Who is running for Pope?
Peter Hebblethwaite
The prospect of an election — any election — concentrates the mind wonderfully. Pope Paul VI, who will be eighty-one on 26 September, cannot be expected to live for very much longer. In the Rome coffee bars and ante-chambers it is not considered rese-majeste to speculate on his successor, and rumours of plans and counter-plans are already rife. The one thing a pope cannot do is nominate his successor: and those who have tried to do so have usually failed miserably.
The next conclave will be different in a number of ways. On the whole, cardinals will know each other much better than ever before. Synods and Roman commissions have enabled them to meet both formally and informally. The Italian dominance has been broken: three out of four cardinals are non-Italian. Though the power of the Roman Curia remains, it will not be able to dictate the outcome. There will be no risky experiments with smoke signals. Another blow for traditionalists is that the conclave will meet not in the august splendour of the Sistine Chapel, but in the new Synod hall, a mid-Atlantic construction described by Norman St John-Stevas as 'hideous'. Secrecy, though, will be stricter than ever: all electronic devices — tape recorders, radios etc — are banned.
Yet the 117 cardinals will not be able to confer in total isolation from public opinion. Whereas previous conclaves often had to reckon with the veto of European princes, the next conclave will have to take into account the fact that the Church is increasingly polarised. Any candidate, therefore, who comes along with a conservative or progressive label, must expect to be defeated. The next pope cannot be the pope of a faction within the Church. He will have to rule from the centre and be the servant of unity.
He is likely to be an Italian, yet again. Even progressive theologians have tended to argue recently that the next pope ought to be an Italian. The reason is that the most fundamental title of the pope is Bishop of Rome — his other titles, Patriarch of Italy, Patriarch of the West, Pope of the universal Church flow from this — and there can be no doubt that Rome needs a Bishop who can speak its language and provide for its needs. 'Internationalisation', on this argument, would turn the pope into the chairman of the multi-national corporation called Church Inc.
This principle would probably also rule out a pope from another European country. Tired old Europe is no longer exemplary in the life of the Church. Even apart from that, the best-known European cardinals — Suenens, Konig, Willebrands and Marty, who were the stars of the Second Vatican Council — give the impression of being brucciati, burnt-out cases whose best work lies in the past. In any case, to elect a European would not be a sufficiently dramatic gesture.
But this argument would not hold against a 'third world' pope, and the conclave would certainly be tempted by this solution. It would express the shifting statistical balance of the Church, away from Europe and towards Africa and Latin America, and would be interpreted as a commitment towards the poorest. The difficulty is that so fe.w 'third world' cardinals know how the Rome mechanisms work. They would risk being isolated figures, abandoned in 'institutional solitude': a phrase used by Cardinal Lercaro of Pope John XXIII.
This objection could be met if a 'third world' candidate could be discovered who knew the ways of Rome and had demonstrated that he could fight his corner. There is such a candidate in the person of Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, formerly secretary of the Latin American bishops and now responsible for the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes. In theory Pironio, an Argentinian who was hauled out of his country after threats on his life, has a 'constituency' of 300,000 male religious and about a million nuns. But they will have no voice in the conclave.
Yet in many ways Pironio is an ideal candidate. He comes from a family of twenty children and has the popular touch. He is sympathetic towards the 'theology of liberation' without being uncritical of its wilder excesses. He is clearly a Latin
American, though of Italian origins which might help to reconcile the Roman Curia. That he is a serious candidate is proved by the fact that the Rornan rumour-factory has already begun t° travesty him as an amiable chap doesn't spend enough time on paper-v/13i*. This evidence of 'humanity' might rather commend him to other cardinals who InaY want a 'pastoral' pope after the
lectual' Paul VI.
But Pironio labours under one great handicap: he is too young. At fifty-eight. his election would commit the Church to a long pontificate. Long pontificates alf notoriously bad for the Church: intar nation is quickly exhausted and initiatives stifled, sub-empires grow up as the poPe's powers fail, and there is no chance RI recovery if it appears that a mistake has been made. The same argument against comparative youthfulness also excludes other promil candidates. It works against Cardin Giovanni Benelli, now dedicated to puttial a 'sour into the EEC as Archbishop ° Florence. It would also rule out our 0° Cardinal Hume who seems apprehensive of the conclave and brushes aside anY suggestion that he would be a candietat,e with the English understatement: 'I don t have the right background for the l°1)% Benelli is less reticent, has the right back' ground, but probably has the wit to realise that he will be king-maker rather than king next time round. The next-but-one CO cave will be his big moment. One is left, therefore, with the search for an Italian cardinal in his mid-sixties 0° knows the ropes, has not committed hirnself to 'anything damaging, and could corn" mand widespread support. This points to Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio. He has the, right mix of diplomatic, pastoral an°, administrative experience. As Prefect 01 the Congregation of Bishops, he has had a hand in all recent episcopal appointments (except that of Cardinal Hue ti° rn Westminster). He is fat, vague and genial But he has rather burned his fingers b,..Y interfering in the preparation for the fortn" coming meeting of Latin Amer,ica,in' bishops due to take place at Puebla, ivLe" ico, next October. Others who meet the job-specification" include. Cardinal Sergio Pignedoli, at Pre sent responsible for the Secretariat for Non-Christian Religions, globe-trotter, photographer and great sender of
-oste
cards to his many friends. But he is said th° be altogether too close to Pope Pant, wit whom he shared a flat in the Fifties, t° represent a new departure. One concludes, therefore, that the next conclave has rit° obvious candidate, that it will be a Pr °, ; racted affair marked by intense debate (9' which we will know nothing at the time), that it will be the most open conclave ever' and that the Holy Ghost, who is said w presiding over the deliberations of the lie electors, will no doubt surprise us all in th end.
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