of more than 130 cardinal electors and 1.2 billion Catholics. Speculation is rife. Will the next Pope be like Pope Francis or more ‘conservative’, like Pope Benedict?
This question is crucial. The Vatican is dealing with grave financial problems. Pope Francis has not been able (or willing) to solve this problem, in spite of the fact that it was part of the reform mandate he received in 2013. The Vatican has also become rather discredited on the foreign policy level. Even worse is the risk of schism resulting from the radical German bishops and their allies in Belgium and Switzerland The Anglican church was torn apart by disagreements over homosexuality. Only an orthodox Pope can ensure this doesn’t happen to the Church of Christ.
The stakes are even higher due to the extension of the Synod on Synodality. The ‘ecclesial assembly’ in Rome in 2028 risks (further) disempowering the bishops of the Catholic Church and creating a new governance structure, where the Pope and (handpicked) laymen and laywomen (and activists) call the shots. Early in Francis’ pontificate progressives, and even some moderates, were hoping for greater collegiality between Rome and local bishops’. Instead, the opposite happened. Francis’ divisive policies and unfinished curial reforms have destabilized the Curia itself and raise the possibility of laywomen serving as prefects and providing dictates to the bishops of the world.
The next Pope will need knowledge of canon law, theology and the inner workings of the Curia. Who is up to the task? What heretics or corrupt figures might be put forward? Rorate Caeli has previously warned of a repeat of the 2013 conclave, where false candidacies and rumours were used to distract from the real progressive candidate, Jorge Bergoglio. Who could the real candidates be and who are the false leads?
Unlikely progressives
What we do have in mind is what happened in the 2013 conclave, a conclave that should have never taken place and was caused by the absurd and indefensible decision of Benedict XVI to resign the papacy instead of remaining in office until his natural death.
It is quite possible that Benedict had in mind a specific successor: Cardinal Scola. If so, he did not make any effort to have him elected. But the greatest manipulation, both in the news and in rumors, regarded the election of Cardinal Bergoglio. Despite being already over the age of retirement, he had been the progressive candidate in the 2005 conclave, and therefore was a plausible candidate.
How to describe such a unique pontiff? Coming from "the end of the world," as he said, he truly represented a peculiar voice.
At 9:45 AM on Easter Monday, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, spoke these words at the Casa Santa Marta: